Comedian Ken Dodd returned to Southport Floral Hall tonight (Sat 23/11/02). The audience will be in for a great night with plenty of laughs. First thing Doddy said to onthespot before going on stage was: " Its you again with that ......camera, let me do my hair "
Pictured below is Doddy when first seeing onthespot.
Thumbs up from Doddy
Kenneth Arthur Dodd was born at an early age in Liverpool on 8th November 1927. He grew up in Knotty Ash, which - surprisingly - is a real district of the city, and developed a comedy act as Professor Yaffle Chuckabutty, the Operatic Tenor and Sausage Knotter, singing comic versions of well-known songs.
Turning professional in 1954, he did summer seasons in Blackpool in 1955 and 1956. It was in these shows that he met and worked with Jimmy Clitheroe. Doddy said recently: "Morecambe and Wise topped the bill, but Jimmy and I stole the show!"
Doddy himself topped the bill in Blackpool in 1958, at the Central Pier, which led to appearances at the London Palladium and on television. During the 1960's and 1970's he had numerous television series, including The Ken Dodd Show, Doddy's Music Box and Ken Dodd's Showbiz. He has continued to appear on television since.
Principally a stand-up comedian, Doddy has also had a successful recording career, singing romantic ballads in a warm mezzo-tenor voice.
In 1960 he signed with Decca and recorded Love Is Like A Violin, which became a Top 10 hit. This was followed by Once In Every Lifetime (1961) and Pianissimo (1962). He moved to EMI's Columbia label, where Geoff Love was musical director, to record Still (1963) and the enduringly popular Happiness (1964).
Doddy's biggest hit was the weepie Tears (1965), produced by Norman Newell. It spent five weeks at number 1, and was the biggest selling single in the UK that year. Tears sold nearly two million copies and led to six further Top 20 hits for Doddy. Among these were translations of three Italian ballads (The River, Broken Hearted and When Love Comes Round Again) as well as Promises, which was based on Beethoven's Pathetique sonata.
Doddy charted again in the 1970's with various singles, including Think of Me (1976), which reached number 21. In the 1980's he had one minor hit with Hold My Hand (1981).
Equally well-remembered are his comic songs, in particular Where's Me Shirt and Song of the Diddymen (both 1965).
'We Are the Diddy Men...'
Ken Dodd without the Diddymen is as unthinkable as Dr Who without the Daleks!
As his career began to embrace seaside resorts, where holidaymakers were the principal audience for the shows, Doddy created the Diddymen to appeal to the children in the audience. The 'diddy' men ('diddy' is Liverpudlian slang for 'little') were intended to appeal to the 'diddy' members of the audience.
So were born Dicky Mint, Mick the Marmalizer, Evan, Hamish McDiddy, and Nigel Ponsonby-Smallpiece, who work in the Jam Butty Mines at Knotty Ash. On stage, the Diddymen are usually children or midgets, dressed in costumes, whereas on television they are usually puppets.
Doddy still appears with the Diddymen at Christmas, during Panto Season. The rest of the year his audience is composed mainly of adults, and his stage act includes only the Dicky Mint puppet, with whom he does a ventriloquist routine.
