It’s sad to hear the news of the death of the wonderful Sir Ken Dodd of Knotty Ash, Liverpool, aged 90.

Here’s a survey of some of his local connections. In the 1950s he was heard in every home in Stoke, as a popular national radio entertainer. By the mid 1960s his fame had grown enormously, on the stage and in the pop charts, and he was visiting the city regularly to play at the Mr Smith club. The growing spread of TV led to Ken once again becoming a fixture in local living-rooms. But he kept touring widely, and in a December 2017 Sentinel interview he recalled that he had often played Jollees cabaret in Longton during the 1970s.

In the 1980s his favoured local venue when touring was the Theatre Royal, Hanley, where he was patron of the Trust. William A. Neale’s book Old Theatres in the Potteries has details on this. The Royal’s Mecca bingo operation had closed in the early 1980s, and Ken Dodd had agreed to be patron of the Theatre Royal Trust. The Trust hoped to take over the building and restore it to a working theatre. The theatre was thus re-opened for shows in time for Christmas 1982, when the pantomime Babes in the Wood made a huge profit. The theatre later went on to great financial success in the mid 1980s with a very long run of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

In November 1997, Ken Dodd formally opened a re-vamped Theatre Royal, Hanley. The Theatre had just had £1 million of private cash spent on its extensive refurbishment, a new exterior coat of blue paint, and had been renamed ‘The Royal’. He returned soon after to play the venue with his show.

As everyone knows, he continued to tour his four-hour variety and comedy show into his old age, to packed houses. He must surely have visited more theatre dressing rooms in the British Isles than any other popular entertainer in history. And as such there must surely be numerous records of his visits to the Potteries and nearby venues such as the Buxton Opera House, in the various theatrical and newspaper archives. But doubtless we’ll soon get a “Ken Dodd in the Potteries” special supplement in The Sentinel, including many fond memories from audience members.

He was performing in Hanley only a few months ago with his The Happiness Show “Sir Ken Dodd brings four-and-a-half hour Happiness Show to Victoria Hall”, when he had a new set of local jokes at the ready.

One hopes he won’t be forgotten, and that his video recordings will continue to be enjoyed.

Book sources:

William A. Neale, Old Theatres in the Potteries.

Chris Wright, One Way Or Another: My Life in Music, Sport & Entertainment.

See also: Ken Dodd: The Biography (2007).