Drat! I should’ve bought tickets for a Ken Dodd show when I had the chance. Now I’ll never see in person his unstoppable bullet train delivery of cracking one-liners. Although having said that two days after his death the Ken Dodd Shows website was still advertising tickets for gigs well into July, so maybe they know something we don’t. He once cheated the taxman for a bit so maybe he’s escaped life’s other certainty.
I have though been looking back wistfully at performances on YouTube and reading other people’s selections of his best gags. He really was brilliant, a tattyfilarious purveyor of priceless comedy that was funny without being crude or offensive. Of the many jokes I’ve seen delivered and read over the last few days my favourite is: “I have kleptomania. But when it gets bad, I take something for it.” By Jove! How tickled we all were for so many years.
