A master of comedy is far from taxing as jokes go on and on

I tagged along to see Ken Dodd at Gawsworth Hall this week.  I love the venue and was interested to see how Tim Richards, Gawsworth’s avuncular owner, would cope with an entertainer I was once forced to interview while he fried a pan of chips.

"Pinning Doddy down," I advised Richards "is like holding on to a bar of soap in the bath."

"I’ve given Mr Dodd an ultimatum, (oh, how I laughed). "I shall be turning the lights off at 11-30pm," Tim assured me.

He wasn’t looking quite so self-assured pacing up and down beside the stage at 11-45pm when Doddy announced: "You’re going to love the second half."

Mr Dodd held the stage for almost five hours firing off joke after joke (‘How do you get a fat girl into bed? Piece of cake’) until his audience keeled over in submission.

I loved his take on the Inland Revenue (‘I invented self-assessment.’) When he lost his place and looked to the band for a prompt he japed: "I’ve had amnesia as long as I can remember."

Tapping his earpiece Doddy announced: "I’ve just heard we have made it into the Guinness Book of Records. There are now hundreds of babysitters standing on Cheshire doorsteps shouting: "Where the hell are they?"

It’s not often you get to enjoy the company of a true comedy genius. Go and see him while you still can.

(PS. Note for Her Maj. Can we have a knighthood here please?).