Yes, but do you also want to show the comment form on every post even if there are no comments yet?

Yes please, that would be great if possible!

Easy breazy. Open up your skins/yourskin/_main.php in your favorite editor and add a simple "$c=1;" just about anywhere. Here, for example

if( !defined('EVO_MAIN_INIT') ) die( 'Please, do not access this page directly.' );
$c=1; // always show comments and comment form on all posts
skin_content_header();	// Sets charset!

Worked a treat! Thank you for your help - once again it has proved invaluable!

very helpful

Is it possible to show the existing comments but not the "leave a comment" block (have a link still to leave a comment)?

>I'm just wondering if there is a way to automatically display comments (if present) underneath a blog post in the standard view?<

try not doing the above advice, but instead modifying the skin's feedback.php, such that:
if( empty($c) ) { // Comments not requested
$disp_comments = 0; // DO NOT Display the comments if not requested
$disp_comment_form = 0; // DO NOT Display the comments form if not requested
}

becomes:

if( empty($c) ) { // Comments not requested
//$disp_comments = 0; // DO NOT Display the comments if not requested
$disp_comment_form = 0; // DO NOT Display the comments form if not requested
}

Note the // comenting out the $disp_comments line.