KEN DODD’S GREATEST MOMENTS

Prof Yaffle Chucklebutty (1954)

The Squire of Knotty Ash started out as a ventriloquist, after his interest was piqued by an advert in a comic that said: “Fool your teachers! Amaze your friends! Send 6d in stamps and become a ventriloquist!”

He got his big break aged 26, making his professional debut at Nottingham Empire under the stage name of Professor Yaffle Chucklebutty: Operatic Tenor & Sausage Knotter. He was cripplingly nervous but deemed it a success because: “At least they didn’t boo me off.”

Within four years, he’d gained top billing at Blackpool.

The Diddymen

Dodd cemented his fame by popularising the “Diddy Men” of Merseyside mythology, which he turned into whimsical 3ft puppets who appeared alongside him on stage and TV. They lived in Knotty Ash (the area of east Liverpool from which Dodd himself hails), wore tall hats and flamboyant baggy clothes, worked down jam butty mines and repaired broken biscuits.

Happiness (1964)

“Happiness, happiness, the greatest gift that I possess…” In the midsixties, Dodd rivalled the Beatles as a household name and scored a string of 14 hit singles with his surprisingly light baritone.

Happiness reached the modest chart position of number 31, but would go on to become his signature tune. Dodd’s gigs usually closed with a rousing rendition.

Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (1996)

In a rare dramatic role, Dodd played Yorick, the King’s jester, in Kenneth Branagh’s four-hour, unabridged film version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. He was shown entertaining the royals of Elsinore in silent flashback during the gravedigger scene. During shooting, Branagh’s only instruction to Dodd was, “OK, make us laugh” – which he duly did.

Knighthood (2017)

After a 20-year campaign by his fans – including former prime minister Gordon Brown, who put a word in – Dodd was knighted at Buckingham Palace by the Duke of Cambridge in 2017, in recognition of his long entertainment career and tireless charity work.

Dressed in morning suit and top hat, he admitted: “I feel like a racehorse in the stalls, just sweating a little – apprehensive but delighted… and highly tickled.”