Doddy Loves Weston

When comedian ken dodd visits weston-super-mare for a show it’s so much more than another working day for him, as Bernard Bale discovers.

- Bernard Bale

KEN DODD was at Weston-super-Mare’s Playhouse Theatre in September and all tickets were sold long before his arrival. His many fans love to see him but for Doddy it is much more than just another show – he is a huge fan himself of the theatre of course, but also of Weston which he declares is one of his very favourite seaside resorts.

“I really like the traditional British holiday, a week at the seaside with salt and vinegar on your chips, sand in your shoes and rain in your face,” he says. “They don’t have holidays like that abroad. You don’t get landladies in Spain like you do in Britain, stout-hearted women who can tear a kipper limb from limb at breakfast time to share it among her guests. Who wants to bring back a stuffed donkey from Spain when you can bring back a stick of rock from Weston-super-Mare? I had a waffle in Benidorm once but that’s another story.

“I really like Somerset as a county, it is very beautiful but my favourite place is Weston. I love seaside resorts and I have probably been to all of them. Weston-super- Mare is right up there in my top five. I love everything about it.

“The beaches are brilliant, the burgers are quite a handful, the aquarium is excellent and I love seeing the donkeys on the beach. I stood alongside them once and a child tried to climb on my back – it’s the teeth you see! Weston is a real seaside resort, great for a day out and fantastic for a holiday.

“The pier is very special. Piers are very British and they all have something special about them and I don’t mean just the smell of seaweed wrapped around the pillars. They have played a part in the lives of thousands if not millions of people. Couples have become engaged on piers, some have had cheap holidays by sleeping under the pier – when the tide’s out of course. I should think just about everybody has a pier memory or two.