Doddy.
Sad news that comedian Ken Dodd has died at the age of 90 though funny and fitting that one of his last acts was to shaft the tax man.
It was also fitting that Ken went on longer in life than most of his contemporaries because the length of Doddy’s shows was legendary. Hours they lasted, even with his advanced years, only a little over a decade ago he put on a four hour show, just after coming out of hospital.
Big teeth, wild hair, and more gags than you could shake a tickling stick at missus. That was a Doddy concert. Gag after gag, with a song here, a song there, mainly with a gag in them somewhere.
My act is very educational. I heard a man leaving the other night, saying: ‘Well, that taught me a lesson.’ Ken Dodd
Kenneth Arthur Dodd… singer photographic playboy and failed accountant.
Yes Doddy did the tax man once again with his last act, marrying his long time partner so she doesn’t get stuck with the inheritance tax bill. You imagine he had a bit put away. I mean that’s what got him into trouble back in ’89 when he was charged with tax evasion. Which he was acquitted of.
In the eighteen hundreds, one of the MPs in London decided to introduce income tax. In those days it was tuppence in the pound. I thought it still was. Ken Dodd
He was one of the biggest stars in Britain throughout his career, from his live shows, he played the London Palladium for 42 straight weeks in 1965, the longest residency by a comedian. To his singing, that year also saw his song “Tears” top the chart for five weeks, it ended up being the biggest selling single of the year and amazingly the third biggest selling single of the 1960s in Britain.
But most of all there was the jokes, though they brought the tears of laughter. Keep saying we won’t see the like again with the passing of all the old stars, don’t think we’ll ever get another Ken Dodd. Like Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson and the like, he just had to show up and you started laughing.