Rare insight into comic Ken Dodd's private world

Extracts from notebooks belonging to Sir Ken Dodd are to be broadcast for the first time in a new documentary about one of Britain's greatest comics.

Ken Dodd: A Legacy of Happiness gives audiences a glimpse into the his seven-decade career, and a rare insight into his private life before he died in 2018.

He gave instructions to his wife, Lady Anne Dodd, that after he died she should burn hundreds of his private notebooks, but she decided they were too important to destroy.

Lady Dodd said in one extract the Liverpool legend - who died in 2018 - talked about how he loved being Ken Dodd, and the energy laughter gave him.

"One day he wrote, 'I love entertaining, I love the thrill of the audience, I love the power I get, the energy, the response and when they laugh and the feeling'...and right at the end he says, 'I love being Ken Dodd'."

The BBC documentary, which took five years to make, also used home movies.

Sir Ian McKellen and comedian Lee Mack contributed to the film.

Sir Ian McKellen said: "He told me he marked the jokes and then at the end of each performance, removed the two that had got the fewest number of laughs, and put in two new ones."

Comedian Lee Mack said Sir Ken put his genius into creating a "fool" character.

"If he put his genius into maths or classical music, he would be more easily recognised as extremely intelligent.

"But because you put it into looking like a fool people, sort of believed it."

Ken Dodd: A Legacy of Happiness appears on BBC Two on 23 March at 21:00 GMT.

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