THE year Ken Dodd made his professional debut Winston Churchill was Prime Minister, Elvis Presley recorded his first ten minute demo and 14 years of rationing during and following World War II came to an end.

It was 1954 - just one year after the Queen's coronation and yet Ken Dodd has been a master of mirth ever since.

Ken brings his Happiness Show back to Bournemouth Pavilion on Easter Saturday.

He's been performing there every year since the late 1950's so when I ask the 88-year-old when he might retire he declares loudly and defiantly: "Never!"

"There's no such word. A man retires when he stops doing what he doesn't want to do and starts doing what he wants to do. I'm doing what I want to do! "

He vividly recalls his first year in Bournemouth, how singer Alma Cogan was top of the bill and how concert pianist Walter Lander "a venerable silver haired gentleman" who dressed in full tails on stage roared up to the stage door in full black leathers, helmet and goggles on his big silver motorbike.

"One of the great joys of being an entertainer is the people you work with. You meet them briefly or do a season and each one is like a little novel with a story to tell. "

"Bournemouth Pavilion has many happy memories. I can visualise my dressing room. I've inhabited it since about 1957". says Ken, fondly.

Ken is chatting to me from his home in Knotty Ash, Liverpool - the old Georgian house he was born in. He has his beloved black poodle Pippin beside him and I imagine numerous piles of books. Ken is always reading. He tells me he spotted a book called 'Ten Reasons for not Falling in Love' in a shop window recently and bought it: "I was intrigued by the title ...it's quite racy! " he chuckles, but it is sitting beside three books on theology sent to him by a Canon who came to see his show in Sheffield!

"I do love reading and I must admit I sometimes miss a lot of time I should be sleeping to read!"

Ken absolutely devours books on comedy and has actually bought the two cottages next door to him just to house his thousands of books piled floor to ceiling.

"I read and collect them because my future plan is to have a Ken Dodd archive of all the books pertaining to humour and variety."

Has he ever been tempted to move?

" No, no. It was my grandmother's house . She bought it at the end of the 1800's. It was built in 1782. She was the first ever lady JP on Merseyside - Harriett Dodd. She had a lot of children - 14 children ... don't forget they didn't have TV in those days!

Ken took over the house after his father and built "a very nice music room" which houses the grand piano his partner Anne plays as well as her flute.

Ken has to pause from our chat to "let the dog out". Pippin is the latest in a line of black poodles he has had since the 1960s.

As each one has passed away he has replaced it with another black poodle. Ken recalls how this all began:

"In 1960 I was playing a Torquay summer season when my first record Love Is Like a Violin was out. It was towards the end of the season and in those days I'd take on any kind of daytime job- I opened 112 garden fetes! Well the season lasted 16 weeks and most Saturdays I'd do two or three fetes as well as two shows. I could do it in those days. Well I was in Newton Abbott and was walking down the Main Street and I saw a pet shop and this litter of little black poodles. I bought one we called him Touché and he lived to 14/15.

"They are great dogs. They don't shed hair as their coat is like wool so they are quite welcome in most hotels. They are good to travel with and very playful. They are great company too."

Asked for his thoughts on comedians today Ken says:"They mean well! I love people with new ideas like Joe Pasquale. Most of the good ones are nice people and they have a great sense of humour."

And then he shares some of his wisdom on comedy and humour.

"A sense of humour is a sense of seeing things from a different angle; looking at the world differently and looking at the funny side. I must admit I fell in love with show business and comedy when I was 12 years old. My father use to take me to the Shakespeare Theatre of Varieties in Liverpool every week where I saw all the great comedians who used to come on and shout at the audience and I thought ' that will do for me'. I just loved watching live variety - the whole experience of theatre : the band and the lights going down and the people all looking so healthy - I didn't realise it was all the grease paint!

And so his life-long fascination with comedy began. “I thought to myself why, what is a joke, why do we laugh at jokes?

“So every time I went to different towns I’d go to the library and devour whatever books they had on laughter, humour, comedians etc. .

“I did read Freud’s Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious. I was the unconscious one.

“So I read Freud and I read Schopenhauer and I read all the different psychiatrists and psychologists, plus comedians who told you why they were a comedian.”

But with over 60 years experience of live audiences and perpetual touring no one could be better placed to explain how you make people laugh:

"You play an audience like you play an instrument. You use an audience in the same way. Experience teaches you to look for that 'hot spot'; where they are frigid and warm and you play the audience.

As a solo entertainer it's just you and the audience and it's a job to coax and cajole and mould them to a wonderful thing called an audience. On a good night if you get it right it's a marvellous feeling. You are right up there with Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. I love slaving over a hot audience. It must be like being a writer creating a book or a feature and you know when you get to the end of it if you've found the right words and it's wonderful.

Sixty years I've been an entertainer - a performer. I perform words and visual imagery. I'm part actor, part orator, part clown, part dancer and, of course, singer.

A performance or act evolves. I try six new jokes every time .... and sometimes get laughs! It's like going fishing: there's no such thing as a cert. That's the thrill: it's like bungee jumping!

A joke is like an old friend- you never forget them. It relies on your timing and intonation just how you get their attention. If it's one of those jokes with a surprise ending the last thrust is so important. If you get it right it's thrilling.

Timing is everything. Just listen to Sinatra. When you hear him sing he is the absolute master of timing and intonation."