The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
The Ken Dodd Happiness Show
Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, June 2
When Ken Dodd was knighted at Buckingham Palace in March, he confessed he was “highly tickled” to become a Sir.
The 89-year-old Liverpudlian, from Knotty Ash, was honoured by the Duke of Cambridge for his comedy career and charity work.
But in an interview ahead of his famous Happiness Show visiting Dunfermline on Sunday, the man famed for his wild hair, buck teeth and tickling stick insists titles will never change him.
“A lot of journalists ask ‘has being a sir made any difference to you?’” he says, speaking from his home in Liverpool where he is in the midst of feeding his pet poodle, Rufus.
“I say ‘no it hasn’t made the slightest bit of difference. I’m still Kenny Dodd, comedian of Knotty Ash.’
“What it has done is affect the way other people regard me. Men, being very comical, usually bow and say ‘Sir Ken’, while ladies curtsey. The only thing about that is you have to help them up.
“Being made a sir is only a word. But it’s quite a thing to be highly tickled with. At the moment I’m being measured for a suit of armour and I’ve got to buy a white horse – to be a proper knight.” he laughs.
Born the son of a coal merchant in 1927, Sir Ken made his professional debut at the Nottingham Empire in 1954 and has performed on radio and TV ever since.
And he reveals that he has Dundeebased DC Thomson and Co Ltd, publishers of The Courier, to thank for getting him into show business at a young age.
“I have great affection for Dundee,” he says, “because DC Thomson produced The Wizard, The Hotspur and Adventure – boys’ story books all about heroes.
“On the back page of The Wizard there was always a big full-page advertisement for a place in London where they sold itching powder, stink bombs and seebackroscopes.
“That was a small plastic device with a little two-way mirror inside it.
“You could put it like a monocle in your eye, and you could see if an assassin was creeping up behind you – which is a very useful thing for a lad of seven or eight to have.
“One day there was an advert of a man with a big box on his back saying ‘Help. Fool your teachers! Amaze your friends! Send sixpence in stamps. Become a ventriloquist’. So I did. That started my career in show business.”
Ken, who was brought up on a diet of Scottish comedians and once sang with his Diddymen about The Wee Cooper O’ Fife, also has a fondness for the “wonderful audiences” in Dunfermline Let’s hope that means this show will be a source of Happiness for all.