Tatty-bye Ken Dodd, a man with laughter in his veins
The Scouse comedian, who died last week, was utterly crackers - and everyone except the taxman loved him, writes Barry Egan
Charlie Chaplin once said that all he needed to "make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl". Ken Dodd didn't need that much to make comedy.
In a speech about Shakespeare's comedy at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2005, Dodd, the Bard of Knotty Ash, said: "It's about men and women and thingy, you know, sex, and kings and queens and politicians and bishops. It's all the same.
"Mind you he wasn't a gag man, William. Me - I'm an eyes and teeth man," he said with a smile.