Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE is a veteran English comedian and singer songwriter, famous for selling over 100 million records, his buck teeth, frizzy hair, feather duster (or "tickling stick"), and his catchphrases, often playing on the 'tickled' motif, ex: "How tickled I am!".

Ken Dodd was born on the 8 November 1927 in Knotty Ash Liverpool, son of a coal merchant, Arthur Dodd and wife Sarah Dodd. He went to the Knotty Ash School, and sang in the local church choir of St Johns Church, Knotty Ash. At the age of seven, he was dared by his school friends to ride his bike with his eyes shut... and he did, for about ten feet and the bicycle hit the curb. Ken went flying open-mouthed onto the tarmac, resulting in his famous teeth of today.

He then attended Holt High, a Grammar School in Childwall, but left at age fourteen to work for his father. Around this time he became interested in showbusiness after seeing an advert in a comic entitled; "Fool Your Teachers, Amaze Your Friends - Send 6d in Stamps and Become a Ventriloquist!" and sending off for the book.

Not long after, his father bought him a ventriloquist's dummy and Ken called it Charlie Brown. He started entertaining at the local orphanage, then at various other local community functions.

He got his big break at age twenty-six when, in September 1954, when he made his professional showbusiness début at the now-demolished Nottingham Empire. A nervous young man, he sat in a local Milk Bar for most of the afternoon going over and over his lines before going to the theatre.

Although he cannot remember much of the actual act of that night, he did recall, "Well at least they didn't boo me off"; but there was not much fear of that, as Dodd's act went from strength to strength, eventually topping the bill at Blackpool in 1958.