COMEDY legend Ken Dodd, who died aged 90 this week, told one of his most loyal fans that it was his early performances in Barnsley which convinced him he had a career beyond his native Liverpool and Lancashire.
Barnsley author and former teacher Mel Dyke estimates she’s seen about 30 of his shows, and went to see him play at Barnsley’s Theatre Royal, on Wellington Street, in the 1950s when she was a schoolgirl.
“It was his first performance in a theatre outside Lancashire,” said Mel.
“I was in the audience that night. It was a Monday, me and my brother always used to go on a Monday because it was cheaper, it was almost like a dress rehearsal night for the acts coming later in the week.
“Well this young comic came on, and he had us in stitches. He was absolutely hilarious.
“We went back on the Friday night to see him again and paid full price, and I’ve been a huge fan ever since.
“He was an awesome talent, such a clever man, and he really will be missed.”
He’d performed many times in Barnsley in a career spanning 63 years, including at the Civic and at Keresforth Hall.
Ten years ago, Barnsley sculptor Graham Ibbeson made a miniature sculpture of the star as a gift for his 80th birthday, and Mel, who met the star many times, presented it to him on stage at Wakefield’s Theatre Royal.
Graham told the Chronicle this week: “He really was a legend. I just did it for him as a gift for his birthday.
“I’d met him a few times, and it was a couple of years later that I met him again, when he unveiled my statue to Laurel and Hardy in Ulverston.
“He said as he did it ‘it’s nice to unveil sculptures of people that actually look like them’.
“He thanked me for the gift, and he told me he still kept it on his mantelpiece. I don’t know if that’s true or not but it was nice to hear.”
Picture: Alex Durasow, A D Photography.
