Ken Dodd

<p>Sir Kenneth Arthur Dodd was born on November 8, 1927, in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, living his entire life in the same 18th-century farmhouse where he was born. Starting as a child ventriloquist and working as a door-to-door salesman, he made his professional music hall debut at Nottingham's Empire Theatre in 1954.</p><p>Dodd became an entertainment phenomenon characterized by his wild frizzy hair, protruding teeth, and his trademark 'Tickle Stick'. In 1965, he achieved legendary status with a record-shattering 42-week sellout residency at the London Palladium. That same year, his recording of the ballad <strong>'Tears'</strong> topped the UK Singles Chart for six weeks, selling over 1.5 million copies—becoming the UK's biggest-selling single of 1965 and the third best-selling British single of the entire 1960s decade, surpassed only by The Beatles.</p><p>Celebrated for marathon comedy shows that regularly lasted past midnight, Dodd entered the Guinness Book of Records for telling 1,500 jokes in three and a half hours. He created the whimsical folklore of the <em>Diddymen</em> working the fictional 'Jam Butty Mines' of Knotty Ash. Knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours by Prince William for services to entertainment and charity, Dodd passed away in 2018 at age ninety, celebrated as the undisputed 'Squire of Knotty Ash' and Britain's last great variety comic.</p>