Ken Dodd
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Kenneth Arthur Dodd (born 8 November 1927, in Liverpool) is a veteran English comedian and singer, famous for his buck teeth, frizzy hair, feather duster (or "tickling stick"), and his catchphrases, often playing on the 'tickled' motif, i.e. "How tickled I am!". He works mainly in the music hall tradition, although in the past has occasionally appeared in drama, including as Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on stage in Liverpool in 1971; on television in the cameo role of 'The Tollmaster' in the 1987 Doctor Who story Delta and the Bannermen; and as Yorick in Kenneth Brannagh's film version of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 1997.
Style, Career and Achievements
His comedy style is fast and furious, relying on a rapid delivery of a huge number of one-liner jokes. He intersperses the comedy with occasional songs, both serious and humorous, which he sings in a light baritone voice. He's had many recording hits, charting on 19 occasions in the UK Top 40, including his first single Love Is Like A Violin (1960), produced on Decca by Alex Wharton, which charted at No. 8 (UK), and his song Tears, which topped the UK charts for five weeks in 1965, selling over two million copies. This remains one of the biggest selling singles of all time in the United Kingdom.
It was also during the 1960's that Dodd entered the Guinness Book of Records, for the world’s longest joke-telling session ever: 1,500 jokes in three and a half hours, undertaken at a Liverpool theatre, where audiences were observed to enter the show in shifts.
Because his career embraced seaside resorts, where holidaymakers and their families were the principal audience for his shows, Dodd created the Diddy Men - either children or midgets dressed up when performing live, or ventriloquists dolls when appearing on television. These characters were supposedly residents of his mythologised home town of Knotty Ash ('diddy' is Liverpudlian slang for 'little'). Unlike other famous Liverpudlians, who have left the city on finding fame, Ken Dodd has stayed loyal to his roots and still lives in the same house in the same part of Liverpool where he was born, Knotty Ash.
Ken Dodd's performance stamina is legendary. He continues to tour, and his solo stage show can still run in excess of five hours in length. He claims that on one occasion the caretaker of the theatre where he was performing handed him the keys on stage, mid-act, and told him to lock up when he was finished. Even pushing towards his eightieth birthday, his show regularly ends at half past midnight. There are, on occasion, brief appearances by guest acts, but often Doddy is on stage for the duration. He drives home to Knotty Ash every night, no matter where he is performing.
Ken Dodd's television appearances are usually a glimpse of what he is capable of live. Whilst appearing on a Comic Relief television special, 'A Night Of Comic Relief 2' (1989), he overran his spot but refused to be silenced, forcing comperes to go on-stage and attempt to remove him physically. He was the first ever artist to do two 'An Audience With...' shows for ITV, in 1994 and 2001. He's made frequent appearances on the 'Good Old Days' television programme, and at one time had his own headlining tv show, broadcast from Blackpool's Opera House.
Personal Life
Ken Dodd's personal life has not been without incident. Controversially, he was charged with tax evasion in 1989, the trial of which led to many curious revelations. This included details about the 'Diddy Men', who had appeared in his stage act, often played by local children from stage schools, who were revealed to have never been paid. More relevantly, he was discovered to have very little money in his bank account, having £336,000 in cash stashed in suitcases in his attic. When asked by the judge, "What does a hundred thousand pounds in a suitcase feel like?", Dodd made his now famous reply, "The notes are very light, M'Lord."
The trial lasted nearly three months, and the outcome could have been serious for him. However, he was acquitted.
Despite the strain of the trial, Ken Dodd immediately capitalized on his new-found notoriety with a successful season running from Easter to Christmas 1990 at the London Palladium. It was there that he had previously broken the house record for the 'Longest Comedy Season' at the theatre, in 1965, with a residency lasting forty-two weeks. Some of his current material mocks the trial and tax in general. For a while he introduced his act with the words, "Good evening, my name is Kenneth Arthur Dodd; singer, photographic playboy, and failed accountant!" It has been suggested by critics that the trial brought a darker side of his personality to light and that this was reflected in his subsequent shows.
Ken Dodd has had two long time fiancees, but has never married. Also, he has had a stalker, Ruth Tagg, who harassed him and his girlfriend Anne Jones, sending threatening letters and a dead rat, finally attempted to burn down his house by pushing burning rags through the letterbox, in October 2001. Tagg pleaded guilty to harassment and arson at Preston Crown Court [link].
Legacy
More recently, thankfully, the focus has been on Ken Dodd's continuing legacy as one of the UK's finest comedy performers. In December 2004 Ken was in Nottingham to be presented with a framed playbill after a sell out performance at the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham to celebrate his 50 years in show business. Dodd's first professional performance was on stage at the Empire Theatre Nottingham in 1954.
Dodd is the last of the Music Hall comics, and is well regarded by his comedy peers. In a 2005 poll of comedians and comedy insiders to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the Top 50 Comedy Acts Ever.
UK chart singles
- "Love Is Like A Violin" (1960)
- "Once In Every Lifetime" (1961)
- "Pianissimo (1962)
- "Still" (1963)
- "Eight By Ten" (1964)
- "Happiness" (1964)
- "So Deep Is The Night" (1964)
- "Tears" (1965, number 1 hit and sold over a million copies)
- "The River (Le Colline Sono In Fioro)" (1965)
- "Where's Me Shirt"
- "Promises" (1966)
- "More Than Love" (1966)
- "It's Love" (1966)
- "Let Me Cry On Your Shoulder" (1967)
- "Tears Won't Wash Away These Heartaches" (1969)
- "Broken Hearted" (1970)
- "When Love Comes Round Again (L'arca di Noe)" (1971)
- "Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms)" (1972)
- "(Think Of Me) Wherever You Are" (1975)
- "Hold My Hand" (1981)
External links
- [Official Ken Dodd stage show website]
- [Unofficial Ken Dodd website]
- [BBC Comedy - Ken Dodd]
- [Liverpool Pictorial interview]
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