When Ken Dodd Found Himself in the Dock

In June 1989 Britain’s clown prince of comedy, Ken Dodd, was charged with 11 counts of tax evasion. Through five captivating weeks two opposing portraits of the Liverpudlian comedian were presented in court. The prosecution claimed Ken Dodd was a calculating cheat whilst the defence argued he was an unreliable eccentric who led a chaotic life and was bad at maths. Ultimately, Dodd was cleared, but at a heavy price.

Ken Dodd came from a modest background, and he was later to maintain that his poor upbringing spent selling household goods door to door gave him his passion for cash, claiming that it was his only real evidence of his success.

After years on the comedy circuit, Dodd had built up a large fortune. Despite these riches, however, he lived a bizarrely Spartan life; he did not take a holiday until he was 51 and even these were bought at discount price.

Stranger than Dodd’s spending habits was his distrust of banks. During the trial it came to light that Dodd had thousands of pounds stored up neatly in shoeboxes around his house.

The trial itself transformed Liverpool’s Crown Court into a sell out theatre, with Dodd giving the performance of his life. Accused of having £700,000 stashed away in offshore accounts, Dodd claimed complete ignorance of tax laws and charmed the jury with a comic performance to rival all others.

Dodd was aided in full by barrister George Carman, who successfully put the tax office on trial for bullying the innocent. Dodd and Carman became a double act, sparring off each other and winning the affections and sympathies of both the jury and public. Drawing attention to Dodd’s prolific charity work, his pain over unsuccessful fertility treatments, and even calling on popular comedians Eric Sykes and Roy Hudd as character references, Carman managed to overshadow Dodd’s financial dealings and showed him to be a chaotic comic genius who was simply bad at maths.

Ken Dodd’s acquittal, however, came at a price; his previously private persona had been exposed to the public and he was forced to hand over £800,000 in unpaid taxes and penalties, leaving him virtually bankrupt.