The men who tickled me...
Dodd hails his comedy heroes
Ken Dood has paid tribute to four great Liverpool comedians, as part of the City’s Capital of Culture celebrations.The 80-year-old comic last night staged the first of two live shows, entitled, A Celebration of Liverpool Laughter Makers.
In it, he honoured ‘the four gagfathers of comedy’ Arthur Askey, Ted Ray, Robb Wilton, and Tommy Handley, and played archive footage of them in their heyday.
He said Askey, who died in 1982, was a ‘wonderful man, and of all the comedians over the years, he was the funniest man offstage’.
Ted Ray was ‘probably one of the quickest brains in showbusiness’; Tommy Handley, famous for the radio show ITMA (It’s That Man Again), provided ‘radio comedy at its best’; while sketch actor Wilton had a ‘mastery of drollery and timing’.
Dodd also spoke about the Liverpudlian sense of humour and claimed that people from the city have an extra ‘laughter gene’.
Published: 2 Apr 2008
