The Real Ken Dodd: The Man I Loved

03 May 2025

Shakespeare North Playhouse

Join Shakespeare North for an exclusive screening of the star-studded exclusive documentary film “The Real Ken Dodd: The Man I Loved”!

Produced over four years with full access from Ken’s widow Lady Dodd, the film takes an in-depth look into Doddy’s private world, exploring the many secrets of his comic talent, revealing never-before-seen home-videos, stage performances and extracts from some of the thousands of Ken’s diary notebooks which he’d asked his wife to burn after his death.

Wrestling with her conscience for quite some time, Lady Dodd finally agreed with entertainment historians, museum curators and many of Ken’s admirers like Stephanie Cole, Les Dennis, Harry Hill, Lee Mack, Miriam Margolyes, Paul O’Grady, Johnny Vegas, and Sir Ian McKellen to preserve Doddy’s notebooks for posterity.

These stars explore their passion and memories of Ken in this candid, insightful film which takes you backstage behind the curtain to reveal a far more intriguing man than the public or even his wife ever realised.

Narrated by Miriam Margolyes, a long-standing fan and friend who got her first big break working with Doddy, the fly-on-the-wall cameras follow Anne as she wrestles to preserve Ken’s enormous comic and musical legacy.

Along the way, watch as Dodd’s legacy helps create our wonderful Playhouse, the Sir Ken Dodd Performance Garden, and ensures that Ken has become the first comic to have a national museum exhibition celebrating his 70 years bringing “Happiness” to audiences across Britain.

Full of his greatest comic performances, the film lifts the veil on the secrets of the Squire of Knotty Ash and is a must-see for all Doddy fans!