British Comedy Guide
Ken Dodd
Ken Dodd's Greatest Moments

Ken Dodd's Greatest Moments

  • TV documentary
  • Channel 5
  • 2022
  • 1 episode

A two-hour documentary looking at the work of Ken Dodd. Also features Roger McGough, Ricky Tomlinson, David Morrissey, John Martin, David Hamilton and more.

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Key details

Genre
Documentary
Broadcast
2022
Channel
Channel 5
Episodes
1
Features
Roger McGough, Ricky Tomlinson, David Morrissey, John Martin, David Hamilton, Stephanie Cole, Andre Vincent, Jodie Prenger and more
Producers
Chris Hill, John Quinn and Julia Hunter
Company

This heartfelt, two-hour celebration pays tribute to one of the most distinctive and adored British comedians of all time. Equipped with his trademark set of buck teeth and tickling stick, Ken Dodd was a man who simply lived to make people laugh.

He was embraced by the emerging television age, while always keeping the old-school comedy of the music hall alive. He was most in his element bounding onto the stage at smaller theatres - not the arenas he could so easily have filled - where he became the Scouse Bruce Springsteen of live comedy, often putting on intimate one-man shows lasting up to five hours.

Proving there was no end to his talents, he also starred in an episode of Doctor Who, and played Malvolio in a televised adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Through his amazing routines, interviews and one-liners, the documentary examines the career of this genuine student of comedy, who was also a highly successful recording artist. He even had the third best-selling single of the 1960s and was big muckers with The Beatles. It explores Ken's life-long love affair with his home town of Liverpool - in particular his Knotty Ash home patch - where he conceived the fanciful 'jam-butty mines', where his Diddymen creations 'worked'.

The show also celebrates his 1965 residency at the London Palladium, where he had a record-breaking 42-week run. See personal highlights, such as the much-deserved statue of Ken (with tickling stick) unveiled in 2009, which proudly stands at Liverpool's Lime Street Station. And celebrate the longoverdue knighthood he received in 2017.

A large cast of friends, colleagues and fans from down the years give their personal insights, including David Hamilton, Scouse poet Roger McGough, and genuine super-fans and fellow Scousers Ricky Tomlinson and David Morrissey.

Additional details

Also known as
  • Ken Dodd: 30 Funniest Moments (Billed title)
Production
Studio
Camera set-up
Single camera
Picture
Colour

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Saturday 13th August 2022 at 8pm on Channel 5
Episode length
120 minutes

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