Date of birth: 08-11-1927 Date of death: 11-03-2018
Dodd started his career as a ventriloquist - and indeed still uses the Dicky Mint dummy in his act.
However, his success came through his exaggerated on-stage persona - the manic hairstyle, protruding teeth and, of course, trademark tickling stick - combined with a relentless stream of one-liners, peppered with nonsense words like 'tattifilarious', that can - and do - entertain audiences for hours.
He built his reputation as a live performer on the variety stage, and famously logs audience reactions to jokes every night, building up a picture of what plays well where.
His career was boosted with appearances on TV, often just guest roles, but his bizarre appearance would always stick in the mind. He also has a penchant for sickly ballads, as well as his signature tune Happiness, recording several albums of love songs and notching up 19 top 40 hits, including the 1965 chart-topper Tears.
Dodd became embroiled in a tax-dodging case in the Eighties, and was eventually cleared, but the case revealed much about Dodd's eccentric private life, too.
Ken Dodd's widow seeks to protect his catchphrases
Ken Dodd’s widow has applied to trademark his catchphrases and characters.
Lady Anne, pictured with him, has filed papers to protect phrases such as ‘the Diddymen’, ‘discomknockerated’, ‘jam butty mines’, ’tattyfilarious’ and both ‘tickling stick’ and ‘how tickled I am’.
She’s also seeking to register the names of the Diddymen characters such as Dicky Mint, the Hon Nigel Ponsonby-Smallpiece, Michael O’Sweeney (aka Mick the Marmaliser), Wee Hamish McDiddy From Ivercockileeky and Little Evan From the Valley Llantickleechllan
If approved, Lady Anne and her firm, Knotty Ash Productions, would have exclusive rights over the terms, or could license them for a fee. In total, 25 trademarks have been applied for.
She is also applying to trademark the name ‘Diddy’ - which has previously been at the centre of a legal dispute.
In 2006, rapper Sean Combs lost the rights to use his nickname after reaching an out-of-court settlement with London-based music producer Richard Dearlove, who had been using the name since 1992. He had sued Combs for ‘passing off’ – which is designed to avoid confusion when a new brand is set up with a name similar to an existing one.
Lady Anne – who met Sir Ken in the 1970s, before marrying him two days before his death in 2018 in a move that cut inheritance tax bills – told BBC Radio Merseyside her efforts were to ensure ‘Ken's creations don't disappear’.
She also explained that she couldn’t seek a trademark for Knotty Ash, the mythical home of the Diddymen, as it is a real suburb of Liverpool.
Sir Ken was not the first comedian to talk about the Diddymen as that honour goes to Arthur Askey – and it's thought they may have been part of Liverpool folk history before that.
In an interview with Russell Harty in the 1970s, Askey recalled an agent telling him ‘you must drop that Liverpool accent… and you mustn’t talk about Diddy Men or jam butty factories or treacle mines’
‘Of course, Ken Dodd comes along thirty-odd years later and, through radio and television, they know what he’s talking about,’ Askey added. ‘But in those days I was doing missionary work!’
Lady Anne is trustee of the Ken Dodd Charitable Foundation which recently announced a £1.5million donation to National Museums Liverpool to fund a permanent display dedicated to the comedian and a revamp of the Museum of Liverpool theatre, which will become The Ken Dodd Auditorium.
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