One last big show as BBC pays tribute to Ken Dodd
DENIS NORDEN walked onstage in London Weekend’s Studio Two and looked the camera squarely in the eye. “Hello,” he said. “Or for those of you who fast forward through me to get to the funny bits – goodbye.”
It was a classic from a writer and presenter whose understated charm and genius for wordplay made him an inspiration to generations of fellow comics.
His death yesterday, at 96, brought down the curtain on a career that had defined popular entertainment in Britain from the end of the Second World War to the present day.
The end had come, 20 years after that of his writing partner, Frank Muir, after “many weeks” at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, his children, Nick and Maggie, said.
“A wonderful dad, a loving grandfather and great greatgrandfather – he gave his laughter-mongering to so many,” they added.
To the current generation of viewers and the one before, Norden was famous for inventing, compiling and presenting ITV’s enduring
But he had already been at the top of his profession for 30 years when the first episode aired in 1977. He and Muir had virtually invented the British sitcom, with their vignettes of the dysfunctional family life of
with Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and June Whitfield.
They wrote 300 radio episodes of the sketch show from which the family evolved, and provided material for Bernard Braden and almost every other star of the medium. They were writing TV shows as early as 1951 – the year of the first transmissions to the North of England, and their opening script served as an introduction to the very idea of viewing at home. was a sketch show starring Sid James and the Hull actor and comedian, Ian Carmichael.
In the mid-1960s, with Muir decamped to an executive position, Norden found his wise counsel welcomed by comedians who had grown up listening to his scripts. John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor brought him in as rehearsal “referee” to edit the sketches they had written for their prePython vehicle,
on Rediffusion. Such was his formidable reputation as an after-dinner speaker that when at the 1991 Writers’ Guild Awards the fugitive Salman Rushdie made a surprise appearance, to ecstatic applause, Cleese, who was next on stage, took a deep breath and said: “Well, thank God for that. I thought I was going to have to follow Denis Norden.”
Originally a cinema manager in London, Norden had got a taste for comedy in the RAF, staging shows for the forces. He never forgot he day he and his fellow airman Eric Sykes stumbled upon a newly-liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and collected food from their unit for the inmates.
In his later years, having retired from the screen in 2006, he spent time raising awareness of macular disease, the degenerative eye condition from which he suffered.
Cathy Yelf, chief executive of the Macular Society, of which he was a patron, said: “He was an inspiration to many of us as he coped with his deteriorating sight for many years, before it became public knowledge.” THE LIFE and career of Sir Ken Dodd, who died in March, aged 90, will be celebrated in a BBC documentary.
will explore the work of a performer widely regarded as the last of the music hall greats.
Featuring interviews with Sir Ken’s family and figures from the world of entertainment, the “poignant and uplifting programme” will be shown on BBC Two later this year.
Sir Ken’s wife, Lady Anne, whom he married two days before he died, said: “I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of affection and love for him not only here in Liverpool but all over the nation. I’m delighted that the BBC has chosen to honour Ken’s memory with this special documentary about his life’s work and his unique relationship with the British public.”
Sir Ken, who made it his life’s work to play every theatre in the country, died in the home in which he was born, in the Liverpool suburb of Knotty Ash.
His career spanned seven decades, from a first professional stage engagement in 1954 to his final performance in his home city last December.
He was known for his marathon shows and in the 1960s he entered the
for the longest joke-telling session ever – 1,500 in threeand-a-half hours.
He was also blessed with a rich baritone voice and in the 1960s enjoyed chart success with a string of “straight” recordings.
He was knighted in March last year, in honour of his decadeslong showbiz career and charity work.
Mark Wells, the film’s executive producer, said: “Nobody added more to the gaiety of our nation over such a long period than Sir Ken Dodd. He was a joyous entertainer, and – when he put the tickling sticks down – a fascinating man. It’s an honour to have the opportunity to share his story with BBC Two’s viewers.”