For over six decades, Sir Ken Dodd was a mainstay of British entertainment – a comedian whose surreal world of tickling sticks, jam butty mines and Diddymen kept generations of audiences entertained, from his professional debut in 1954 to his final curtain call in December 2017. Using Sir Ken’s own words and with testimony from his friends, family and colleagues who knew him best, this revealing documentary film tells the story of Dodd’s incredible life and long career, which included a record breaking run at The London Palladium in the 1960s, numerous television series and specials, countless summer seasons and variety shows, a string of major hit records and a touring one-man show that continued right into his ninetieth year.

 

Sir Ken’s wife Lady Anne talks movingly about his love of being on stage and their life together in Knotty Ash, and friends and peers analyse his unique and enduring relationship with the British public. In addition to rarely-seen archive of Sir Ken’s work on stage and television, the programme features home movies and family photography from his own personal archive, and is filmed in part in Sir Ken’s lifelong home. Featured interviewees include Dara O Briain, Ricky Tomlinson, Alex Horne, Jimmy Tarbuck, Stephanie Cole, Joe Pasquale, Roy Hudd, Ian St John, Roger McGough, Bishop James Jones and Claire Sweeney. The narrator is Craig Charles.

 

Produced for BBC Two