The people’s comic

SINCE making his music hall debut 64 years ago (as Professor Yaffle Chuckle butty, operatic tenor and sausage-knotter) Ken Dodd won a special place in the pantheon of British comedy – and in the hearts of the nation.

With his carefully dishevelled appearance, warm Scouse humour and unique sense of the absurd, the coalman’s son from Knotty Ash brought laughter to all generations.

He never talked down to his audience, was never offensive and never indulged in the dreary political posturing we get from so many of today’s comedians. With Doddy, it was just jokes – thousands of them.

Even at his trial for tax evasion, he couldn’t resist playing the court jester. When asked by the judge what it felt like to have £100,000 stashed in a suitcase, he replied: ‘The notes are very light, my Lord.’

A true comedy hero.