Ken Dodd - Dead Good!

I saw an 82 year old comedian, actor and singer on Saturday night. A man who has had around 20 chart singles in the UK Top 40 and sold over 100 million records worldwide; a man who appeared with Kenneth Branagh, Julie Christie, Billy Crystal, Gérard Depardieu, Charlton Heston, Richard Briers, Derek Jacobi, Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams, Rufus Sewell, Richard Attenborough, Brian Blessed, Michael Bryant, Judi Dench, Reece Dinsdale, John Gielgud, Rosemary Harris, Michael Maloney, John Mills, Timothy Spall, Kate Winslet in the 1996 film Hamlet, as well as numerous television roles, including Dr Who, but whose one true love has always been the classic British Music Hall.


Unfortunately he is no longer a regular on British television but he did appear in the Royal Variety performance in 2006 and he continues to tour and remind people of a fine tradition of British entertainment. He’s been in show business for 55 years now; he is a real trouper and a true living legend. He is of course the King of Knotty Ash himself: Ken Dodd OBE.

His show was great. His rapid delivery of joke after joke and his Diddy Man ventriloquism act had us falling about in the aisles, whilst the songs that he sang and his reminiscing of the likes of Lex Mclean pulled at our emotional strings and brought a few tears. The show started at 7.00pm and finished at 11.00pm and I’m convinced that he would have remained on stage all night if he thought he could get away with it.