Highly unlikely to be the thermocouple,if it was the fire wouldn`t come on at all.Much more likely to be a partially choked pilot or possibly even a choked chimney.
My advice is get a Corgi Engineer to Service the fire,this will involve removing it and checking the chimney with a smoke pellet,he should also clean the fire and clean and/or replace the pilot assembly.
Gasman, August 2008