Wednesday 28 March 2018 – Liverpool says “tatty-bye” to its son Ken Dodd

Unlike many Liverpool celebrities, Sir Ken Dodd remained true to his roots in the city. He was born in the city, in Knotty Ash, in 1927 and lived in the same house he was born in for his entire life, finally dying there on 12 March aged 90. Just three days earlier he had married his partner of 40 years, Anne Jones. On their marriage, which also took place in their Knotty Ash home in east Liverpool, Anne became Lady Anne Dodd – being entitled to use the title Lady as she was now married to a Knight. Ken Dodd was only knighted last year for his services to comedy and charity. Today Liverpool honoured Sir Ken’s dedication and loyalty to the city by lining a six-mile cortege route from his home in Knotty Ash to Liverpool Cathedral, where another two thousand people crammed inside and hundreds more outside to remember one of Liverpool’s greatest celebrity sons.

Photos: Fans on the route of the cortege and an orchestra plays Ken Dodd’s “Happiness” outside the cathedral, with the conductor using Sir Ken’s trademark multi-coloured tickling stick as a baton.

Sir Ken’s coffin was carried to the cathedral in a horse-drawn hearse, which was a tribute to Sir Ken’s father who delivered coal in the city using a horse-drawn cart. The route of the cortege passed through six miles of the city’s streets on its way to Liverpool Cathedral. People were clapping and throwing flowers at the hearse along its route, a final chance for the people of Liverpool to say “tatty-bye” to perhaps Liverpool’s most-famous comedian and certainly the city’s most loyal comic son. At the cathedral an orchestra greeted his arrival with a medley of his hits and his coffin was carried into the UK’s largest cathedral, watched by two thousand people inside and hundreds more watching on a big screen outside the city’s Anglican cathedral. Among the mourners in the cathedral were fellow Liverpool comedians Ricky Tomlinson, Stan Boardman and Jimmy Tarbuck, comedian Jimmy Cricket, actresses Stephanie Cole and MIriam Margolyes, and TV executive Lord Michael Grade. Other celebrities at the service included actress Claire Sweeney and comedians Roy Chubby Brown, Les Dennis and Tom O’Connor. The mourners were led by Lady Dodd.

Photos: Sir Ken’s coffin drawn by a horse-drawn hearse, and a “diddy man” figure adorns his coffin.

Jimmy Tarbuck, speaking at the funeral service, joked that it was another full house for Doddy. Tarbuck described Sir Ken as “our city’s hero, perhaps our city’s greatest hero,” adding: “I’m pleased for Ken there’s yet another full house. [He] Was he a good comic? No – he was better than that. He was the greatest stage comedian I’ve ever seen in my life. Live on stage, he set a standard which no-one has remotely approached since.” Sir Ken was famous for his long stage performances, often running into the earlier hours as neither he wished to leave the stage or the audience wished the laughter to stop. Some pointed out today that the funeral service at 1 hour 45 minutes was much shorter than his usual performances.

Actress Stephanie Cole, also addressing the service, said that Sir Ken was a “genius” who had “treated everyone equally. He was kind, he was thoughtful, he had a real wealth of knowledge – he was a real polymath. And always with a playful child inside him, never far away, I loved to talk to him about the mechanics of comedy and I learned so much from him.”

Author, producer and friend of Sir Ken, John Fisher, gave an emotional address, saying: “Ken Dodd was, no contest, the complete comedian, our greatest entertainer. But he was more. He was life-enhancing force of nature. He was a fount of charity, kindness and bonhomie, and a loyal friend. We’ll never see the like of Ken Dodd again. Thank you, Sir Ken, tatty-bye.”

Photos: Crowds outside the Liverpool Cathedral, a fitting venue for Sir Ken’s funeral service as he was a committed Christian and loved the Cathedral. He once said that he loved visiting the Cathedral, especially for evensong and in particular because entry was free.

Speaking to The Guardian, “superfan” Jack Preston spoke of his devotion to Doddy. He was carrying his tickle stick, which he said was a Doddy original and which he had paid £60 for on Ebay. Mr Preston had been a Ken Dodd fan since he was three and spoke of how, when he was 13 he had been invited backstage by Ken Dodd who spent an hour talking to him, despite the show finishing well after midnight. Preston, when he seven, said he had nodded off on the front row during one of his marathon performances at the Blackpool Grand, only to be inspired to stay awake when Doddy told him he would bring out his ventriloquist dummy Dicky Mint if he kept his eyes open. His long performances were legendary and he was dubbed the patron saint of taxi drivers as everyone missed the last bus home.

Two other fans were also in attendance today. They were Jan Rennie, 67, and her sister Linda Roberts, 74, who came up from Aylesbury and were armed with the mandatory tickle sticks on which they had attached ribbons with the words “Keep stretching those tickle muscles” written on them. Speaking to The Guardian outside Sir Ken’s Knotty Ash home this morning, Jan Rennie said: “It’s so lovely he remained there. We were talking to a local lady who said he took his car to the local garage and always said hello to everyone.”

After the service, Sir Ken’s coffin was carried out of the Cathedral while the mourners gave him a final standing ovation, waved tickling sticks and sang “Happiness.” It was followed down the aisle by local children dressed as his diddy men. He was then taken by hearse for a private family internment, led of course by his wife Lady Dodd. Speaking to the BBC shortly after his death, Lady Dodd said the support she had received from Sir Ken’s fans had been “unbelievable,” adding: “I couldn’t have imagined it would be as it has been. We’ve had a tremendous amount of flowers.” She said she thought the response was due to the “tremendous empathy” he showed towards “people he knew and people he didn’t know. You look at [the messages] and you know there’s so much love there. He loved his audience and he loved what he did.” Ken Dodd himself once said: “My favourite sound is laughter. It’s a beautiful sound; well worth working for. I’m proud to be a member of the laughter-making profession. I equate laughter with good music – it pleases me as much as Handel’s Messiah.”

Photos: Sir Ken’s coffin leaves the Liverpool Cathedral accompanied by tears, a standing ovations, tickling sticks, singing and the Diddy Men.

Council workers in the city were at work at 4am this morning going around the city centre adding Doddy’s trademark tickling sticks to many of the city’s statues. These included The Beatles statue at the Pier Head, the statue of Prince Albert on St George’s Plateau and the statue of Cilla Black on Matthew Street. This last statue was placed outside The Cavern club where she was once a cloakroom girl and where The Beatles played nearly 300 times following her death. They were even placed in traffic cones outside his home in Knotty Ash and on fences in the city. Ironically, the statue of Ken Dodd which once graced the concourse of Lime Street train station had been removed during renovation of the station, but was temporarily returned as the city said goodbye to Sir Ken.