The Real Ken Dodd: The Man I Loved

The Real Ken Dodd: The Man I Loved (2024) is a documentary film directed by Eric Harwood.

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 agrees with entertainment historians, museum curators and many of Ken’s admirers like Stephen K Amos, Harry Hill, Shaparak Khorsandi, Lee Mack, 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 red curtain to reveal a far more intriguing man than the public or even his wife ever realised.

Cast

Ken Dodd

(archive footage)

Miriam Margolyes

Narrator (voice)

Ian McKellen

Johnny Vegas

Lee Mack

Harry Hill

Shaparak Khorsandi

Michael Billington

Stephen K. Amos

Paul O'Grady

Tim Vine

Stephanie Cole