Sir Kenneth Arthur Dodd was born on 8 November 1927 in a former farmhouse in Knotty Ash a suburb of Liverpool to Arthur Dodd and Sarah née Gray where his parents lived He had an older brother William and a younger sister June He went to the Knotty Ash School and sang in the local church choir of St Johns Church Knotty Ash He was to live in Knotty Ash all his life dying in the house in which he was born and often referred to the areaas well as its mythical jam butty mines and black pudding plantationsin his act He then attended Holt High School a grammar school in Childwall Liverpool but left at the age of 14 to work for his father a coal merchant Around this time he became interested in show business after seeing an advert in a comic Fool your teachers amaze your friendssend 6d in stamps and become a ventriloquist and sending off for the book Not long after his father bought him a ventriloquists dummy and Ken called it Charlie Brown He started entertaining at the local orphanage then at various other local community functions His distinctive bucked teeth were the result of a cycling accident after a group of school friends dared him to ride a bicycle with his eyes closed Aged 18 he began working as a traveling salesman and used his work van to travel to comedy clubs in the evenings He gained his big break at age 26 when in September 1954 he made his professional showbusiness debut as Professor Yaffle Chucklebutty Operatic Tenor and Sausage Knotter at the Nottingham Empire He later said Well at least they didnt boo me off He continued to tour variety theatres up and down the UK and in 1955 he appeared at Blackpool where in the following year he had a part in Lets Have Fun His performance at the Central Pier was part of a comedy revue with Jimmy James and Company Also on the same bill were Jimmy Clitheroe and Roy Castle Dodd first gained top billing at Blackpool in 1958 Dodd was described as the last great music hall entertainer His standup comedy style was fast and relied on the rapid delivery of oneliner jokes He said that his comic influences included other Liverpool comedians like Arthur Askey Robb Wilton Tommy Handley and the cheeky chappy from Brighton Max Miller He interspersed the comedy with occasional songs both serious and humorous in an incongruously fine light baritone voice and with his original specialty ventriloquism Part of his stage act featured the Diddy Men diddy being local slang for small At first an unseen joke conceived as part of Dodds imagination they later appeared on stage usually played by children Dodd worked mainly as a solo comedian including in a number of eponymous television and radio shows and made several appearances on BBC TVs music hall revival show The Good Old Days Although he enjoyed making people laugh he was also a serious student of comedy and history and was interested in Sigmund Freud and Henri Bergsons analysis of humour Occasionally he appeared in dramatic roles including Malvolio in William Shakespeares Twelfth Night on stage in Liverpool in 1971 on television in the cameo role of The Tollmaster in the 1987 Doctor Who story Delta and the Bannermen
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