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Ken Dodd in his more youthful days

HE TURNED 80 in November; he was rushed into hospital for major surgery in December. But it will take more than old age or health scares to drag comedy legend Ken Dodd away from the showbiz life he adores.

Following his surgery shock, doctors told him to rest up.

Two weeks later he was back on his seemingly never-ending tour of the UK, which rolls into Salisbury tonight followed by Bournemouth Pavilion tomorrow and Sunday.

And to top it all, Doddy is working as a hands-on ambassador for his home city of Liverpool as it celebrates being Europes Capital of Culture 2008.

When I catch up with him, he seems on top of the world.

His hospital drama has been reduced, in Doddyspeak, to my little adventure, a source of new comedy material.

I now have a new part to my act, talking about my operation and all my adventures in theatre! he exclaims gleefully.

Perhaps his glee reflects relief that the drama was all down to nothing worse than a hernia.

Id been having abdominal pain for about a month before, he admits. I put it down to eating too many meat pies on the motorway.

But the pain got so great I went to the GP and he made all sorts of ominous noises.

He wanted to send me straight to hospital, but I said I had two sellout shows of 4,000 people at the Philharmonic Hall to do first.

Dosed up on painkillers, he ensured the show did go on, but hours after coming off stage, he was admitted to the Royal Liverpool Hospital, where they insisted on operating right away.

It was a strangulated hernia, he says. In 50-odd years in showbusiness, lots of people have tried to strangle me C but not like this! Like all operations, it scares the life out of you.

When you go into hospital your imagination runs riot. I thought quite a lot, and I even thought, Oh my dear, is this it? The doctor did a scan of my whole body, and he said theres something there C it could be a lost wallet!

He continued to joke with the nurses as he was wheeled into the operating theatre to be given a general anaesthetic.

He recalls he was telling them a joke and, for the first time in my life, didnt finish it.

All this happened after what he calls a very good Christmas, notable for an Arena documentary on Christmas Eve that followed him on tour.

This was followed by the first of his An Audience With shows and then an old episode of Blankety-Blank on which he had appeared with Les Dawson in 1984.

Such TV exposure is rare for Doddy these days.

The Arena programme was even more unusual as he likes to keep his private life private, seldom giving interviews.

He laughs: They tried to dig deep C asking questions like, Do you wear socks in bed?, so there was a lot of fencing going on. But actually I do wear socks in bed.

He says hell do more TV later this year. TV is very good. Since Christmas its been like a new audience now coming out to the shows.

You can tell theyre new by the sharp increase in programme sales C the regulars have already got them. Television is very thrilling and exciting C and careerenhancing C but its also very stressful.

Every night is opening night. You cant open and hope you get it right in the next two or three shows.

You also want to be a welcome guest in peoples homes.

As one of the very few people C along with royalty C still living in the same house in which they were born, Ken Dodd is a true son of Liverpool and fiercely proud of it.

On April 1 and 2, as his personal gift to mark the citys status as Capital of Culture, he will present two free shows at St Georges Hall, with proceeds going to charitty These shows have been a labour of love: his tribute to the Liverpool laughter-makers of the past century, particularly the fab four he calls the citys godfathers of comedy C Arthur Askey, Ted Ray, Tommy Handley and Robb Wilton. All were major influences.

There is no one better read on comedy than Doddy, whose Knotty Ash home is piled with books on it.

One of his remaining ambitions is to set up a museum of comedy, but that is one project that will have to wait. Arsonists destroyed the big Victorian house in Knotty Ash he had in mind for it.

But in the light of the past year, thats unlikely to stop him.

ö Ken Dodd plays City Hall in Salisbury tonight and Bournemouths Pavilion Theatre tomorrow night and Sunday. Box office: 01722 434 434 (Salisbury) or 0870 111 3000 (Bournemouth).

3:00pm Friday 21st March 2008

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	Entertainments editor Lorelei Reddin Tel:023 8042 4877 Email: lorelei.reddin@soton-echo.co.uk
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