Ken Dodd: still happy at 78

More than 50 years after his debut, the Squire of Knotty Ash plays 120 shows a year, each lasting five hours. He tells Michael Henderson what comedy is — and quotes Aristotle

There are certain goals in life that one might accomplish, given the time and the will: climbing the Matterhorn, say, or sitting through the Ring cycle in a week (both need a head for heights). There are other things one might do in dreams, like scoring a century at Lord’s. But one thing every person sound of mind and body can and should do before they die is catch Ken Dodd, the once-and-forever king of comedy, working his magic on stage.

This month, as always in October, he’s in Blackpool. Just as the ravens always return to the Tower, Doddy can always be found by the Fylde coast at this time of year, bringing happiness to a town that needs it more than most. For the next four Sundays he will fill the Grand Theatre with laughter until they fetch the shepherd’s crook and turn on the house lights. Even then, audiences are not safe. ‘I know where you all live,’ he tells them. ‘I’ll follow you home, and shout jokes through your letterbox!’

The ‘Happiness Tour’, he calls it, and it will only end when they put him in a box. ‘Happiness,’ he says, getting philosophical, ‘and pleasure are very different things. Pleasure is fleeting, whereas true happiness comes from contentment. In life, in all our lives, there must be comedy, but inevitably there must also be tragedy. For me happiness is hearing the sound of laughter, the most beautiful sound in the world.’

In that case, he must be the happiest man who ever lived. Since he made his debut at the Empire Theatre, Nottingham, in 1954, Dodd has been convincing people that so long as he is on stage, life is a boon.