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“I believe there’s now a Ken Dodd Museum in Liverpool”.
I hadn’t heard that. There was an exhibition of his life and work last year at the Museum of Liverpool, which I did attend.
At the risk of sounding like a name dropper, I did (sort of) know Ken. I often encountered him in the second hand bookshop near Lime Street station.
It probably won’t come as a surprise when I say he was a rather quiet and humble man in real life, albeit still funny. His stage routine, while not entirely bogus, was a very clever act. His annual two shows in between Christmas and New Year at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall were legendary.
“Some accountants are comedians, but comedians are never accountants.” George Carman QC.
“If you can play the Glasgow Empire on a Saturday night after both Celtic and Rangers have lost, you can play a court of law”.
Dodd mentioned the Glasgow Empire in relation to Freud’s theory of laughter as well:
I hadn’t heard that. There was an exhibition of his life and work last year at the Museum of Liverpool, which I did attend.
My mistake. There was a programme on TV last year featuring his widow, which in addition to reminiscences abot Doddy also featured her organising the exhibition which I assumed was at a dedicated museum, not as part of the Museum of Liverpool.
I was also interested to learn from the prog that he spent many hours in the reading room of Liverpool Library avidly mulling, amongst other things, books on the history of comedy. ‘Morning Ken’ was the simple pleasantry afforded him by the staff on entering.
A complex, highly intelligent man and the stand-up comedian without equal in my opinion.
That Freud joke is an absolute cracker.
During my brief and soon abandoned sojourn at Birmingham University in 1965, the TV room of the Students Union was always packed out on a Thursday evening. Top of the Pops at 7:30, The Man From U.N.C.L.E at 8:00. The male students wanted to be Napoleon Solo, the female students wanted to get close to Ilya Kuryakin.
And the relevance of this – well for much of that autumn term, Ken Dodd was the closing act on Top of the Pops, his recording of ‘Tears’ at number one. By the end of November, every mother and grandmother in the country must have had a copy of the single, which reportedly sold over a million records. He really did have a great singing voice to go along with his mastery of comedy.
“I was also interested to learn from the prog that he spent many hours in the reading room of Liverpool Library”.
It is a beautiful room, recently restored to its original glory.
“A complex, highly intelligent man and the stand-up comedian without equal in my opinion.”
Yes, he was the best. He was also very fondly regarded in Liverpool because he never forgot his roots. He lived in the same house in Knotty Ash all his life.
My mother worked in the Labour Exchange in the area. She said he often used to call in and make a few jokes and would ask if there were any jobs in the jam butty mines.
He wasn’t one of those irritating celebrities who would go on about Liverpool being great but was never seen in the city. Not mentioning any names (Cilla Black).
I have just read that Dettori’s bankruptcy has been extended by a year because he hasn’t disclosed all of his assets. If this is true we are heading into Piggot territory. The case against Ken Dodd was not safe which is why he got off.
Ken Dodd was indeed a fine singer though his choice of songs were not my cup of tea
However this daft doddy ditty does loosen the chuckle muscles
My late dad saw him on the Isle of Man in the 60s , he said they had to near drag him off the stage , in Ginger McCain bio he asked Dodd to open his new car showroom , all Dodd asked for was instead of a fee McCain but the local kids tickets for his panto ..
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
“They had to near drag him off the stage”.
Liverpool taxi drivers loved him. By the time his show had finished, the last buses were long gone.
If anyone ever checked their watch, Ken used to quip “That’s no good. At one of my shows you need a calendar!”
Dettori is just nasty, arrogant and sly and deserves to be caught out. Ken Dodd was brilliant, he used to have me in fits of laughter his humour was so clever and his jokes so good that he could hold an audience for ages and have them nearly splitting their sides laughing. He was great and sadly missed…Good old Doddy and his Diddymen
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