{"product_id":"9781788549547","title":"Happiness and Tears : The Ken Dodd Story by Louis Barfe","description":"I suffer from acute kleptomania. But when it gets bad, I take something for it.' Ken Dodd was a legend of British comedy. He launched his career in 1954, adopted his trademark 'tickling stick' two years later and went on to enjoy a sixty-year career as the nation's jester. Dodd's act was frenzied and zany, exploiting his saucer-eyed, buck-toothed appearance and deploying a repertoire of one-liners, whimsical and verbal inventions and liberal doses of saucy - but never dirty - jokes. Louis Barfe charts Dodd's life and extraordinarily long career, revealing him to be the last of the great variety acts - and a comic phenomenon who delighted his audiences across seven decades. Reviews for Happiness and Tears: 'The definitive account' The Times. 'An industriously thorough, entertaining biography' The Spectator. 'Sure to delight Dodd's many admirers' TLS. 'Fascinatingly odd' Daily Express. 'An absolute joy' Choice.\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56306860818805,"sku":"9781788549547","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781788549547.jpg?v=1762802216","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/9781788549547","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}