Sir Ken Dodd: Tickling sticks and tears for Doddy

It was tears amid the tickling sticks as Liverpudlians trooped to the lifelong home of Sir Ken Dodd in Knotty Ash, the city suburb which he turned into a comic creation.

Flowers and tickling sticks were laid outside the simple house and many people were saying the same thing: "He always had time for you and he never left us."

Norah Button, who had worked with Sir Ken since the late 1950s, dropped by to post a card to his widow, Lady Anne, and recalled the last time she worked with him in December.

Mrs Button, who choreographed his Diddymen, said: "He stayed on stage until ten minutes to midnight.

"He wasn't well then, but he kept going.

"I am sad. He put on such a show when he left hospital. He always said he would die on stage."

Reverend Julia Jesson, the vicar of the local St John's church - a tickling stick's throw away from Sir Ken's house - said when she moved to the post just under a year ago, her former parishioners were very amused when they found who one of her flock would be.

"When I announced I was going to Knotty Ash the whole church burst out laughing," she said.

"Everyone knew about Knotty Ash thanks to Ken. People are proud that he never left the area.

"Ken had been a choirboy at this church and his wife Anne plays the organ here."

As a dustbin lorry tooted its horn in tribute outside the house, Kim Little laid a bouquet and said: "They should have named the airport after him, he did a lot for the city and he stayed here with us."

Cheryl Taylor, 54, left tulips and a rose outside the house and said: "The rose is off my mum, she's 90 this year, so she's grown up with him.

"He put Knotty Ash on the map, just a real nice guy."

As people huddled in the rain, Sir Ken's nephew John Lewis came out offering cups of tea before the comedian's widow Lady Anne appeared to deliver a heartfelt tribute to her "most wonderful husband".

But as people started to recall the laughter Sir Ken brought to their lives and said their own "Tatty bye" to Doddy, one floral tribute summed up the community's reaction.

"To one in a million - a true comedy legend. Loved by all."