A revealing documentary which takes an “in-depth” look into the life of legendary comedian Sir Ken Dodd both on screens and away from publicity of the press is to be screened during this year’s Leicester Comedy Festival for the first time.

‘The Real Ken Dodd – The Man I Loved’ will be shown at De Montfort Hall next month.

The three-hour fly-on-the-wall documentary has taken more than four years to come to the screen and follows the exhaustive efforts of the great man’s widow, Lady Dodd, to preserve his status as a comedy great.

The audience will be able to take part in a question and answer session with Lady Dodd before the film is shown.

In making the film, she has agreed to share the contents of her late husband’s notebooks, revealing his private musings on his craft – he had instructed her to burn his diary notebooks following his death.

A spokesman for the Leicester Comedy Festival said: “The film takes an in-depth look into Doddy’s private world, exploring the many secrets of his comic talent, revealing never-before-seen home-videos, stage performances and extracts from some of the thousands of Ken’s diary notebooks, which he’d asked his wife to burn after his death.

“Wrestling with her conscience for quite some time, Lady Dodd, finally agrees with entertainment historians, museum curators and many of Ken’s admirers like Stephen K Amos, Harry Hill, Shaparak Khorsandi, Lee Mack, Paul O’Grady, Johnny Vegas, and Sir Ian McKellen to preserve Doddy’s notebooks for posterity.

“These stars explore their passion and memories of Ken in this candid, insightful film which takes you backstage behind the red curtain to reveal a far more intriguing man than the public or even his wife ever realised.”

The film is narrated by Miriam Margolyes, a long-standing fan and friend who said she got her first big break in showbusiness working with Doddy.

The film also tells the story of Lady Dodd’s efforts to realise her husband’s lifelong dream of building a British Comedy Museum in his home town, Liverpool.

• The film will be screened on Wednesday, February 5 during the 2025 Leicester Comedy Festival.