Ken Dodd

If you are of a certain age and are feeling bored in the no-man's-land between Christmas and New Year, watch this 1994 museum piece, scrutinise the audience and play Spot the Face. You can even tune out the remorseless Ken Dodd, who never seems to draw breath as he makes gags about Scunthorpe, Nigel Mansell and Scotsmen in kilts (this is a different time, a generation in comedy terms) as you scour the celebrity faces. Look, it's Diddy David Hamilton! Alf Roberts from Coronation Street! And Kevin Whately looking about 19!

Ken Dodd: Still tickling nation's funny bone

Ken Dodd has been making people laugh for almost 60 years and with his legendary Happiness tour back in Yorkshire he talks to The Yorkshire Post.

Ken Dodd criticises Punch and Judy reboot

Comedian Ken Dodd says the use of contemporary figures such as Boris Johnson, Simon Cowell and Prince Harry in a new version of Punch and Judy is "awful".

The return of the series in which the interviewee becomes the interviewer in the following week's programme opens with the writer, actor and comedian Jeremy Front asking questions of the writer, actor and comedian Rebecca Fron. Fans of the recent and superb Incredible Women series will know that the brother and sister have already proven their comedy worth as a Radio 4 double act, but this takes it to a more intimate level with discussions about their shared memories. Jeremy soon realised that his younger sister was ripe for ribbing and began years of mental torture involving a pixie and Ken Dodd. He's heard all of Rebecca's anecdotes before, but we haven't, so he's kind enough to encourage her to let rip. The Mike Leigh audition story is truly hilarious.

Ken Dodd: I've lasted 60 years in comedy

Ken Dodd has been performing for nearly 60 years, and despite being in his 80s shows no sign of slowing down.

A week in radio: Ken Dodd

Night Waves is always good, and often excellent. This week's stand-out programme was Matthew Sweet's interview with Ken Dodd. Yes, Ken Dodd. On Radio 3.

Ken Dodd is tickled to meet the Queen

The Queen visited Merseyside yesterday and had an audience with the uncrowned king of comedy, Ken Dodd.

In pictures: Blackpool Comedy Carpet

A huge "comedy carpet" is being unveiled on Blackpool seafront by funnyman Ken Dodd. The concrete and granite installation immortalises catchphrases and jokes by 850 comedians and writers.

BBC producers are a wily bunch. When Eartha Kitt was at the height of her international career it would have been impossible to persuade her to show up at an old music hall theatre in Leeds for a one-song appearance. But Barney Colehan, producer of BBC TV's The Good Old Days for all of its 30-year history, pulled off this coup by telling her that he had arranged for her to use the dressing room that Charlie Chaplin had occupied at the start of his career.

The fact that there was no way of knowing which of the many dressing rooms Chaplin might have used has programme host Paul Merton howling with laughter, one of many occasions when he cracks up over the course of his look at the history of the City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds. It's Britain's oldest music hall and has just reopened after a major refurbishment.

Merton is joined in this celebration of variety shows by Barry Cryer, Roy Hudd and Ken Dodd. The latter was the headline act at the gala reopening of the Varieties on 18 September 2011. Mr Cryer, on the other hand, recalls his first appearance at the venue in the 1950s, when music hall was out of favour and he shared the stage with ladies performing acts entitled "Fun and Dames" and "See the Nipples and Die!" There's no such roll call these days and, with the success of Britain's Got Talent, Merton hopes for a resurgence of variety shows.

Between 1953 and 1983, the Leeds City Varieties music hall was known around the country as the home of the BBC's Victorian-style entertainment show The Good Old Days. In this enjoyably droll and observational tour through the BBC archives, Paul Merton investigates the history of the venue - which has recently undergone a multi-million pound refurbishment - and wonders if the music hall tradition is due a comeback after years in the wilderness. He's aided in this task by a handful of evocative clips from the TV show as well as interviews with three of the oldest hands in the business: Ken Dodd, Barry Cryer and Roy Hudd.