Ken Dodd - Comedian and Singer Quiz

Answer: Knotty Ash

Knotty Ash is a pleasant, leafy suburb of Liverpool, although the black pudding plantations and jam butty mines are all figments of Ken's imagination. The other answers are all suburbs of Liverpool.

Answer: Riding his cycle with his eyes closed as a dare.

He accepted a dare at age 7 and, unsurprisingly, crashed. He suffered multiple facial injuries, leaving him with the protuding teeth which later became such an integral part of his stage persona. Ever since then he took great care of the buck teeth, even insuring them!

Answer: Ventriloquist

He appeared in all of those roles, although at age 26 he appeared as a ventriloquist with a dummy named "Charlie Brown" bought for him by his father. His first stage performance was at the Nottingham Empire, which was notorious for giving new acts a difficult time. Dodd later remarked "At least they didn't boo me!"

Answer: Professor Yaffle Chuckabutty

The surreal name of Professor Yaffle Chuckabutty ("operatic tenor and sausage knotter"), showed the early development of his fantasy humour. Mick the Marmeliser was one of his invented characters, the Diddy Men (Diddy meaning small in the Liverpool patois). Although he occasionally used ventriloquism in his act in later years, the stage name gradually disappeared.

Answer: Tax evasion

After a 3 week trial, he was acquitted. During the trial, it was revealed that he had over £325,000, in cash, hidden at home as well as over 20 bank accounts in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. After the trial he joked that "when income tax was introduced it was 2% - I thought it still was!"

Answer: "Nice to see you, to see you, nice!"

The "nice to see you" quote is from another great Knight of British entertainment, Sir Bruce Forsyth. Many of Ken's routines contained weird and wonderful words of his own invention - 'discumknockerated' (disoriented and confused) is how he described himself on being knighted. "What a beautiful day for" was the lead in to many surreal one liner jokes ("what a beautiful day for pouring ice cubes down the weatherman's trousers and saying 'how's that for a cold front?'") He usually started his performances with "How tickled I am to be here in Glasgow" (or wherever he was appearing)

Answer: They always overran.

If you went to one of his one man shows, you needed to be prepared for hour after hour of laughter. His 8 p.m. shows regularly lasted well beyond midnight. He would joke "I gather some of you have taxis booked for midnight - forget that, but I believe they do a great breakfast here".

In true Ken Dodd fashion, even his funeral overran! (A local joke at the time said "The funeral will be held on Wednesday, Thursday and may finish around Friday lunchtime")

Answer: Happiness

The Bill Anderson song "Happiness" topped the charts in 1964. At one point in the 1960s Dodd was rivalling The Beatles as the biggest selling recording artist. Bill Anderson had been a prolific songwriter and country music singer, and recorded "Happiness" himself, although Bill's style was to speak, rather than sing, many of the lyrics.

Answer: Trying to burn his house down

The fire caused £11000 of damage to the ground floor of the house. Tagg pleaded guilty to arson and harrassment at Preston Crown Court, and was sentenced to indefinite detention under the Mental Health Act. She had taken to always securing the centre seat of the front row at every performance, wearing a vivid green dress, and once pushed a dead rat through his letterbox.

Answer: It was as a tribute to his coal merchant father.

The funeral, on 28 March 2018, went the six miles from his home in Knotty Ash to Liverpool Cathedral. His father, who had encouraged his entertainment career, had been a coal merchant and had delivered the fuel from a horse drawn wagon.

Part of his costuming was a large brightly coloured feather duster, which he always called his "tickling stick". On the day of his funeral hundreds of tickling sticks appeared across Liverpool with many statues suddenly brandishing one.