Ken Dodd

Monday, 07 January 2013

KEN DODD THIS IS YOUR LIFE 500th show part 1

LWT - KEN DODD - THE SOUTH BANK SHOW (1978)

SEASIDE SPECIAL(BBC1) WITH KEN DODD PART 2 SUMMER 1975

Ken Dodd Happiness Show.. November 4th 2012

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Blackpool
Blackpool ⁱ/ˈblækpuːl/ is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, 17.5 miles (28.2 km) northwest of Preston, 27 miles (43 km) north of Liverpool, 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Bolton and 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Manchester. It has an estimated population of 140,000, making it the third most populous settlement in North West England after Manchester and Liverpool, and a population density that makes it the fourth most densely populated borough of England and Wales outside Greater London.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, Blackpool was a coastal hamlet in Lancashire's Hundred of Amounderness, and remained such until the mid-18th century when it became fashionable in England to travel to the coast during the summer to bathe in sea water to improve well-being. In 1781, visitors attracted to Blackpool's 7-mile (11 km) sandy beach were able to use a newly built private road, built by Thomas Clifton and Sir Henry Hoghton. Stagecoaches began running to Blackpool from Manchester in the same year, and from Halifax in 1782. In the early 19th century, Henry Banks and his son-in-law John Cocker erected new buildings in Blackpool such that its population grew from less than 500 in 1801 to over 2,500 in 1851. St John's Church in Blackpool was consecrated in 1821.

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Chester Cathedral
Chester Cathedral is the mother church of the Church of England Diocese of Chester, and is located in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. The cathedral, formerly St Werburgh's abbey church of a Benedictine monastery, is dedicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since 1541 it has been the seat of the Bishop of Chester and centre of worship, administration, ceremony and music for the city and diocese.
The cathedral is a Grade I listed building, and part of a heritage site that also includes the former monastic buildings to the north, also listed Grade I. The cathedral, typical of English cathedrals in having been modified many times, dates from between 1093 and the early 16th century, although the site itself may have been used for Christian worship since Roman times. All the major styles of English medieval architecture, from Norman to Perpendicular, are represented in the present building.
The cathedral and monastic buildings were extensively restored during the 19th century amidst some controversy, and a free-standing bell-tower was added in the 20th century. The buildings are a major tourist attraction in Chester, a city of historic, cultural and architectural importance. In addition to holding services for Christian worship, the cathedral is used as a venue for concerts and exhibitions.

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Childwall
Coordinates: 53°23′42″N 2°52′52″W / 53.395°N 2.881°W / 53.395; -2.881
Childwall is a suburb of Liverpool, Merseyside, England and a Liverpool City Council Ward. It is located to the south of the city, bordered by Gateacre, Wavertree, Belle Vale, Broadgreen, Bowring Park and Mossley Hill. In 2008 the population was recorded as 14,085.
The earliest recorded reference to Childwall was in the Domesday Book of 1086.
"Four Radmans held Childwall as four Manors. There is half a hide. It was worth eight shillings. There was a priest, having half a carucate of land in frank almoign."
Childwall was known as Cileuuelle in the 1086 Domesday Book meaning 'a stream where youngsters meet' from the Old English words cild and wella. Historically the name has been recorded as Childewalle (1212 and 1332), Chaldewall (1238), Childwall (1261), Childewelle (1291), Chaldewal (1305) and Childewall (1354).
Childwall was traditionally part of the West Derby Hundred. It was an urban district from the Local Government Act 1894 until it was annexed to Liverpool in 1913.

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Knotty Ash
Coordinates: 53°24′47″N 2°53′24″W / 53.413°N 2.890°W / 53.413; -2.890
Knotty Ash is an area of Liverpool, Merseyside, England and a Liverpool City Council Ward. Historically within Lancashire, at the 2001 Census, the population was 13,200.
Knotty Ash is a small area on the eastern fringe of Liverpool and neighbouring districts include West Derby, Old Swan, Broadgreen and Dovecot.
It derived its name from a gnarled ash tree. In the 1960s it was made famous in the United Kingdom by stand-up comedian and local resident Ken Dodd, in whose television programme the dwarfish comic characters he called the Diddy Men lived there. In his BBC children's television programme Ken Dodd And The Diddymen (1969), the fictitious Diddyland, boasting the highest sunshine rate in the world, was situated in the centre of Knotty Ash. The Diddy Men worked in the local "Jam Butty Mines".
In 2004, Mr Dodd planted a new ash tree close to the site of the original (outside the Knotty Ash pub).
Knotty Ash is mentioned in the lyrics of the song "Liverpool Lullaby" written by Stan Kelly-Bootle.

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Liverpool
Liverpool ( /ˈlɪvəpuːl/) is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Liverpool was 445,200 and was part of a larger urban area of 816,216.
Historically a part of Lancashire, the urbanisation and expansion of Liverpool were both largely brought about by the city's status as a major port. By the 18th century, trade from the West Indies, Ireland and mainland Europe coupled with close links with the Atlantic Slave Trade furthered the economic expansion of Liverpool. By the early 19th century, 40% of the world's trade passed through Liverpool's docks, contributing to Liverpool's rise as a major city.
Inhabitants of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians but are also colloquially known as "Scousers", in reference to the local dish known as "scouse", a form of stew. The word "Scouse" has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Liverpool's status as a port city has contributed to its diverse population, which, historically, were drawn from a wide range of peoples, cultures, and religions, particularly those from Ireland. The city is also home to the oldest Black African community in the country and the oldest Chinese community in Europe.

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London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety shows.
Walter Gibbons, an early moving pictures manager, built the Palladium in 1910 to compete with Edward Moss's London Hippodrome and Oswald Stoll's London Coliseum. The facade (originally that of Argyll House, which is why the pub opposite is called The Argyll Arms) dates back to the 19th century. Formerly it was a temporary wooden building called Corinthian Bazaar, which featured an aviary and aimed to attract customers from the recently closed Pantheon Bazaar (now Marks and Spencers) on Oxford Street. The theatre was rebuilt a year later by Fredrick Hengler, the son of a tightrope walker, as a circus venue that included an aquatic display in a flooded ring. Next it became the National Skating Palace - a skating rink with real ice. However the rink failed and the Palladium was redesigned by Frank Matcham, a famous theatrical architect who also designed the Coliseum, for a site that previously housed Hengler’s Circus. The building now carries Heritage Foundation commemorative plaques honouring Lew Grade and Frankie Vaughan.

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Nottingham
Nottingham (ⁱ/ˈnɒtɪŋəm/ NOT-ing-əm) is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and is one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group.
Nottingham is famed for its links with the legend of Robin Hood and, during the Industrial Revolution, obtained worldwide recognition for its lace-making, bicycle and tobacco industries. With origins tracable back to 600 AD, Nottingham was granted its city charter as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria in 1897 and has since been officially titled the City of Nottingham. The city has historically been nicknamed The Queen of the Midlands, being the smaller yet less industrialised regional neighbour to the Midlands biggest city, Birmingham. Nottingham is considered the primary centre of England's East Midlands region, being home to numerous regional headquarters and media stations including the BBC East Midlands and the Regional Government Office.
Whilst Nottingham has always had a tightly-drawn authority boundary, accounting for its relatively small population of 306,700, Nottingham's Urban Area has a population of approximately 670,000; in the 2001 census, it was the eighth largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Eurostat's concept of the Larger Urban Zone listed the area's population at 825,600 as of 2004.

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Al Martino
Al Martino (born Jasper Cini, October 7, 1927 – October 13, 2009) was an American singer and actor. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid 1970s, being described as "one of the great Italian American pop crooners", and also became well known as an actor, particularly for his role as singer Johnny Fontane in The Godfather.
Jasper "Al" Cini was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The name Jasper was an anglicisation of his father's name, Gasparino. His parents were immigrants from Abruzzo, Italy, who ran a construction business, and while growing up he worked alongside his brothers as a bricklayer. However, he was inspired to become a singer by emulating artists such as Al Jolson and Perry Como, and by the success of a family friend, Alfredo Cocozza, who had changed his name to Mario Lanza. After serving with the United States Navy in World War II, including being a part of the Iwo Jima invasion where he was wounded, Cini began his singing career. Encouraged by Lanza, he adopted the stage name Al Martino - Martino being the name of his mother's father - and began singing in local nightclubs. In 1948 he moved to New York City, and in 1952 won first place on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts television program with a performance of Como's hit "If".

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Alex Wharton
Alex Wharton (born 1939), later also known as Alex Murray, was part of the singing duo the Most Brothers with Mickie Most, and later, co-manager and producer of the band, Moody Blues.
The Most Brothers worked in the famous The 2i's Coffee Bar in London's Soho. They toured the UK with early rock'n'rollers Marty Wilde, Colin Hicks (younger brother of Tommy Steele), The Tony Crombie Big Band, Cliff Richard, The Kalin Twins, and Wee Willie Harris. In 1957 they recorded on the Decca Records label with "Whistle Bait" and "Takes a Whole Lotta Loving to Keep My Baby Happy" before disbanding the act in 1958.
In 1959 Wharton adopted the name Murray and moved into an acting career with the Theatre Workshop company in Stratford, East London, under the direction of the theatre director Joan Littlewood. He appeared in the first production of Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be before transferring to London's West End theatre, Wyndam's, as understudy to Alfred Lynch in the title role of The Hostage. He played a small role in the Arnold Wesker one-act play Last Day In Dreamland at the Lyric Hammersmith, and interspersed acting in minor film roles (Never Let Go - 1960), TV parts and commercials with solo record releases on Decca.

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Arthur Askey
Arthur Bowden Askey CBE (6 June 1900 – 16 November 1982) was a prominent English comedian and actor. Askey's humour owed much to the playfulness of the characters he portrayed, his improvising, and his use of catchphrases, as parodied by the Arthur Atkinson character in The Fast Show. His catchphrases included "Hello playmates!", "I thank you all" (pronounced "Ay-Thang-Yaw'll"), and "Before your very eyes".
Askey was born at 29 Moses Street, Liverpool, Lancashire, the eldest child and only son of Samuel Askey (d.1958), secretary of the firm Sugar Products of Liverpool, and his wife, Betsy Bowden (d.1949), of Knutsford, Cheshire. Six months after his birth the family moved to 90 Rosslyn Street, Liverpool. Askey was educated at St. Michael's Council School (1905–11) and the Liverpool Institute for Boys (1911–16), where he was known for winning an egg and spoon race at a school sports day. He was very small at 5' 2" (1.58 m), with a breezy, smiling personality, and wore distinctive horn-rimmed glasses.

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Brian Leveson
Sir Brian Henry LevesonQC (pronounced /ˈlɛvɨsən/; born 22 June 1949), is an English Judge, a Lord Justice of Appeal for England and Wales and, since 2010, head of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales.
It was announced on 13 July 2011 that Lord Justice Leveson would lead the Leveson Inquiry, a public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press, prompted by the News of the World phone hacking affair.
Born in Liverpool, Leveson was educated at Liverpool College, before going on to Merton College, Oxford.
Leveson was called to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1970. He initially practised in Liverpool and took silk in 1986. Leveson became a Bencher in 1995, acted as a Recorder between 1988 and 2000, and as a Deputy High Court Judge between 1998 and 2000. In 2000, Leveson was appointed as a Judge of the High Court, Queen's Bench Division, and served as a Presiding Judge of the Northern Circuit between 2002–2005.
While sitting with Lord Justice Mantell in the Court of Appeal in 2002 under the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, he upheld the murder conviction of James Hanratty. He also presided over the trial of ex-US Marine Toby Studebaker for charges relating to child grooming over the internet. He refused to imprison 100-year-old Bernard Heginbotham, who was found guilty of euthanasia on his wife of 67 years, 87-year-old Ida, because she faced spending the remainder of her life in the dementia ward of a nursing home. He also presided over the trial of Michael Barton, who was found guilty in 2005 of murdering Anthony Walker with an axe.

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Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist. With his backing group The Shadows, Richard, originally positioned as a rebellious rock and roll singer in the style of Little Richard and Elvis Presley, dominated the British popular music scene in the pre-Beatles period of the late 1950s and early 1960s. His 1958 hit single "Move It" is often described as Britain's first authentic rock and roll song, and John Lennon once claimed that "before Cliff and the Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music." A conversion to Christianity and subsequent softening of his music later led to a more middle of the road pop image, sometimes venturing into gospel music.
Over a 53-year career, Richard has become a fixture of the British entertainment world, amassing many gold and platinum discs and awards, including three Brit awards and two Ivor Novello awards. He has had more than 130 singles, albums and EPs make the UK Top 20, more than any other artist and holds the record (with Elvis Presley) as the only act to make the UK singles charts in all of its first six decades (1950s–2000s). He has achieved 14 UK No. 1 singles (or 18, depending on the counting methodology) and is the only singer to have had a No. 1 single in the UK in six consecutive decades: the 1950s through to the 2000s (discounting digital downloads and counting only CDs, he had a UK No. 1 single in the 2000s). Richard is the biggest selling singles artist of all time in the UK, with total sales of over 21 million and has reportedly sold an estimated 250 million records worldwide.

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Doris Day
Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, April 3, 1924) is an American actress, singer, and animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording, "Sentimental Journey", in 1945. After leaving the Les Brown & His Band of Renown to try a solo career, she started her long-lasting partnership with Columbia Records, which would remain her only recording label. The contract lasted from 1947 to 1967, and included more than 650 recordings, making Day one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the 20th century. In 1948, after being persuaded by Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne and her agent at the time, Al Levy, she auditioned for Michael Curtiz, which led to her being cast in the female lead role in Romance on the High Seas.
With a legendary Hollywood "girl next door" image, and capable of delivering comedy and romance as well as heavy drama, she appeared in 39 films, released 29 albums, spent 460 weeks in the Top 40 charts and eventually became one of America's most beloved entertainers. She received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Pillow Talk, won three Henrietta Awards (World Film Favorite), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Legend Award from the Society of Singers, Los Angeles Film Critics Association's Career Achievement Award and, in 1989, received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures.

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Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was the most important popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.

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Frank Ifield
Francis Edward Ifield (born 30 November 1937) is an early Australian-English easy listening and country music singer. He achieved considerable success in the early 1960s, especially in the UK Singles Chart, where he had four Number 1 hits between 1962 and 1963.
Born in Coundon, Coventry, Warwickshire, England, Ifield moved with his Australian parents to Dural, 50 km (31 mi) from Sydney, about 1946. It was a rural district and he listened to hillbilly music (now called country) while milking the cows. He learned how to yodel in imitation of country stars like Hank Snow. At the age of thirteen he recorded "Did You See My Daddy Over There?", and by the age of 19 was the number one recording star in Australia and New Zealand.^{[citation needed]} He returned to the UK in 1959.
His first record in the UK was "Lucky Devil" (1960) which got to number 22 in the UK charts. His next six records were less successful, but he finally broke through with "I Remember You" which topped the charts for seven weeks in 1962. Known for Ifield's falsetto and a slight yodel, it was the second highest-selling single of that year in the UK and became the seventh million-selling single.

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Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio (March 30, 1913 - February 6, 2007), was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005. Often billed as America's Number One Song Stylist, his other nicknames include Mr. Rhythm, Old Leather Lungs, and Mr. Steel Tonsils. His hits included "That's My Desire," "That Lucky Old Sun," "Mule Train," "Cry of the Wild Goose," "Jezebel," "High Noon," "I Believe," "Hey Joe!," "The Kid's Last Fight," "Cool Water," "Moonlight Gambler," "Love is a Golden Ring," "Rawhide," and "Lord, You Gave Me a Mountain."
He sang well-known theme songs for many movie Western soundtracks, including 3:10 To Yuma, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and Blazing Saddles, although he was not a country & western singer. Laine sang an eclectic variety of song styles and genres, stretching from big band crooning to pop, western-themed songs, gospel, rock, folk, jazz, and blues. He did not sing the soundtrack song for High Noon, which was sung by Tex Ritter, but his own version (with somewhat altered lyrics, omitting the name of the antagonist, Frank Miller) was the one that became a bigger hit, nor did he sing the theme to another show he is commonly associated with—Champion the Wonder Horse (sung by Mike Stewart)—but released his own, subsequently more popular version.

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George Carman
George Alfred Carman, QC (6 October 1929 - 2 January 2001), was a leading English barrister of the 1980s and 1990s. He first came to the attention of the general public in 1979, when he successfully defended the former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe after he was charged with conspiracy to murder. Carman had been appointed as a Queen's Counsel (QC) eight years previously.
Carman was born in Blackpool, the son of Alfred and Evelyn Carman(nee Moylan). His father,a former soldier and auctioneer, owned a furniture business and his mother, was in fashion. They met in Ireland during the Irish Civil War when Alf served in the Black and Tans. His mother was the daughter of a Waterford Cattle dealer, Michael Moylan. George attended St Joseph's College in Blackpool and a Roman Catholic Seminary - St Joseph's College, Upholland - where he trained as a priest. Carman went on to study at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1952 with a first-class honours degree in jurisprudence (law). Called to the Bar in 1953, he practised as a barrister on the Northern Circuit in Manchester, doing mostly criminal and personal injury work.

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Harry Hill
Harry Hill (born Matthew Keith Hall on 1 October 1964),^{[citation needed]} is a Perrier Award–winning English comedian, author and television presenter. A former medical doctor (who remains on the General Medical Council's List of Registered Medical Practitioners), Hill began his career in comedy with the popular radio show Harry Hill's Fruit Corner.
Hill was born in Woking, Surrey and spent part of his childhood living in Hong Kong where he attended Island School. The family then moved to Staplehurst, Kent where Hill attended the local primary school. He was educated at Angley School and then Cranbrook School in Kent and St George's Hospital Medical School before training in neurosurgery at the University of London. Hill worked as a house officer at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, before quitting the medical profession because he "didn't feel in control of what was happening".
Hill married illustrator Magda Archer in 1996 in Wandsworth, London. They have three daughters, all born in Kensington and Chelsea, London: Kitty, Winnie and Frederica. He now resides in the seaside town of Whitstable, Kent.

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Joe Pasquale
Joseph Ellis "Joe" Pasquale (born 20 August 1961) is an English comedian (of Italian descent) from Grays, Essex, who was crowned "King of the Jungle", on the reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!. He also hosted the revived version of the game show The Price is Right.
Pasquale worked for the Civil Service's Department of Transport before joining Smithfields meat market. The hours at the meat market became too much for a young Pasquale, so he left to work at a building site and at the Ford factory in Dagenham.
For a few years, Pasquale worked as an entertainer at holiday camps across the UK and became entertainment manager at Warner Holidays Corton in Suffolk. Later, he became entertainment manager at Torquay. His big break arrived when he entered and came second in the New Faces competition in 1987.
Pasquale's live shows include Live And Squeaky (1996), Twin Squeaks (1997), The Crazy World Of Joe Pasquale (1998), Bubble And Squeak (2000), The Everything I Have Ever Done & The First Of Many Goodbye Tours (2004), Does He Really Talk Like That? The Live Show (2005) and Return Of The Love Monkey (2006).

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Ken Dodd
Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE (born Liverpool, 8 November 1927) is a British comedian and singer-songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or "fluff dom" and buck teeth or "denchers", his favourite cleaner, the feather duster (or "tickling stick") and his greeting of "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off "Lots and Lots of Happiness!". He works mainly in the music hall tradition, although, in the past, has occasionally appeared in drama, including as Malvolio in Shakespeare's 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; and as Yorick (in silent flashback) in Kenneth Branagh's film version of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 1996. In the 1960s his fame was such that he rivalled The Beatles as a household name.
Dodd's stand-up comedy style is fast and relies on the rapid delivery of one-liner jokes. He has claimed that his comic influences include other Liverpool comedians like Arthur Askey, Robb Wilton, Tommy Handley and the "cheeky chappy" from Brighton Max Miller. He intersperses the comedy with occasional songs, both serious and humorous, in an incongruously fine light baritone voice.

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Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh (/ˈbrænə/ BRAN-ə; born 10 December 1960) is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V (1989) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Director), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Othello, Hamlet (1996) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay), Love's Labour's Lost (2000), and As You Like It (2006).
He has also starred in numerous other films and television series including Fortunes of War (1987), Wild Wild West (1999), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Conspiracy (TV) (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Warm Springs (TV) (2005), Valkyrie (2008), Wallander (TV series) (2008–present), and My Week with Marilyn (2011) as Laurence Olivier (Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor); and directed such notable films as Dead Again (1991) (also starring), Swan Song (1992) (Academy Award nominated for Best Live Action Short Film), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) (also starring), The Magic Flute (2006), Sleuth (2007), and the blockbuster action film Thor (2011).

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Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, née Roberts (born 13 October 1925) is a British politician and the longest-serving (1979–1990) British prime minister of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post. A Soviet journalist nicknamed her the "Iron Lady", which later became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As prime minister, she implemented conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.
Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975 Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition, as well as the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became prime minister after winning the 1979 general election.
After entering 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what she perceived as Britain's precipitous national decline. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987, but her Community Charge (popularly referred to as "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership.

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Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, actor and writer. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. Among his hit songs were cover versions of black R&B artists' songs (when parts of the country were segregated). He sold over 45 million albums, had 38 Top 40 hits and appeared in more than 12 Hollywood movies. Boone's talent as a singer and actor, combined with his old-fashioned values, contributed to his popularity in the early rock and roll era.
According to Billboard, Boone was the second biggest charting artist of the late 1950s, behind only Elvis Presley but ahead of Ricky Nelson and The Platters, and was ranked at No. 9—behind The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney but ahead of artists such as Aretha Franklin and The Beach Boys—in its listing of the Top 100 Top 40 Artists 1955–1995. Boone still holds the Billboard record for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the charts with one or more songs each week.
At the age of twenty-three, he began hosting a half-hour ABC variety television series, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, which aired for 115 episodes (1957–1960). Many musical performers, including Edie Adams, Andy Williams, Pearl Bailey and Johnny Mathis made appearances on the show. His cover versions of rhythm and blues hits had a noticeable effect on the development of the broad popularity of rock and roll. During his tours in the 1950s, Elvis Presley was one of his opening acts.

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Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka, OC (born July 30, 1941 Ottawa) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.
Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder". He went on to write such well-known music as the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and one of Tom Jones's biggest hits, "She's a Lady", and the English lyrics for Frank Sinatra's signature song, "My Way" (originally French song "Comme d'habitude").
In 1983, he co-wrote with Michael Jackson the song "I Never Heard", which was retitled and released in 2009 under the name "This Is It". An additional song that Jackson co-wrote with Anka from this 1983 session, "Love Never Felt So Good", has since been discovered, and will be released in the near future. The song was also released by Johnny Mathis in 1984.
Anka became a naturalized US citizen in 1990.
Anka was born in Ottawa, Ontario in Canada to Andy and Camelia Anka who owned a restaurant called The Locanda there. His parents are of Lebanese descent. He sang with the St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church choir under the direction of Frederick Karam, with whom he studied music theory. He also studied piano with Winnifred Rees.

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Peter Kay
Peter John Kay (born 2 July 1973) is an English comedian, writer, actor, director and producer from Lancashire. His work includes That Peter Kay Thing (2000), Phoenix Nights (2001), Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere (2004), Britain's Got the Pop Factor... (2008) and other independent productions which have included two sell out tours. Kay has sold over 10 million DVDs, a UK record for a comedian.

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Robb Wilton
Robb Wilton, born Robert Wilton Smith (28 August 1881 – 1 May 1957) was an English comedian and comic actor who was famous for his filmed monologues in the 1930s and 1940s in which he played incompetent authority figures.
Wilton was born in Everton, Liverpool, and had a dry Lancashire accent which suited his comic persona as a procrastinating and work-shy impediment to the general public. Wilton's comedy emerged from the tradition of English Music Hall, especially popular in the North of England, and he was a contemporary of Frank Randle and George Formby, Jr.. He portrayed the human face of bureaucracy; for example, playing a policeman who shilly-shallies his way out of acting upon a reported murder by pursuing a contrarian line of questioning. Wilton, rubbing his face in a world-weary way, would fiddle with his props while his characters blithely and incompetently 'went about their work', his humour embodying the everyday and the absurd – and the inherent absurdity of the everyday.
He has been acknowledged as an influence by fellow Lancashire comedians Ken Dodd and Les Dawson, and the film historian Jeffrey Richards has cited him as a key influence for the TV sitcom Dad's Army (1968–1977); he made several monologues in the person of a layabout husband who wryly takes part in the Home Guard. His gentle, if pointed, manner of comedy is similar to the wistful adventures of the more famous Walmington-on-Sea platoon.

wn.com/Robb_Wilton
Slim Whitman
Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr. (born January 20, 1924), known professionally as Slim Whitman, and early in his career as "The Smiling Starduster", is an American country music singer and songwriter, known for his yodelling abilities. He has sold in excess of 120 million albums in unit sales and has had numerous successful recordings. He is consistently more popular throughout Europe, and in particular Britain, than in his native America, particularly with his covers of pop standards and movie songs . His 1955 hit single "Rose Marie" held the Guinness World Record for the longest time at number 1 on the UK charts until Bryan Adams broke the record in 1991 after 36 years. In the U.S., his "Indian Love Call" (1952) and "Secret Love" (1953) reached number 2 on the Billboard country chart. Whitman had a string of hits from the mid 1960s and into the 1970s and became known to a new generation of fans through TV marketing in the 1980s. Throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century, he has continued to tour extensively around the world and release new material, and he was featured on the soundtrack of the 1996 film Mars Attacks!. In 2010 a new album, called Twilight on the Trail, was released featuring brand new material produced by his son Byron and featuring the single "Back in the Saddle Again."

wn.com/Slim_Whitman
Tommy Handley
Thomas Reginald "Tommy" Handley (17 January 1892 – 9 January 1949) was a British comedian, mainly known for the BBC radio programme ITMA ("It's That Man Again"). He was born at Toxteth Park, Liverpool in Lancashire.
He served with a kite balloon section of the Royal Naval Air Service during World War I and went on to work in variety, and in the infancy of radio became known as a regular broadcaster. He worked with people such as Arthur Askey and Bob Monkhouse, and wrote many radio scripts, but it is the BBC comedy series ITMA for which he is best known, and which itself became known for a number of catchphrases, some of which entered popular vocabulary. He later starred in the ITMA film in 1942 and in Time Flies in 1944.
In later years, he suffered with high blood pressure, the result of his driving commitment to ITMA, and died suddenly on 9 January 1949 from a brain hemorrhage, 8 days before his 57th birthday. He was cremated and interred at the Golders Green Crematorium. In a eulogy at his memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral, the Bishop of London, John W C Wand, said that "[h]e was one whose genius transmuted the copper of our common experience into the gold of exquisite foolery. His raillery was without cynicism, and his satire without malice..."

wn.com/Tommy_Handley
Wikipedia Persondata
wn.com/Wikipedia_Persondata
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

wn.com/William_Shakespeare

Ken Dodd (1927-?)

kenn dod at his best...

published: 01 Mar 2008

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Ken Dodd Medley

Ken Dodd singing a medley....

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Ken Dodd's Live Laughter Tour Intro

the first 6 minuites of ken dodd's live laughter tour video,released in 1996.including the...

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KEN DODD THIS IS YOUR LIFE 500th show part 1

Doddy This is your life and what laughter, enjoyment & pleasure you have given to all that...

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Ken Dodd Ventriloquist Act

Funny Ken Dodd and Dicky Mint act...

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Ken Dodd in Uniform

From the ken Dodd Live Laughter Tour Video...

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LWT - KEN DODD - THE SOUTH BANK SHOW (1978)

Comedian Ken Dodd on "The South Bank Show" 11/3/78 A London Weekend Television Production ...

published: 14 Jan 2012

author: cooperweekend

Ken Dodd - Tears

UK number 1 hit from 1965 Ken Dodd is a British comedian / singer who had 19 UK hit single...

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SEASIDE SPECIAL(BBC1) WITH KEN DODD PART 2 SUMMER 1975

THIS IS THE VERY 1ST EDITION OF BBC,S SATURDAY SUMMER NIGHT VARIETY SHOW THAT TOUR ALL OF ...

published: 21 Apr 2012

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Ken Dodd TV Guest Spot 1986

Ken Dodd doing a six minute guest spot from a 1986 appearance on (ITV) Yorkshire TV quiz s...

published: 29 Jun 2012

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Ken Dodd Happiness Show.. November 4th 2012

84 Year old "Comedy Legend" Ken Dodd, performing at The Grand Theatre Blackpool, England.....

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Ken Dodd Love me with all of your heart

Ken Dodd singing 'Love me with all of your heart' ...the song is based on the Spanish lang...

published: 26 May 2011

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Happiness ken dodd

a simple song with a lot of meaning to it god bless ken dodd...

published: 11 Feb 2009

author: musicyeah2

Ken Dodd Welcomes The Olympic Torch To Knotty Ash

Ken Dodd, the King of Mirth and Squire of Knotty Ash, brings sunshine and smiles to Knotty...

published: 11 Jun 2012

author: quietman18

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photo: AP / Juan Karita

File - Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez, front, gestures during a ceremony honoring Bolivia's Independence heroines in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Wednesday, July 18, 2012.

Argentina reasserts claim over Falklands

Al Jazeera

04 Jan 2013

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has released a public letter urging the United Kingdom to relinquish its control over the disputed Falkland Islands. ... The veterans delivered a letter addressed to the British Ambassador in Argentina, John Freeman, criticising the British government for refusing to discuss the sovereignty of the islands with the Argentine government ... 508 Source .. Al Jazeera and agencies. Share....(size: 19.6Kb)

photo: UN / Evan Schneider

File - Cristina Fernández, President of Argentina, is pictured during a meeting of the UN’s Special Committee on Decolonization to consider the “Question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas)”, 14 June, 2012.

Argentina's call for return of Falklands causes a stir

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

06 Jan 2013

LONDON -- They have barely 3,000 inhabitants and far more sheep than people. They are more than 8,700 miles from London. For much of the year, they are bitterly cold and wind-swept, with only open sea and ice between them and Antarctica ... But the Falkland Islands, the focus of a short war between Britain and Argentina in 1982, have been in the headlines again recently ... Their arguments suggest what has long been evident ... Ms ... Mr ... Cameron said....(size: 5.1Kb)

photo: WN / Imran Nissar

Indian Army soldiers patrol outside their army camp at Gurez, about 180 kilometers (113 miles) north of Srinagar, India, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011. Indian troops in Kashmir fought a deadly gunbattle with suspected rebels crossing the military Line of Control from Pakistani-controlled territory Saturday, the army said. One soldier and 11 suspected rebels were killed, army spokesman Lt. Col. J.S. Brar said, but only six suspected rebels' bodies were recovered. He said the other five bodies were lost when they fell into a river during the fighting in the disputed Himalayan region.

Pakistan accuses India of deadly cross-border raid

Herald Tribune

06 Jan 2013

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani military is accusing forces from neighboring India of crossing the boundary between the two sides' forces in Kashmir and attacking a Pakistani border post, killing a soldier. The military's public relations office said in a statement Sunday that another Pakistani soldier was critically wounded in the incident early Sunday. They said troops are still exchanging gunfire in the area ... All rights reserved ... Parker ... ....(size: 4.3Kb)

photo: WN / Bhaskar Mallick

Chatraparishad Supporters participate in a Candel Light to protest against Delhi gang rape case and for reviewing “ Women Protection Law “ in kolkata on Friday 28 December 2012

Friend of Delhi gang-rape victim calls for protests to continue

Newstrack India

05 Jan 2013

Tweet. New Delhi, Jan 5 (ANI). The male friend of the 23-year-old medical student, who was gang-raped and left unclothed and bleeding in the street and later died in hospital two weeks after she was attacked on December 16 on a private bus in New Delhi, has said that things would have gone differently if someone had stopped to help ... "It would have been a very different scenario today, had even one person come to our help that day ... (ANI)....(size: 3.8Kb)

photo: AP / SANA

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013, Syrian firefighters check a gas station that was attacked by a car bomb killing several people, activists said, in Damascus, Syria.

Syria fights off rebel advance on Damascus

Al Jazeera

05 Jan 2013

Syrian government forces have bombarded several rebel strongholds in the suburbs of Damascus to quell the fighters battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad from reaching the capital. Activists on Saturday said troops leveled their bombardment campaign on the districts of Hajar al-Aswad and Qaboun in southern Damascus while they continued to shell the suburbs of Daraya, Beit Hahm, Zibdeen, Maadamiya and Jisteen ... 445 Source . ... ....(size: 19.0Kb)

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The Who: 'I shall stay home and pick nuts out of me cavities' – a special Christmas interview from the vaults

The Guardian

24 Dec 2012

It's Christmas, so no excuse is needed to enjoy this classic Keith Altham interview with the Who, which first appeared in NME in December 1966, as archived in Rock's Backpages – the world's leading archive of vintage music journalism. 'Ive got a list of people to insult written on me sock' … The Who's Keith Moon in 1966. Photograph ... Good old Jim Reeves did it on us last time, and before that it was the singing pimple, Ken Dodd!" ... ....(size: 7.4Kb)

Cameron’s Post-It Test

The Independent

21 Dec 2012

Collins observes of Cameron . ... Tagged in ... Quentin Tarantino John Ruskin The Fast And The Furious Machete Kills pantomime Les Dawson Jack and the Beanstalk cognitive behavioural therapy Zero Dark Thirty Victorian The Hunger Games Ken Dodd Generalised Anxiety Disorder panic disorder Babes in the Wood Lawless Arthur Askey Bella Cullen negative thoughts Avengers foie gras Jennifer Lawrence Joey Grimaldi Dick Whittington post-traumatic ... RSS ....(size: 3.7Kb)

Detached homes have kept their value best over last five years

The Independent

21 Dec 2012

Doug Shephard, director at Home.co.uk, said ... Dick Whittington John Ruskin foie gras Bella Cullen Generalised Anxiety Disorder pantomime The Fast And The Furious Machete Kills Jack and the Beanstalk Joey Grimaldi Jennifer Lawrence panic disorder Babes in the Wood The Hunger Games cognitive behavioural therapy post-traumatic Lawless Arthur Askey Avengers Les Dawson Victorian Quentin Tarantino negative thoughts Zero Dark Thirty Ken Dodd....(size: 4.2Kb)

iBet: St Mirren v Motherwell are in contrasting form

The Independent

21 Dec 2012

Scottish SPL ... St Mirren are struggling ... Zero Dark Thirty pantomime Machete Kills John Ruskin Jennifer Lawrence negative thoughts Dick Whittington post-traumatic Joey Grimaldi Bella Cullen Babes in the Wood Avengers Victorian The Hunger Games Lawless The Fast And The Furious Jack and the Beanstalk cognitive behavioural therapy Les Dawson panic disorder Quentin Tarantino Generalised Anxiety Disorder foie gras Ken Dodd Arthur Askey ... Query....(size: 4.2Kb)

The top five films to see in the New Year

The Independent

21 Dec 2012

1. Django Unchained ... 2. Zero Dark Thirty ... 3. Gangster Squad ... 4 ... post-traumatic Jack and the Beanstalk pantomime Arthur Askey Les Dawson Only God Forgives Machete Kills Dick Whittington Mark Boal foie gras 2013 films negative thoughts cognitive behavioural therapy Zero Dark Thirty The Great Gatsby Ken Dodd Joey Grimaldi Stoker Babes in the Wood Generalised Anxiety Disorder panic disorder Victorian John Ruskin Django Unchained Gangster Squad....(size: 8.0Kb)

It’s behind you: A look back at the roots of pantomime

The Independent

20 Dec 2012

As I was enjoying in the 1960s and 1970s the comic misadventures of Ken Dodd in Dick Whittington, Arthur Askey in Jack and the Beanstalk and Les Dawson in Babes in the Wood, I little ... Arthur Askey, Babes in the Wood, charles dickens, Dick Whittington, Jack and the Beanstalk, Joey Grimaldi, John Ruskin, Ken Dodd, Les Dawson, pantomime, Victorian....(size: 9.0Kb)

No more foie gras for their Lordships

The Independent

20 Dec 2012

Not any more ... Recent Posts on McSmith. Cameron Ain't Heavy ... Dick Whittington Victorian Open Health Care UK Jack and the Beanstalk Arthur Askey Pedro Almodóvar Avengers Joey Grimaldi Ben Goldacre pantomime Alison Bechdel Quentin Tarantino Jennifer Lawrence Les Dawson The Fast And The Furious Ken Dodd The Hunger Games John Ruskin Babes in the Wood Open Data Institute Zero Dark Thirty Bella Cullen Nigel Shadbolt Lawless Machete Kills ... RSS ....(size: 3.3Kb)

Most Annoying Phrases of 2012

The Independent

20 Dec 2012

1 puh-lease. 2 must-have. 3 deal-breaker ... Lawless Jack and the Beanstalk Jennifer Lawrence Quentin Tarantino Arthur Askey Les Dawson Avengers Joey Grimaldi negative thoughts The Hunger Games Bella Cullen cognitive behavioural therapy panic disorder pantomime Babes in the Wood Victorian post-traumatic Zero Dark Thirty Machete Kills foie gras Generalised Anxiety Disorder The Fast And The Furious Dick Whittington John Ruskin Ken Dodd ... RSS ....(size: 3.5Kb)

Boris J. reveals his inner van Gogh

The Independent

20 Dec 2012

There was a moment’s silence, before the Mayor blurted out ... Victorian Arthur Askey Joey Grimaldi Avengers Jennifer Lawrence Ben Goldacre Babes in the Wood Dick Whittington Open Data Institute The Hunger Games John Ruskin Alison Bechdel Bella Cullen pantomime Pedro Almodóvar Quentin Tarantino Jack and the Beanstalk Nigel Shadbolt Machete Kills Les Dawson The Fast And The Furious Open Health Care UK Zero Dark Thirty Ken Dodd Lawless ... ....(size: 3.6Kb)

Boris Johnson reveals his inner van Gogh

The Independent

20 Dec 2012

(Getty Images) ... “I’d like to have been a painter ... Most viewed ... Babes in the Wood Nigel Shadbolt Dick Whittington Jack and the Beanstalk foie gras Ben Goldacre The Hunger Games Quentin Tarantino Les Dawson The Fast And The Furious Alison Bechdel Arthur Askey pantomime John Ruskin Joey Grimaldi Open Health Care UK Lawless Pedro Almodóvar Avengers Victorian Ken Dodd Zero Dark Thirty Jennifer Lawrence Bella Cullen Machete Kills....(size: 3.6Kb)

Robbing the farm worker to pay the farmer

The Independent

20 Dec 2012

A vast transfer of wealth is soon to begin ... This is rubbish ... Most viewed ... John Ruskin Lawless Bella Cullen pantomime Zero Dark Thirty Jennifer Lawrence Dick Whittington Quentin Tarantino The Fast And The Furious Babes in the Wood Avengers Arthur Askey foie gras Ken Dodd Ben Goldacre Alison Bechdel Open Health Care UK Victorian The Hunger Games Pedro Almodóvar Les Dawson Joey Grimaldi Nigel Shadbolt Machete Kills Jack and the Beanstalk ... ....(size: 3.7Kb)

The solo sailing blog: Back in the south now

The Independent

20 Dec 2012

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Living with Generalised anxiety disorder: ‘My mind whirrs continually – negative thoughts compete for space’

The Independent

20 Dec 2012

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Ken Dodd

Birth name	Kenneth Arthur Dodd
Born	(1927-11-08) 8 November 1927 (age 84) Knotty Ash, Liverpool, UK
Medium	Stand-up, television
Nationality	British
Years active	1954-present
Genres	One-liners
Influences	Arthur Askey Ted Ray Robb Wilton Tommy Handley Max Miller
Influenced	Joe Pasquale Harry Hill Peter Kay
Website	Ken Dodd - Official Website

Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE (born Liverpool, 8 November 1927) is a British comedian and singer-songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or "fluff dom" and buck teeth or "denchers", his favourite cleaner, the feather duster (or "tickling stick") and his greeting of "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off "Lots and Lots of Happiness!". He works mainly in the music hall tradition, although, in the past, has occasionally appeared in drama, including as Malvolio in Shakespeare's 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; and as Yorick (in silent flashback) in Kenneth Branagh's film version of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 1996. In the 1960s his fame was such that he rivalled The Beatles as a household name.^[1]

1 Style, career and achievement
2 Early life
3 Honours
4 Personal life
5 Discography
- 5.1 UK chart singles
- 5.2 Other singles
6 Tax evasion court case
7 References
8 External links

Style, career and achievement [link]

Dodd's stand-up comedy style is fast and relies on the rapid delivery of one-liner jokes. He has claimed that his comic influences include other Liverpool comedians like Arthur Askey, Robb Wilton, Tommy Handley and the "cheeky chappy" from Brighton Max Miller.^[2] He intersperses the comedy with occasional songs, both serious and humorous, in an incongruously fine light baritone voice.

Dodd has had many recording hits, charting on nineteen occasions in the UK Top 40, including his first single "Love Is Like a Violin" (1960), produced on Decca Records by Alex Wharton, which charted at number 8 (UK), and his song "Tears" (Columbia), which topped the UK charts for five weeks in 1965, selling over a million copies. At the time it was the UK's biggest selling single by a solo artist,^[3] and remains one of the UK's biggest selling singles of all time. Dodd was selected to perform the song on A Jubilee Of Music on BBC One on December 31, 1976, a celebration of the key pop successes of Queen Elizabeth II's first twenty-five years as UK monarch.

Dodd is renowned for the length of his performances, and during the 1960s he earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's longest ever joke-telling session: 1,500 jokes in three and a half hours (7.14 jokes per minute), undertaken at a Liverpool theatre, where audiences were observed to enter the show in shifts. More recently, Ken Dodd appeared at the Royal Variety Performance in 2006 in front of Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, where he reprised some of his famous jokes, including those about tax accountants as well as singing his famous song "Happiness".

Early life [link]

Dodd was born on 8 November 1927 in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, the son of a coal merchant, Arthur Dodd and wife Sarah. He had an older brother, William (1925–2011). He went to the Knotty Ash School, and sang in the local church choir of St Johns Church, Knotty Ash. At the age of seven, he was dared by his school friends to ride his bike with his eyes shut. He accepted the dare, crashed, and received facial injuries which resulted in his distinctive buck teeth.^{[citation needed]}

He then attended Holt High School, a Grammar School in Childwall, but left at age fourteen to work for his father.^[4] Around this time he became interested in showbusiness after seeing an advert in a comic: "Fool Your Teachers, Amaze Your Friends—Send 6d in Stamps and Become a Ventriloquist!" and sending off for the book. Not long after, his father bought him a ventriloquist's dummy and Ken called it Charlie Brown. He started entertaining at the local orphanage, then at various other local community functions.

He got his big break at age twenty-six when, in September 1954, he made his professional show-business debut at the now-demolished Nottingham Empire.^[5] A nervous young man, he sat in a local Milk Bar for most of the afternoon, going over and over his lines before going to the theatre. He later said, "Well at least they didn't boo me off". He continued to perform, eventually topping the bill at Blackpool in 1958.

Honours [link]

In December 2004, Dodd was in Nottingham to be presented with a framed playbill after a sell out performance at the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham to celebrate his fifty years in show business. Dodd's first professional performance was on stage at the Empire Theatre, Nottingham in 1954.

In a 2005 poll of comedians and comedy insiders to find 'The Comedian's Comedian', Dodd was voted amongst the 'Top 50 Comedy Acts Ever', ranked as number 36. He was made an honorary fellow of Liverpool John Moores University in 1997. A statue depicting Dodd with his feather duster was unveiled in Lime Street Station, Liverpool on 11 June 2009.

Dodd was made an honorary fellow of The University of Chester on 4 November 2009, having been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters at a graduation ceremony in Chester Cathedral. His doctorate was presented by Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster. He was awarded a Doctorate of Letters at Liverpool Hope University on 25 January 2010 during the University's Foundation Day celebrations.

Personal life [link]

Dodd has had two long-term fiancées, but has never married. A stalker, Ruth Tagg, who harassed Dodd and his girlfriend Anne Jones (who is also a current support act, named 'Sybie' Jones), sending threatening letters and a dead rat, attempted to burn down his house by pushing burning rags through the letterbox, in October 2001. Tagg pleaded guilty to harassment and arson at Preston Crown Court.^[6]

He underwent a hernia operation in late 2007, forcing him to cancel several performances, but was back on stage within a month. Dodd presented the History of Liverpool Comedians at St George's Hall on 1 and 2 April 2008.

Dodd is still touring and appeared at the Glasgow Pavilion in April 2009, playing to a sell-out crowd for over four hours. September 2010 saw Dodd perform at the Playhouse Theatre, Weston Super Mare (Somerset, UK), where he performed to a full house in a show that started at 7pm and finished well after midnight.^{[citation needed]}

He also played at Southport Theatre and Convention Centre, on Saturday November 20, 2010. Similar to the Glasgow Pavilion in April 2009, the show started at 7 pm and finished in the early hours of Sunday 21 November.

Dodd was a supporter of the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher and campaigned during the 1979 general election campaign, which brought her to power. In the last rally, in Wembley Stadium, he introduced her on to the stage.

His first, and to date only, book, Look At It My Way, was published in November 2009. Ken Dodd: The Biography by Stephen Griffin was published on 15 September 2005 (ISBN 1-84317-123-6). In July 2010, the regional UK airline, Eastern Airways, named one of their Jetstream 41 aircraft after Dodd, in celebration of one year of scheduled services to Liverpool, and the support that Dodd shows for the region and in particular the airport.

Discography [link]

UK chart singles [link]

Title	Release date	Chart Positions	Notes
Title	Release date	U.K. Singles^[7]	Notes
"Love Is Like a Violin"	7 July 1960	8	Reached #9 US Billboard
"Once in Every Lifetime"	15 June 1961	28
"Pianissimo"	1 February 1962	21
"Still"	29 August 1963	35
"Eight by Ten"	6 February 1964	22
"Happiness"	23 July 1964	31
"So Deep Is the Night"	26 November 1964	31
"Tears"	2 September 1965	1	Sold over a million copies; 19 in the top 20 of the most sold songs in the UK^[8]
"The River (Le Colline Sono In Fiore)"	18 November 1965	3
"Promises"	12 May 1966	6
"More Than Love"	4 August 1966	14
"It's Love"	27 October 1966	36
"Let Me Cry on Your Shoulder"	19 January 1967	11
"Tears Won't Wash Away These Heartaches"	30 July 1969	22
"Brokenhearted"	5 December 1970	15
"When Love Comes Round Again (L'arca di Noe)"	10 July 1971	19
"Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms)"	18 November 1972	29
"(Think of Me) Wherever You Are"	29 November 1975	21
"Hold My Hand"	26 December 1981	44

Other singles [link]

"Where's Me Shirt" (1965)
"You're My Best Friend" (1980)
"Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs" (1980)
"It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)" (1980)

Tax evasion court case [link]

In 1989 Dodd was charged with tax evasion. The subsequent trial, with the prosecution case led by Brian Leveson QC, produced several revelations. The Diddy Men, who had appeared in his stage act, were often played by local children from stage schools, and were revealed never to have been paid. Dodd was also revealed to have very little money in his bank account, having £336,000 in cash stashed in suitcases in his attic. When asked by the judge, "What does a hundred thousand pounds in a suitcase feel like?", Dodd made his now famous reply, "The notes are very light, M'Lord."^[9]

Dodd was represented by George Carman, who in court famously quipped, "Some accountants are comedians, but comedians are never accountants".^[10] The trial lasted three weeks: Dodd was acquitted.^[10]

Despite the strain of the trial, Dodd immediately capitalised on his new-found notoriety with a successful season running from Easter to Christmas 1990 at the London Palladium. It was there he had previously broken the house record for the longest comedy season at the theatre, in 1965, with a residency lasting forty-two weeks. Some of his current material mocks the trial and tax in general. For a while he introduced his act with the words, "Good evening, my name is Kenneth Arthur Dodd; singer, photographic playboy and failed accountant!"^[11]

References [link]

^ "Ken Dodd: Still tickling at 82". BBC News. 24 September 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/9028099.stm.
^ "The men who tickled me...". Chortle.co.uk. 2 April 2008. http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2008/04/02/6598/the_men_who_tickled_me.... Retrieved 2 April 2008.
^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 170. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
^ "The Ken Dodd Story". http://www.chucklebutty.co.uk/doddbio.html. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
^ BBC - Nottingham - Entertainment - Ken Dodd: Twenty things you never knew^{[dead link]}
^ "Stalker set fire to Dodd's home". BBC. 4 March 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2819343.stm.
^ "Ken Dodd". The Official Charts. The Official UK Charts Co. c2010. http://www.theofficialcharts.com/artist/_/ken%20dodd/. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
^ Morgan-Gan, Theo (2002). "The UK's Best Selling Singles". UK Charts Home Page. http://ukcharts.20m.com/bestsell.html. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
^ Natalie Anglesey (1 February 2007). "Dodd's Bolton bonus". Manchester Evening News. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/entertainment/comedy/s/234/234894_dodds_bolton_bonus.html.
^ ^a ^b "George Carman: The Bar's 'silver fox'". BBC. 2 January 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1097749.stm.
^ Nevin, Charles (23 October 2004). "Tickling shtick". London: Guardian. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1332768,00.html. Retrieved 7 May 2010.

External links [link]

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v t e UK best-selling singles (by year) (1952–1969)

1952: "Here in My Heart" - Al Martino · 1953: "I Believe" - Frankie Laine · 1954: "Secret Love" - Doris Day · 1955: "Rose Marie" - Slim Whitman · 1956: "I'll Be Home" - Pat Boone · 1957: "Diana" - Paul Anka · 1958: "Jailhouse Rock" - Elvis Presley · 1959: "Living Doll" - Cliff Richard · 1960: "It's Now or Never" - Elvis Presley · 1961: "Are You Lonesome Tonight" - Elvis Presley · 1962: "I Remember You" - Frank Ifield · 1963: "She Loves You" - The Beatles · 1964: "Can't Buy Me Love" - The Beatles · 1965: "Tears" - Ken Dodd · 1966: "Green, Green Grass of Home" - Tom Jones · 1967: "Release Me" - Engelbert Humperdinck · 1968: "Hey Jude" - The Beatles · 1969: "Sugar, Sugar" - The Archies

Complete list (1952–1969) (1970–1989) (1990–2009) (2010–2029)

Persondata
Name	Dodd, Ken
Alternative names	Dodd, Kenneth Arthur, Doddy
Short description	British comedian
Date of birth	8 November 1927
Place of birth	Knotty Ash, Liverpool, UK
Date of death
Place of death

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Dodd, Ken Filmography

Dodd, Ken Filmography

Famous quotes by Ken Dodd:

"I feel people desperately want a laugh and what I offer them is optimistic comedy. Unlike some comics, I don't tell them what a rotten world it is. I say life is fabulous and wonderful and we should enjoy it while we can."

"I know how he feels, missus."

"He must have come to about six shows and even watched a couple of them, and I have to say the finished image is just how I want to be remembered. I want people to remember me as a working comedian."

"When asked if Ken believed in safe sex his answer came: 'Of course I do; I have an Iron Bar around the bed!"

"I thought it would be a good idea to go into Politics, maybe I am a little old... but you know... I'd love to be Chancellor of the Exchequer - That way I'll be united with my money!"

"If I get a hard audience they are not going to get away until they laugh. Those seven laughs a minute -- I've got to have them."

"I told the Inland Revenue I didn't owe them a penny because I lived near the seaside."

Make changes yourself !

Contents

Style, career and achievement [link]

Early life [link]

Honours [link]

Personal life [link]

Discography [link]

UK chart singles [link]

Other singles [link]

Tax evasion court case [link]

References [link]

External links [link]

http://wn.com/Ken_Dodd

Related pages:

http://de.wn.com/Ken Dodd