NEWS
NEWS
Comedian Sir Ken Dodd will be tickled by reunion with his parents PSYCHIC NEWS REPORTER
Ken Dodd at Ellesmere Port’s Civic Hall in January 2007 (Photo: David A Ellis)
THERE was a serious side to one of Britain’s most-loved funny men, Sir Ken Dodd, that few people saw. In his visits to the Psychic News Bookshop in the 1970s, when it was based in London’s Great Queen Street, he revealed his awareness of Spirit and his conviction that both his parents were still close to him following their deaths. Sir Ken, who was knighted a year ago, died on 11 March at his fairly regularly” (PN 24 June 1972). Knotty Ash, Liverpool, home in which he was born 90 years earlier. “Interested in our subject, he is a PN subscriber,” the reporter He was a subscriber to Psychic News and those of us fortunate wrote, and he was carrying a fistful of books he had just bought. enough to speak with him during “He preferred to give me no psychic his visits to buy Spiritualist books comment.” soon realised that his belief in Two years later, however, on survival of death was based on another visit to Psychic News, the personal experiences. comedian sought the newspaper’s Famous for his shaggy hairstyle, help in arranging a sitting with a buck teeth and “tickling stick”, as leading medium. “In his presence well as his “tattyfilarious” one-line I telephoned her, saying who my gags – “It’s 10 years since I went visitor was,” the Editor reported out of my mind. I’d never go back” (PN 19 October 1974). “She was a typical example – Sir Ken amused me by saying she had never was still performing until needing heard of a medium by that name.” a six-week stay in hospital for a She had misheard “comedian” and chest infection at the beginning of thought the Editor was referring to the year. a “medium”. On leaving hospital he married “I have deliberately not Anne Jones, his partner of 40 identified him, but he promised years, just two days before his to let me know the results of his passing and she was at his bedside sitting,” the Editor added. It seems when he died. likely that it was arranged with Ena We first reported his interest Twigg, but no report appeared in Medium Ena Twigg is believed to have given one or more in life after death and spirit subsequent issues. sittings to Ken Dodd communication in 1972 when a Coincidentally, in December Psychic News reporter wrote that that same year, Dodd spoke to the he had just “had the pleasure of shaking hands with my favourite Sunday People about a psychic phenomenon he experienced in his TV personality Diddy-man Ken Dodd”. own home that “scared me out of my wits”. The encounter happened in PN’s Bookshop “where he browses “I looked up and saw an arm floating in through the door from
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PSYCHIC NEWS | APRIL 2018
the kitchen. The hand was cupped as if it were reaching for a glass. In the dim light I thought it was my father and I called out. There was no reply. “Suddenly I felt that reaching hand was reaching for me and I dashed upstairs. No, I didn’t imagine it. The whole thing was quite real and solid. I was scared out of my wits.” A few months later, Dodd told the Radio Times that he was helped by the spirit of famous music-hall performer Dan Leno, who died in 1904. “I’m part of the tradition,” he explained. “I’m also stage-struck. Performing, I get spirit messages from Dan Leno.” More than a decade later, Ken Dodd was in the headlines not for his comedy but because the Inland Revenue had accused him of fiddling his taxes. News of his acquittal on various charges was accompanied, in the News of the World (August 1989), by a threepage feature about his life which included Dodd’s statement to the newspaper that his mother “haunts me when I’m on stage”, adding that she is “with me every minute of every day” even though she had died 21 years earlier. “We’d always been so close. I was inconsolable over her death. But then I realised that you never really lose anyone you love.” He said he also began to feel the presence of his father’s spirit when he passed on 10 years later. “They will both always be with me,” he added. “And knowing they’re there is a wonderful support. It’s something I can’t put into words – it’s too precious a feeling.” Sir Ken’s one-man performances were marathons of mirth that often lasted for four hours or more – I speak from experience having enjoyed one of his shows right to the end! He was the holder of a Guinness World Record for telling 1,500 jokes in three-and-a-half hours (7.14 jokes per minute). He usually began by telling the audience “How tickled I am!” to be entertaining them. No doubt, he will have been particularly tickled to be reunited with the parents he loved so much when he arrived in the spirit world. n
New British coins feature ancient mysteries MANY Brits will soon be carrying Stonehenge or the Loch Ness Monster around in their pockets without realising it, thanks to the Royal Mint. An A-Z of Britain in the form of a specially-minted set of 10p coins has just been released. Although intended for collectors who will be able to purchase individual coins in presentation packs, or buy the entire 26-coin set, a limited number will enter general circulation. Three of the coins have special appeal for those with a passion for either the paranormal, local legends or ancient mysteries. In its search for an alphabetical list of topics representing the British Isles, the Royal Mint came up with the world-famous prehistoric stone circle, the mysterious creature that is believed to inhabit a Scottish lake, and also the royal legend of King Arthur as the most appropriate subjects. n PSYCHIC NEWS | APRIL 2018
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