Helping A Well-Known Comedian

Being brought up in Knotty Ash I lived quite close to Liverpool's famous comedian Ken Dodd. In those days Ken had a large van, and used to come around the area selling pots and pans and many other household items. I used to go round knocking on doors to help sell the wares. About ten years ago I was at a private show in nearby Prescot in a hotel where Ken was performing. When the show was over I waited for Ken to come back into the room for photographs. I said to him "The last time I spoke to you, you were sending me up garden paths knocking on doors." Immediately he replied "Do you remember Alan Shields who was one of our 'gang'?" and he went off with quite a long funny story about Alan. I was amazed at his memory, to remember an event which happened in the 1940s and which he could so easily bring to mind. Ken had an uncle called 'Little Bill', he was only about three foot six inches high, and I am pretty sure that's where Ken got the idea of the 'diddy folk' from. Gordon Smith. PS I used to live in 97 Rudyard Road, Knotty Ash.