“I’M returning to my spiritual Yorkshire home,” says Ken Dodd, referring to his show at the Alhambra this month.

And, while stars often gush about tour venues in interviews, it is genuine with Doddy. In 1958 he starred in Alhambra panto Jack and the Beanstalk, still its longest-running panto, and he’s had an affection for Bradford ever since.

“My first Yorkshire show was the Alhambra, I drove from Merseyside on a Bank Holiday Monday. There was a band call in the morning and the stalls were covered in white sheets, everything was spotless. The drummer climbed out of the pit and went cycling up the aisle to get his lunch,” he recalls. “Bradford audiences have good chuckle muscles - they bring out the best in me.”

He fondly recalls T&A theatre critic Peter Holdsworth, who heralded him as a rising star in the Fifties. “We were good friends, he was a gent and he knew showbusiness more than most,” says Ken, who celebrated his 60th anniversary as a professional entertainer in 2014.

Next month he turns 89. He's sharp as a tack and shows no sign of slowing down. “Hang up my Tickling Stick? How dare you, madam,” he says, in mock shock at suggestion of retirement. “I’m still stagestruck - right from when I was a boy and my father took me to the variety theatre in Liverpool. I saw great comics who played their audience like an instrument. That was my training ground. On stage you have 30 seconds to engage with them. In 60 years I’ve never done the same show twice.”

Fans will be discumknockerated (Knotty Ash-speak for ‘over the moon’) by Doddy’s tattifelarius show, supported by various acts. “We’ve got Amatheyst, a wonderful magician; terrific comic Andy Eastwood, and our lovely singer Sybie Jones. Our guest star is Dickie Mint” says Ken, with a twinkle in his eye. Dickie is, of course, one of the legendary Diddy Men that my generation remembers from childhood TV. “Then there’s Jam Butty, the mine foreman who works the treacle well,” continues Ken, and I’m transported back to Knotty Ash and the Broken Biscuit Repair Works...

It wasn't until I was an adult that I realised Knotty Ash was a real place. I'd always assumed it was a place where the Diddymen lived. "You've got Cleckheaton, Shelf and Idle. Now those are silly place names," smiles Ken.

Ken made his stage debut at the old Nottingham Empire in 1954. A decade later, he was at the London Palladium for a record-breaking 42 week sell-out season. “I used to get the train from London to Liverpool after playing the Palladium, Post Office workers clapped me in the street,” he recalls.

In 1965 he knocked The Beatles from the top of the charts with Tears, still one of the Top 20 best-selling records of all time.

He has been known to put the tickling stick to one side and take on straight acting roles, playing Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Yorrick in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet.

"It's a discipline and I took it very seriously. You don't mess around with Shakespeare, " he says.

Doddy started out as a 14-year-old ventriloquist and learned his stage patter from a later stint as a doorstep salesman. He credits his father with sparking a love of theatre and entertainment. "He was a very funny man and he loved to laugh," he says. "My parents took me, my brother Billy and sister June to the theatre every week.

“I loved comics too, especially the Hotspur. On the back cover was an ad: ‘Fool your teachers, amaze your friends’. It was for a ventriloquist’s figure - don’t call them dummies. My parents got me one for Christmas and I learned to throw my voice. I did shows for pals.”

He helped out in the family coal business, before becoming a door-to-door salesman. He served his apprenticeship in the clubs. “A good club audience gives an entertainer a chance. If you respect them, they’ll respect you,” he says. “You learn eye-to-eye contact."

His favourite comics remain the ones who influenced him growing up. “I loved Arthur Askey and Sandy Powell; they had comic spirit, they saw comedy in everything. I don’t analyse comedy - a sense of humour is seeing the funny things in life.

“Young comics to me are aliens, they do it in a totally different way. I’m proud to be a traditional variety comic, I just want to make people happy. No politics, no religion. No comic should want to see their audience squirm. People come to my shows wanting to be entertained, to escape their worries.”

* Ken Dodd is at the Alhambra on Saturday, October 22. For tickets call (01274) 432000.