- Jubilee offer: spend £10 or more on any product sold by Amazon.co.uk on or before June 6 and you can buy The Diamond Jubilee A Classical Celebration Album for just £2.50 Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Ken Dodd: The Biography
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Ken Dodd: The Biography for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Product Description
For half a century Ken Dodd has been discomknockerating audiences in packed venues around the country with his unique brand of madcap humour. Incredibly at 80, he still performs three or four nights a week with his legendary four hour sets. "I do it because that is what I do. I do it because that is what I am" he said when asked why he continues with this punishing schedule. To many he is the last major music hall inspired variety comic. It's been said that Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd and Morecambe and Wise have left him to turn off the lights. But how did this feather duster salesman from Liverpool become one of the greatest comic geniuses of his generation? In this major new biography Stephen Griffin has interviewed friends, colleagues and fellow comedians to reveal who's the Doddy.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Ken Dodd the Biography"? Slightly cheeky title, that, suggesting as it does a
definitive study. Dodd himself offered no cooperation and spoke darkly of "pirates"
who'd written about him against his will in a recently repeated edition of BBC's Arena programme
celebrating his eighty years; Michael Billington's monograph, now several decades
old, was the only book he spoke about with warmth (try your library).
Griffin's book passes the time agreeably enough but his prose doesn't have the
sparkle of a John Fisher (Funny Way to Be a Hero & Tommy Cooper), nor is there the
sense of involvement of a Graham McCann (Morecambe and Wise & Frankie
Howerd)- ie the author doesn't have a compelling enough individual style to
compensate for the lack of direct access to his subject. True, there are some insights
from sympathetic interviewees like Roy Hudd but also a fair amount of pointless
soundbites from celebrities (Anne Widdecombe?!) which don't offer much or are
quoted too briefly to be of use; Bob Monkhouse - not, in my view, a natural comic but
one who undoubtedly understood and appreciated others - is the notable exception
here.
One plus point is that Griffin does offer chapter and verse on the tax trial, which earlier
books obviously couldn't do, but overall there seems little sense of the comedian's
inner life. Dodd spoke in the Arena documentary of writing his autobiography; let's
hope he is spared to do so. Though in fairness to Griffin maybe Monkhouse's
comment that for Dodd "everything offstage is an interval" means that Dodd the person
is of less interest than the "clever, spinning Dervish of a madman that he has invested
with life" when performing.
definitive study. Dodd himself offered no cooperation and spoke darkly of "pirates"
who'd written about him against his will in a recently repeated edition of BBC's Arena programme
celebrating his eighty years; Michael Billington's monograph, now several decades
old, was the only book he spoke about with warmth (try your library).
Griffin's book passes the time agreeably enough but his prose doesn't have the
sparkle of a John Fisher (Funny Way to Be a Hero & Tommy Cooper), nor is there the
sense of involvement of a Graham McCann (Morecambe and Wise & Frankie
Howerd)- ie the author doesn't have a compelling enough individual style to
compensate for the lack of direct access to his subject. True, there are some insights
from sympathetic interviewees like Roy Hudd but also a fair amount of pointless
soundbites from celebrities (Anne Widdecombe?!) which don't offer much or are
quoted too briefly to be of use; Bob Monkhouse - not, in my view, a natural comic but
one who undoubtedly understood and appreciated others - is the notable exception
here.
One plus point is that Griffin does offer chapter and verse on the tax trial, which earlier
books obviously couldn't do, but overall there seems little sense of the comedian's
inner life. Dodd spoke in the Arena documentary of writing his autobiography; let's
hope he is spared to do so. Though in fairness to Griffin maybe Monkhouse's
comment that for Dodd "everything offstage is an interval" means that Dodd the person
is of less interest than the "clever, spinning Dervish of a madman that he has invested
with life" when performing.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found this book so readable I was unable to put it down. It's extremely well researched, including personal interviews as well as press cuttings. I had no difficulty relating the person revealed in the book to the clown I once saw live on the stage.
Anyone looking for a different person than the one who reveals himself in his shows, or is described in this book, is pursuing a chimera. This is Ken Dodd, warts and all. Dodd himself gave up trying to analyse comedy after discovering that comedy is what makes people laugh. Amateur psychologists should do the same.
Dodd bought a house he never lived in because he prefers familiar things.
His was a life for living not for accounting. He never cared for details and he never cared to reveal his private thoughts. It's others, not Dodd himself, who suggested he never married because of parental influence - he never could get used to the idea of forming another family.
He still lives in the house where he was born, the table is still set the way his mother used to set it and the HP bottle is out as it always was. He's still the bloke from Knotty Ash, who still lives in Knotty Ash and will always live in Knotty Ash. No further explanation is required and there's no reason why Ken Dodd should be asked to provide one either.
And who can blame him given the way his private life was stripped away during his trial for tax evasion?. True to form Dodd turned disaster (he did have to pay a lot of back tax) into triumph with a lot of well received Revenue inspired material.
Griffin has got it right. Dodd has kept the old music hall tradition alive with a madcap routine which provides audiences with excellent value for money (I left his live show at 12.40 a.m. when he was still going strong having been there since 7.30.p.m)!!! An excellent read, well worth the money.
Anyone looking for a different person than the one who reveals himself in his shows, or is described in this book, is pursuing a chimera. This is Ken Dodd, warts and all. Dodd himself gave up trying to analyse comedy after discovering that comedy is what makes people laugh. Amateur psychologists should do the same.
Dodd bought a house he never lived in because he prefers familiar things.
His was a life for living not for accounting. He never cared for details and he never cared to reveal his private thoughts. It's others, not Dodd himself, who suggested he never married because of parental influence - he never could get used to the idea of forming another family.
He still lives in the house where he was born, the table is still set the way his mother used to set it and the HP bottle is out as it always was. He's still the bloke from Knotty Ash, who still lives in Knotty Ash and will always live in Knotty Ash. No further explanation is required and there's no reason why Ken Dodd should be asked to provide one either.
And who can blame him given the way his private life was stripped away during his trial for tax evasion?. True to form Dodd turned disaster (he did have to pay a lot of back tax) into triumph with a lot of well received Revenue inspired material.
Griffin has got it right. Dodd has kept the old music hall tradition alive with a madcap routine which provides audiences with excellent value for money (I left his live show at 12.40 a.m. when he was still going strong having been there since 7.30.p.m)!!! An excellent read, well worth the money.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I found this to be a very interesting and informative book and well worth having for any Ken Dodd fan .
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Ken Dodd The Biography
Ken Dodd: The Biography
This book was a gem,as ken dodd put it,How tickled i am.This book is a laugh to the very
last page.GREAT.
This book was a gem,as ken dodd put it,How tickled i am.This book is a laugh to the very
last page.GREAT.
Published 9 days ago by tom
Nutty ash
The book came quickly but I am disappointed at its contents. It makes KD appear to be a very strange person indeed. Read more
Published 18 months ago by DFVanhegan
Solid professional writing - but no special insight
Whatever you think of Ken Dodd or whether you laugh at his jokes you can't say the guy is lazy. From a hard life of rejection as a door-to-door salesman to the hard life of the... Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2008 by Peter H
Ken Dodd - A Biography (not The Biography)
This doesn't tell you much about Ken Dodd that couldn't be mostly gleaned from press cuttings and chatting to one or two people who know him. Read more
Published on 15 Nov 2005
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
