How tickled he must be….

….to be 90 today so Happy Birthday to Sir Ken Dodd. I went to see him a few years ago with my friend Brian Jenkins. Neither of us particularly enjoyed his act but we enjoyed the fact that we were seeing the last of the great music hall performers. It was as you would expect: the tickling stick, the endless conveyor belt of corny gags and, of course the admirable stamina required to do this for hours and hours. The packed out show was fun rather than funny and just very odd. Even odder is the fact that in 1965, when both The Beatles and The Stones were at the height of their fame, this record outsold any of theirs. It’s still one of the best-selling UK singles of all time and it’s dreadful. So so, if we’re honest, is Ken Dodd. But isn’t that what makes him rather wonderful.