Lucy Kay

January 2015

ON the first night of the UK tour, Lucy Kay plunged down a flight of stairs on stage. Fortunately, this was during the rehearsal. And fortunately, thanks to what she calls “Christmas padding”, she wasn’t hurt.

“I did a Beyoncé. I walked down the top few steps, tripped on my dress and fell all the way to the bottom,” laughs the 25-year-old, who is on a tour with Britain’s Got Talent winners Collabro.

“Although I did carry on singing.”

She adds: “Christmas was good to me so I kind of fell on my flab.”

It went to plan in the concert... because she changed to singing after she’d descended the stairs.

“I can’t multi-task, apparently,” giggles the soprano, who is singing highlights from her debut album, Fantasia, which reached No. 18 in the UK chart and topped the Classical chart.

The tour opened in Carlisle on Monday.

“I got a standing ovation,” she says, sounding surprised, despite experiencing the same from the Britain’s Got Talent judges on last year’s show.

“I wasn’t expecting it because it’s Collabro’s tour and they’re not there to see my warbly opera,” says Lucy, a former Cantamus choirgirl who grew up in Sutton-in-Ashefield and Kirkby-in-Ashfield, where her mum still lives.

Since the show, on which millions watched her come second to the theatrical boy band, she has performed for celebrities like Elton John, Kate Moss and Samuel L Jackson, as well as royalty.

The tour, which comes to the Royal Concert Hall tonight, sees her sings two arias in the first half, another two after the break, then join “the boys” for a duet.

Exchanging the spotlight numerous times is not the usual structure for a concert but Lucy isn’t billed as the support act (that’s Philippa Hanna), rather a special guest.

“Some people have asked what time I’m on stage because they want to watch me then leave but it’s not like that,” she laughs.

Apart from touring the Far East with Cantamus while a schoolgirl, this is her first proper tour.

It’s a long time to be on the road, so what will she do during her downtime?

“I like to chat. And eat. The chef on the tour is amazing. I’ve been told off so many times because I keep going back for seconds.

“The sweet stuff is so nice. I’ve got a bit of a pouch going on, which isn’t ideal when you’re wearing a tight dress.”

Her essential items (apart from a knife and fork), are “girly things”.

She says: “My make-up, dresses, hair curlers, my phone is my bloodline.... and my iPod, with lots of heavy metal music on it. I was listening to a bit of Killswitch Engage in the gym this morning.”

The metal fan, whose first concerts were at Rock City, dreams of playing Download Festival. Or even just going would be nice, but commitments don’t allow her to make such plans. Her family will be at the show tonight; mum, dad, nan and sister. As well as her boyfriend, David.

“He’s my tour manager. I don’t think he could cope without me for seven weeks,” she laughs.

Lucy was back in Kirkby-in-Ashfield for two weeks at Christmas.

“The furthest I went was Mansfield. I went shopping but I didn’t go partying.”

Was she recognised?

“People tend to stare, as if they’re wondering ‘is that her?’ Very rarely does anyone approach me. But then they’ll ask me on Facebook ‘was that you?’ So I spent a lot of my time in the café at Asda in Mansfield being stared at.”


Lucy Kay joins Collabro at the Royal Concert Hall on Friday, January 30, starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are £19.50 to £38.50, from the venue, call 0115 989 5555 or go to trch.co.uk.

Lucy Kay

December 2014

Since coming second on Britain’s Got Talent, Nottinghamshire raised classical singer Lucy Kay has had a Top 20 album, performed for royalty, hobnobbed at celebrity parties, returned to Hong Kong where she performed with Cantamus and reunited with her dad. But what the 25-year-old heavy metal fan wants to do is rock out at the Download Festival, she tells Simon Wilson

SINGING in front of millions of people on TV every Saturday night can prepare you for most things but Lucy Kay admits the nerves were active when she was faced by a table of royalty and celebrities watching her perform at Windsor Castle.
It was a charity event to mark the Duchess of York’s 55th birthday and Lucy, who grew in Nottinghamshire, was a guest singer.
“Kate Moss, Elton John, Naomi Campbell and the Duke and Duchess were on the head table watching me,” says the 25-year-old.
“It was insane. I’d been to the champagne reception and sat down for dinner but I couldn’t eat. It was nerves; I was worried a out my voice. I was so paranoid that I wouldn’t be able to sing. My voice in the soundcheck was hardly there so all I did all day was have honey and hot water, because that’s really good for the throat.
“I sat down for the dinner but I had to excuse myself because I knew that if I talked I wouldn’t be able to sing. And it was quite hot and stuffy in the room. So I went back to the dressing room.
“I was gutted because I love my food. I did get to look around the Castle and saw the Queen’s throne in this grand meeting room. Everything’s gold.”
Come show time she delivered Nessun Dorma.
“The Duchess knew I was ill and she was shouting ‘come on Lucy!’. And I got a standing ovation, which was amazing.”
The opera classic from Puccini's Turandot was one of the songs Lucy performed on Britain’s Got Talent earlier this year, where she came runner up to Collabro.
She will be their special guest on a tour that comes to Nottingham in January - a homecoming for the soprano who grew up in Kirby-in-Ashfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield.
“I was back there recently for my mum’s 60th birthday party and stayed for a few days, which was nice,” says Lucy, moved to Glasgow aged 18 to study music.
“Although I was ill for the entire time,” she laughs.
And you passed on your germs to the rest of your family?
“Well, I love to share.”
Lucy was born in Leicestershire but moved to Nottinghamshire with her mum and older sister when her parents split up. He eldest sister and brother stayed in Leicestershire as did her dad.
She would see her dad once a year at Christmas but they are in touch more now - but not because of her success, she insists.
“He always came to the Christmas Cantamus concert,” she says of the Mansfield based girls choir that she joined while at school.
It was her escape from the bullying she endured at school, something she spoke about on Britain’s Got Talent.
“It was at my grandad’s funeral two years ago, before the show, that we re-connected,” she says.
“He loved his dad a lot and his passing made him realise how important family is. It wasn’t a case of him coming out of the blue because of Britain’s Got Talent.
“ We speak a lot now. We’ve been making up for lost time. At a time that I really needed him, he wasn’t there; that was the hardest thing but he knows that.”
After Britain’s Got Talent, her debut album Fantasia reached No. 18 and topped the classical chart.
“I beat Maria Callas to No.1,” she says of the opera legend.
“Her music is timeless; she’ll be around forever. And I never imagined that I’d be above her on the chart. Sorry Maria.
“And to reach the Top 20 on the main chart, beating people like Paloma Faith... is weird. I never thought in a million years I’d do that.”
She’s also performed at a charity event for Hollywood actor Samuel L Jackson, appeared on everything from Sky News to QVC, and met Keith Lemon. She fancies Keith Lemon.
“How can you not?,” she laughs.
“Seriously, I really like funny guys. I think he’s hilarious on Celebrity Juice.”
So they might have a face like a bag of spanners, but as long as they are funny...?
“Yes. My boyfriend has said to me ‘you like really fancy weird looking guys and you’re going out with me...’” I’ve assured him that he’s got both looks and personality.”
Her chief ambition now is to play the Download Festival, the annual rock weekender at Donington Park.
“I got into heavy metal when I was 16. I saw Fightstar at Rock City because my friend was really into them. Then I was introduced to Pantera, Metallica, Deftones and Killswitch Engage.”
Lucy, who recently returned from Hong Kong and Dubai, knows that metal giants Slipknot are due to play the Capital FM Arena in January but she can’t go because she’s on her own tour.
“All of my friends are going. That’s a downside to this job, you have to be prepared to miss things.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Download but I never could because of Cantamus. And now I can’t because I don’t know what my schedule will be like.”
Maybe you could play it?
She laughs: “I could! I’d do opera interpretations of rock songs. And call it rockera.”

Lucy Kay will join Collabro at the Royal Concert Hall on January 30. Tickets are £19.50 to £38.50, from the venue. Call 0115 989 5555 or go to trch.co.uk.

Prime Minister's visit to Nottingham Post

June 2014

Britain's Got Talent 2014: Lucy Kay

June 2014

WHEN her parents split up, four-year-old Lucy Kay moved from Leicestershire to Sutton-in-Ashfield with her mum.
“I don’t quite know why she chose Sutton,” says Lucy, 25, who now lives in Glasgow.
“She met my stepdad on holiday and he lived in Derby but she didn’t want to live in Derby. I suppose it was closer to him and was like a fresh start for us.”
For Lucy it was the beginning of years of abuse, both verbal and physical, at the hands of school bullies.
“It was a tough time,” she says.
“People had already made friends and families knew each other so we were very much on our own until my stepdad moved in.”
Even then she didn’t mix with other children from the neighbourhood or school. And that’s when the bullying started. Not because of the way she look but because she loved classical music.
“Singing was the main thing that people didn’t accept and didn’t like. They thought it was weird and funny that I was singing ‘God music’. Everyone else was into techno or whatever but I wasn’t interested.”
Lucy was subjected to punches and kicks. On one occasion she was knocked unconscious.
“When I woke up they were burning cigarettes on me,” she recalls. The bullying was so extreme that police were called, although no charges were made.
She became more withdrawn and didn’t want to leave the house to go to the local shop, never mind school.
By the age of 11, mum moved the family to Kirkby-in-Ashfield in order to free her from the abuse – but it continued.
“Some of them at the new school had friends at my old one. I wasn’t interested in going out.
“I didn’t want boyfriends or drinking... and then I grew up and I did,” she laughs.
Lucy failed her GCSEs because she’d missed so many classes, although her headteacher would later help her re-sit them. After passing them and A levels, she left Nottinghamshire for good, to study music in Glasgow. That was four years ago.
“My mum said that when I was about two, the radio would be on and I’d go straight over to it and turn the dial to a station that I liked,” she says, trying to pin down why she loved classical and opera music when none of her family did.
“It was always Classic FM or a station playing orchestral music.”
She adds: “I think Charlotte Church was my first inspiration, the one who made me want to be a classical singer. She was my age when she was discovered singing on This Morning.
“I wanted to be just like her.
“That was the first time my mum says she saw me get excited about something. I was a very sad and lonely child and mum could never get me socialising and it was a very hard childhood until my singing took off.”
She had singing lessons and her teacher suggested she audition for Cantamus.
“My life changed forever from then on,” says Lucy of the Mansfield girls’ choir who she would tour the world with.
“That experience helps me when I perform now,” she admits.
“And it’ll help no end with the up and coming tour with Collabro.”
She will join the theatrical boy band, who won Britain’s Got Talent in a final seen by ten million people, on their debut tour next year, including the Royal Concert Hall in January.
“I know this will be very different because I’ll be doing it on my own and that’s so daunting,” says Lucy, adding that the tour is “one of her dreams”.
“I was so nervous when I went on the programme because I didn’t have the safety and comfort of being in the middle of three rows of girls. I never realised how important that was until I did it on my own. And it overwhelmed me.
“At the first Britain’s Got Talent audition, when I was singing in front of Simon Cowell and the other judges, in my head I was thinking ‘what am I doing!?’”
She adds: “I still get the same nerves that I did at that first audition. I don’t think they’ll ever go away. It’s who I am. I wish I was ultra-confident but I’m a very sensitive person. I’m starting to deal with it better. If there’s an article in the press with incorrect information, I do laugh it off now.”
She describes the past two weeks since the final as a “whirlwind”.
Last weekend she was in London at the Natural History Museum performing in front of a host of celebrities.
“It was a Samuel L Jackson charity event called One For The Boys, a campaign to raise awareness of male cancer and I was definitely star spotting. There was Lewis Hamilton, David Walliams, Amanda Holden, Pixie Lott, Holly Valance... and others who I thought I recognised but I’m not sure who they were,” she laughs.
An ego-deflating experience then for Colin Firth, Simon Pegg and Jeremy Piven, who were also there.
“Samuel L Jackson introduced himself to me and my partner David; it was an amazing thing to be a part of.”
And this week it was confirmed that she had signed a “multi-album deal” with Sony.
Although her mum was with her for the Britain’s Got Talent final, Lucy has not had time to visit her in Kirkby-in-Ashfield since then.
Maybe she doesn’t want to go back because it’s her mum’s fault for moving her to that part of Notts in the first place?
“I know!” she laughs.
“I don’t know what went through her mind.”
But she then adds: “As much as I wish I’d been brought up somewhere else, as she does, the reason I went through what I did was probably to get me to the point I’m at now. Would I have found singing? Would I have carried it on? Would I have that passion I have now to never give up?
“Had my dad not left and I’d still been living in Leicester, I’d not have found Cantamus and I certainly wouldn’t have been on Britain’s Got Talent.
“I firmly believe that there’s a path for everyone and everything happens for a reason.”

Lucy Kay will join Collabro at the Royal Concert Hall on January 30. Tickets go on sale today at 10am priced from £19.50 to £38.50 and are available from the venue. Call 0115 989 5555 or go to trch.co.uk.

Collabro

Susan Boyle

March 2014

DESPITE amassing a rumoured £20m fortune, Susan Boyle is determined to stay in the four-bedroom former council house in Blackburn, West Lothian, where she grew up.
“As we speak it’s where I am,” says the 52-year-old, who bought the house off the local council for £65,000 five years ago.
By then both her parents had died and her eight siblings had moved out.
“It’s getting back to your roots,” she says.
“I like to keep in touch with my roots and I like to keep in touch with my memories.”
With the first wave of her earnings after her appearance on Britain’s Got Talent, she did buy a £300,000 new-build detached villa at the other end of the village but moved back to the family home after feeling unsettled by the change.
“I have no plans to move out,” she insists.

Indeed, after we speak, there are stories that she acquired the adjoining property and is knocking through to create a six-bedroom house for herself.
The council-owned property was home to a couple who had complained to West Lothian Council about the noise she made. When they moved out, she bought it.
Now she says: “I do have some brilliant neighbours.”
When I call it’s another Boyle who answers.
“That’s my PA,” she says.
Are there a lot of Boyles in Scotland.
“There’s an epidemic of them,” she giggles.
Does she mind being called Subo?
“I don’t mind. It’s an abbreviation of Susan Boyle.”
“It’s a matter of fact response but not intended that way. Susan Boyle doesn’t do sarcasm.
“I’m feeling chirpy this morning,” she admits, with another chuckle.
She laughs a lot but doesn’t say a lot. Each sentence is short and to the point. And sometimes the strong accent is hard to understand.
Since her appearance on Britain’s Got Talent in 2009, Boyle has released five albums and amassed millions of fans around the worlds.
I tell her that, after I posted on Twitter that I would be interviewing her, one fan calling himself @Mr SuboFan, said: “Make the most of it. Over 60 fans from Canada, USA, Italy, Australia, etc will be in Nottingham for concert.”
“I’m really looking forward to that, it’ll be really good. I think it’s awesome and very humbling,” is all she says by way of a response.
Does she know why she has become so popular?
“I’m not manufactured. I’m not pop. I’m more of a variety act. And I’m approachable. I am, in inverted commas, normal.”
Much has been written about her Aspberger’s, a subject that the other Boyle tells me is off-limits during the interview.

She revealed that she had the condition, a form of autism in which the sufferer struggles with their emotions and have difficulty in social situations, in December. She told The Observer that she was misdiagnosed at birth.
She said: “I was told I had brain damage. I always knew it was an unfair label. Now I have a clearer understanding of what's wrong and I feel relieved and a bit more relaxed about myself.”
It explains why it has taken her five years to embark on her first UK tour.
Last year, she toured Scotland and enjoyed the experience.
“It was really good and I was ready for it,” she explains.
And the UK tour?
“The timing was right this time.”
What does she remember about her appearance on Britain’s Got Talent?
“At being very shocked at getting through,” she laughs.
“I will always remember it.”
Her version of I Dreamed A Dream went viral, so it was inevitable that, despite coming second to dance group Diversity, Simon Cowell would sign her to his Syco Records label.
The album of the same name, released later that year, became the UK's best-selling debut album of all time.
And since then?

“I’ve been abroad, I’ve met the Pope, I’ve met the Queen, I’ve been on tour for the first time in Scotland, I’ve made five albums... it’s been a whole big rollercoaster,” says Boyle, whose show at the Royal Concert Hall on Sunday is will be her first visit to the city.
Although she honoured most of the dates on the Britain’s Got Talent Tour in 2009, Nottingham was one of the few cities she missed out on, pulling out due to exhaustion.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” she says.
“I’ve heard such a lot about it. I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait!”
Will she get a chance to look around the city, maybe immerse herself in the Robin Hood legend?
“I’ll probably have time to look around,” she begins.
“I’ll probably get picked up by the Sheriff of Nottingham , you never know,” she laughs.
At least I think she said “picked up.” It’s easy to misunderstand her. As did the journalist who reported that she’d made serious enquiries about applying for a job in bookies recently.
It was suggested that she feared losing her fame and fortune and was making plans for a regular job.
Says Boyle: “That was just banter. There was nothing serious intended. I was sort of messing about.”

Britain's Got Talent: Jai

June 2011

WHEN the cameras are turned off and 15 million people stick the kettle on, what is going on in the studio at Britain’s Got Talent? After last weekend’s final on ITV (and the post-show analysis on the ITV2 show), did everyone just go home or did they stay on and (age restrictions permitting) get trollied?

“Oh no definitely not,” says winner Jai McDowall, the softly spoken 24-year-old care worker from Scotland.

“I had to keep a level head because I had interviews lined up for the next day.”

Millions saw McDowall crowned the winner of Britain’s Got Talent 2011 on Saturday night.

“After you come off stage you meet the judges and they were really nice, saying positive things about the performance. Then I did Britain’s Got More Talent with Stephen Mulhern and I met Louis Walsh, which was amazing.”

What was amazing about Louis Walsh?

“Oh, he’s a nice guy.”

Although Walsh didn’t think he’d win. The Westlife manager had witnessed McDowall on last year’s X Factor where he made it to the  “boot camp” stages, before being sent home by the judging panel.

Walsh was surprised by his Britain’s Got Talent win and said: “I thought he would have been second or third. I thought the little kid was going to win but he did a great song. Best of luck to him.”

The little kid in question is 12-year-old Ronan Parke, who went into the final as favourite but lost out to Jay by just 2.5% of the public vote.

Says McDowall: “There was so much talent in the final that it could have been any of us. New Bounce were fantastic and wee Ronan is so talented.”

Does he think the rumours that Ronan had already been mentored by Cowell, prior to Britain’s Got Talent, lost him votes?

“No I don’t. We all knew it wasn’t true. Ronan worked really hard on his songs but luckily I picked a good song and upped my game as well.”

The song was Josh Groban's hit To Where You Are and after it won him the crown, McDowell and the rest of the finalists, judges and crew had a party in the studio.

“My mum, sisters and brother and five of my best friends were there, so that was amazing, to share it with them,” he says.

“That was until about two in the morning, then I went home to sleep it all off. I woke up the next day trying to process what had happened.”

He says ‘home’ but he means the hotel. For the duration of the show, finalists stayed in the same hotel together. Could you exploit room service and the mini-bar?

“No,” chuckles McDowall.

“Well, I hope not because I didn’t and I’m going to feel really cheated here.”

McDowall’s style of singing has been compared to Groban’s but he says there’s no clear path where he will be taking his career.

“I need to sit down and think about it,” he says.

There is no record deal as yet and Simon Cowell made it clear that he favoured Ronan Parke but McDowall admits that people from Cowell’s record label, Syco, have been advising him.

Cowell described his performance in the final as “a little bit monotone”. Bit of an insult?

“I took the comment on board. He wasn’t being critical and nasty with it, he was just telling me ’I’ve heard better’.”

McDowall will use the £100,000 prize money to pay off his mortgage and decorate his house. And he’ll be performing in front of the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance in December.

“A boy from where I come from - we don’t dream about it, it’s absolutely amazing,” he says.

But McDowall hasn’t left the day job, as a care worker in Ayrshire, behind just yet.

“My boss has been fantastic with me. He’s given me time off for the tour and said don’t feel bad about it, there’s always a job waiting for me if I need it. That’s good to know.”

Since the final it’s been rounds of interviews and rehearsals for McDowall ahead of the tour, which comes to the Capital FM Arena on Thursday.

“I’ll be doing the three songs I sang on the show and I know them inside out now, because we rehearsed them so much.”

Jai will be headlining the tour, hosted by Stephen Mulhern and featuring finalists Ronan Parke, Paul Gbegbaje, New Bounce, Jean Martyn, Les Gibson, James Hobley, Steven Hall, Michael Collings and Razy Gogonea.

“We all get on. We were in the bar last night actually getting to know each other and relaxing after a hard week. I had breakfast with Ronan this morning. We’re all in it together. There’s a good cameraderie.”

He adds: “I haven’t been to Nottingham before. I haven’t been to most of the cities on this tour. I don’t know what to expect. I hope there’s someone on the tour who knows that area a bit so they can point me in the direction of a good pub.”

Britain's Got Talent?

June 4 2011

WALK into any pub in the city centre tonight, lob a handful of bird seed in to the air and chances are you’ll hit more people with talent than those deluded goons on tonight’s final of Simon Cowell’s Karoake Pantomime With Dogs And Geriatrics.

Yes, it’s easy to criticise a mainstream TV show like Britain’s Got Talent. It’s like saying ‘Of course I didn’t see Coronation Street last night, I was engulfed by a fascinating documentary on BBC4 about 19th century European literature.’ But this isn’t Inverted snobbery. I’ll admit to regularly watching Corrie, The Apprentice, Taggart... and when the wife naffs off to bingo even Jason Statham growling through a haze of testosterone for 90 minutes.

I’m not afraid of popular culture but Britain’s Got Talent is terrifying as a representation of the nation’s ability to entertain.

Woman dances while beckoning her two baffled pooches to follow. A Scottish quiff mistakes Louis Spence mimicry, while ‘singing’ children’s TV themes, for musical comedy. An old woman plays the organ while grinning like a loon and wriggling on her stool as if her bladder is about to implode.

There are cruise ships and working men’s clubs who wouldn’t dream of booking such sub-standard excuses for entertainment.

And could a TV show carry a less appropriate name? Ryan Giggs and The Art Of Good PR perhaps? Or Gary Glitter’s Holiday Hotspots?

There have been exceptions in this series. Sandiacre’s daredevil BMX rider Joe Oakley is a former world champion (see page ??) but was overlooked for a lad who can play the piano, yes, but no better than anyone mid-way through their grades.

And I’m not just saying that because he’s one of us. That sphincter-shrivelling Arnie impersonator is a Nottinghamian as well.

Fledgling boy band, New Bounce, get my vote. Well they would if I ever bothered. But they’re up against bookies favourite Ronan Bieber (or whatever his name is).

One was amused to see the internet awash with rumours that Cowell had already ‘discovered’ the 12-year-old and BGT was merely a platform to launch his career. Yesterday, Cowell’s people reacted with a statement: “There is no truth in this story whatsoever,” then threatened “to take whatever legal action is appropriate to prevent further publication of these unfounded allegations”, adding “we will not tolerate bullying of any kind.” They mean likkle Ronan, not Cowell, silly.

It doesn’t matter that it isn’t true because it’s great PR for a TV show that isn’t really about discovering new talent at all. It’s for entertainment. Britain has got talent. This isn’t it.

Ken Dodd

December 2009



Hang on, a bit faint this line. Can you just hang on? I’ll jiggle this thing a bit. We’re having trouble with the phone here...”
The line goes dead.
Then a click: ‘Please hold the line while we try to connect...
Ken’s back.
“Oh dear,” he sighs.
Can you hear me?
“No, it’s very faint.”
HOW ABOUT IF I SHOUT!?
“I can hear you now.”
And we’re off.
“That’ll be Simon, is it? Thank you very much for your time calling me. Greetings from Knotty Ash and stuff like that. We’re dong very well here. The jam buttie miner has struck a new marmalade seam.”
Now he’s off.
We have spoken in the past as Ken Dodd is a regular to Nottinghamshire, be it at the Mansfield or Newark Palace theatres or for his annual Christmas show at the Royal Concert Hall. Which nearly didn’t happen this year.
The new boss of the venue pulled the pencilled date earlier this year resulting in national headlines and Ken vowing not to play the city again.
Bowing to public pressure, the venue rebooked his Christmas Happiness Show as per usual.
“All the problems have been resolved” says Ken, keen not to stir things up.
“Put it that way.”
He has other ways.
“Least said soonest mended. It’s all water under the bridge. We don’t want to rock any boats...”
“We are all, management and the show, looking forward to a full house.”
He adds: “It’s my best Christmas present, coming back to Nottingham, where I started.
“In this part of my career, in this part of my life, I like to go to places where I’m made welcome. And I’ve always been made welcome in Nottingham. They’re a fabulous audience.”
Aside from tickets for the show on December 30, fans could well be waking up Christmas morning to find Ken in their stocking, in book form.
“You could call it a scrapbook I suppose,” he says of the picture led 200-page hardback Look At It My Way.
“It’s a book of photographs by a photographer who used to be the picture editor at the (Liverpool) Echo, called Stephen Shakeshaft. That’s a good name isn’t it?
“He had a collection of photographs and I said ‘why not add some from my collection?’ So between us we have a collection of photographs going way back to when I first started.”
Sadly not from his very first professional appearance, which was at Nottingham’s Empire Theatre (where the Royal Centre now stands) in September 1954.
“My hand would have been shaking too much in those days,” he quips.
“I came by train,” recalls Ken.
“I got in a taxi and he took me round the big square where I saw that beautiful building with the dome on top. I said’ that’s a beautiful thing, the town hall’. And he said ‘no, that’s the Council House’. ‘Oh, put my name down for one of those.’
“I remember it was in the days when Nottingham was all being rebuilt. The whole town was a seething mass of building sites. Consequentially all of the digs were occupied by bricklayers and plasterers so I couldn’t get in anywhere to stay. The only place I could find was two or three miles out in a commercial hotel. Which was fine except all the commercial travellers decamped at 6.30 in the morning, which are not an entertainer’s hours. But I had to get up with them.
“I’d stagger down to The Empire in a daze, go to my little dressing room and lay down on the dressing table.
“In those days the dressing rooms had a three-legged chair and cracked mirror. Especially for those on the bottom of the bill. My name was smaller than the printers in those days.
“I’d hear the cleaners outside muttering ‘he’s crackers this fella.’
“That was my introduction to Nottingham.”
His week long run at the Empire was an opening 12 minute slot. Can he remember any of it?
“There was one line I did back then. I’d totter on to the stage with my hair sticking up, my shirt hanging out and my bow tie all over the place. I looked at the audience and said ‘ I suppose you’re all wondering why I’ve sent for you.’
“That was my first big laugh and I went on from there.”
His influences were the likes of Arthur Askey, Ted Ray and Rod Wilton. Doddy was to also to become a fan of contemporaries Les Dawson, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd, Danny La Rue and Bob Monkhouse.
“I was lucky enough to work with every one of them either on stage or television or radio. It’s a wonderful feeling to have worked with the gagfathers of British comedy. They were all my heroes.”
The Nottingham Empire bill included trumpeter Kenny Baker and his Baker’s Half Dozen, singer Tony Brent, comedy double act Sid and Paul Kay and singing group The Kordites.
Ken, now 82, may have been the weakest draw at the time but 55 years on he’s the only survivor.
“I turned pro in 1954 and I’ve played a date somewhere in Nottingham ever since. Be it The Empire, the Concert Hall, The Commodore, the Theatre Royal... I actually opened the Theatre Royal. Mine was the first show in when it reopened. We did three weeks there.
“For more than 50 years I’ve played a date in Nottingham somewhere so it’s a great date for me.”
He bills his stand-up as The Happiness Show, a traditional variety performance that will include other acts. But he’s not sure who at this stage.
“I’ll be coming anyway,” he laughs.
“One of our guest stars will be a wonderful man called Dickie Mint. He’s the foreman of the Jam Buttie Miners. He’s heard a rumour that somewhere near Beeston there’s a treacle well. So he’ll be coming along to do a bit of surveying.”
Dickie Mint, one of his Diddymen, and the tickling sticks are staples of a Doddy show. As is the length. They are notorious for being epic events, running in to the early hours of the morning. So will he be doing that again when he comes to Nottingham later this month?
“Oh no, no, no.”
You always say that.
“No, we’ve put a curfew on it. We’ll definitely finish at the right time.”
The right time? That’s 12.45am isn’t it?
“Never. That’s an ugly rumour. No, the show will definitely finish on time.”

Ken Dodd’s Christmas Happiness Show, Royal Concert Hall, Wednesday December 30, 7pm
Tickets: £15.50-£18.50, 0115 989 5555. Ken Dodd: Look At It My Way, RRP £16.99, is available now.


... on Britain’s Got Talent
“I don’t say three cheers for it. The talent contest concept has been with us for over 100 years. And they had one thing in common: They gave the artist a wonderful platform to work on. And it wasn’t judgemental. Now they deliberately put someone on who is absolutely useless to make them look ridiculous. That’s a terrible thing to do to someone. It goes back to the pillory and the stocks. It’d be very nice if the three judges, whoever they are, had a bit of experience themselves.They’ve never been a variety artist so how dare they judge somebody else.”

... on his autobiography
“I’m going to try and do it next year. I’ve started collecting anecdotes. I would love it to be an entertaining book. I want it to make people chuckle, smile or think ‘oh I didn’t know that’. And pieces of philosophy, lIke ‘never put off until tomorrow, what you can do today. Because if you do it today and you like it, you can do it again tomorrow.’”

... on comedy
“I watch all comedy shows on the telly. The Thin Blue Line, Blackadder, Fraser... I think they’re wonderful.”

... on regrets
“If I had my time over again I would have liked to have had some formal drama training. I would have liked to have gone to RADA.”