We meet Lady Anne Dodd at the City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds as the theatre renames its auditorium in tribute to Sir Ken Dodd.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well, I was thrilled to bits, but I can imagine what Ken would say. He would say,
00:04how tickled I am to have such wonderful news.
00:06The auditorium of the world-famous City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds has a new name.
00:12The Sir Ken Dodd Auditorium is a tribute to the comedian,
00:15singer and actor widely regarded as the last great music hall entertainer.
00:19It's really lovely, heartwarming. It was a place he loved. It was the first place
00:23he ever did a television programme. He was on Good Old Days in 1955,
00:27a long time ago, and he played it quite a few times. So it was very dear to his heart,
00:32this glorious theatre. It's the intimacy of the audience. He used to say, I can get at them.
00:38He loved this venue. It was really special to him. Obviously, he's been called the last great
00:43musical entertainer. So this being the longest continuously running music hall in the country,
00:50it's a very special venue.
00:51It's a Grade II star listed. It's a beautiful gem that's hidden just on the back streets of
00:55Swan Street. Many people walk past and don't realise it's here and they walk into the auditorium
00:58and just are revealed this glorious auditorium inside. The history of it is just so important
01:04to both Leeds, to Brigitte, but also to musical history and variety since the Victorian days.
01:08I met him in the 60s and we actually got together in the late 70s. But from those years, I did come
01:14here each time he played the Good Old Days, which was the last few occasions. And then after that,
01:21we would play it, most years we would play here.
01:24He always sold out. He was legendary, obviously. He still is legendary for how long his performances
01:29went on and it would be a regular one o'clock finish.
01:32The City Variety's premiere of a film charting God's life includes unseen material.
01:37The intention originally was to film how we put an exhibition together and then it grew arms and
01:43legs and it became to filming his legacy. He had mentors. He had comedians who inspired him.
01:49And it's lovely to hear young comedians we've met and he met during these years
01:53who would ask advice or had told me since that they were inspired by him.
01:57Ken's impact on the entertainment business was unparalleled.
02:01I actually think that he was the first kind of modern comedian.
02:04Doddy was the ballet of the entertainment business.
02:07You always give value for money a little bit too much.
02:11I am Kenneth Arthur Dodd, artist, model and failed accountant.
02:15There's still something so special about that live performance when you're in a room full of people
02:20all enjoying the same thing, that connection, that feeling of shared experience is kind of
02:24what's so special about this venue and what it brings to so many people.
02:29One of the things we really want to do as well is just keep it alive today.
02:32So it's celebrating the legacy that Ken Dodd created,
02:35the real craft and skill that he brought to comedy.
02:38And I think so many people have commented on that, it kind of
02:40styles and change, don't they, and tone changes.
02:43But the actual craft of the skill is what people continue to study and learn today.
02:48And he was a master of it.
02:49And that's one of the things we're trying to keep alive today with our training programmes
02:52and our youth theatre and our other acting provision.
02:55So that we can continue this legacy of performance on this fantastic stage
02:58and continue to make audiences laugh.