'I suffer from acute kleptomania. But when it gets bad, I take something for it.' Ken Dodd was a legend of British comedy. He launched his career in 1954, adopted his trademark 'tickling stick' two years later and went on to enjoy a sixty-year career as the nation's jester. Dodd's act was frenzied and zany, exploiting his saucer-eyed, buck-toothed appearance and deploying a repertoire of one-liners, whimsical and verbal inventions and liberal doses of saucy – but never dirty – jokes. Louis Barfe charts Dodd's life and extraordinarily long career, revealing him to be the last of the great variety acts – and a comic phenomenon who delighted his audiences across seven decades. Reviews for Happiness and Tears: 'The definitive account' The Times. 'An industriously thorough, entertaining biography' The Spectator. 'Sure to delight Dodd's many admirers' TLS. 'Fascinatingly odd' Daily Express. 'An absolute joy' Choice.
| ISBN: | 9781788549547 |
| Publication date: | 6th August 2020 |
| Author: | Louis Barfe |
| Publisher: | Apollo an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 408 pages |
| Genres: |
Biography: arts and entertainment Comedy and stand-up |