Liverpool gets set for Doddy Day laughter during lockdown

Liverpool’s brand new Doddy Day will be moving online after the next lockdown halts stage shows for now

The Happiness Show was the centre piece of the first annual Doddy Day and was due to take place at Liverpool’s Royal Court this Saturday at 2pm. Instead, everybody can go to doddyday.com at that time to see some great new videos full of interviews, performances and jam butty cakes! 

The three Doddy Day video packages are made up of footage from the likes of Harry Hill, Lee Mack, Miriam Margolyes, Nichola McAuliffe, Ricky Tomlinson, Stephanie Cole, Stephen K Amos and Tim Vine who tell us about their special memories of Sir Ken and share some jokes.

There will also be gags from the joke competition finalists and chefs Dave Assall from Liverpool’s Royal Court and James Behan from the Museum of Liverpool going head-to-head in the Jam Butty Cake Bake Off judged by Lady Dodd and Ready, Steady, Cook chef Ellis Barrie. The whole show will be hosted by Les Dennis and Sam Avery from The Comedy Trust.

Sir Ken was a great believer in the health benefits of laughter and The Comedy Trust has been using comedy as a tool to aid health since it was founded in Liverpool in 2002. They will also be running a series of online workshops on the day using comedy to improve wellbeing. Full details of the workshops are at doddyday.com.

Doddy Day has been put together by The Comedy Trust along with National Museums Liverpool, the Ken Dodd Charitable Foundation, Knotty Ash Productions and Liverpool’s Royal Court to create a celebration of one of Liverpool’s most famous sons. Doddy Day takes place the day before what would have been Sir Ken’s 93^rd birthday and there are plans to make it an annual event.

The event has the full support of Lady Dodd, trustee of the Ken Dodd Charitable Foundation who has provided some funding for the day.  

Lady Dodd said:

“I was so thrilled when Doddy Day was announced in March, we couldn’t have predicted what was going to happen, but the show will go on! We want everyone to join in the fun at home and visit the Doddy Day website to watch The Happiness Show online. Ken was always the optimist and believed in the power of humour, it’s never been more important than at this time to bring people together with laughter!”

Sam Avery from the Comedy Trust knows the impact that laughter can have on health and wellbeing:

“Laughter makes us more resilient to life’s challenges, so Doddy Day seems even more important now as we head into a second national lockdown!”

Gillian Miller, Chief Executive of Liverpool’s Royal Court, is looking forward to the celebration:

“While we would have loved to have had a live show on stage here, it wasn’t to be. However, this is a great opportunity to reach thousands more people by making the video available online and we are looking forward to making people laugh all over the World!

The Doddy Day videos will be uploaded on Saturday 7 November 2020 at 2pm. For more details and to watch the video go to www.doddyday.com