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The Diddy Men are a mythical race whose invention is often attributed to the
Liverpudlian
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
comedian
Ken Dodd
Sir Kenneth Arthur Dodd (8 November 1927 – 11 March 2018) was an English comedian, singer and occasional actor. He was described as "the last great music hall entertainer", and was primarily known for his live stand-up performances.
A life ...
. However, they have existed in
Merseyside
Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...
mythology for much longer and, along with the
Treacle
Treacle () is any uncrystallised syrup made during the refining of sugar.Oxford Dictionary The most common forms of treacle are golden syrup, a pale variety, and a darker variety known as black treacle, similar to molasses. Black treacle has a ...
and Jam Butty Mines of
Knotty Ash
Knotty Ash is an area of Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and a Liverpool City Council Ward. Historically in Lancashire, the population at the 2001 Census was 13,200, increasing to 13,312 at the 2011 Census. Knotty Ash is well known as the home o ...
, had been referred to in the earlier act of another Liverpool comedian,
Arthur Askey
Arthur Bowden Askey, (6 June 1900 – 16 November 1982) was an English comedian and actor. Askey was known for his short stature (5' 2", 1.58 m) and distinctive horn-rimmed glasses, and his playful humour incorporating improvisation ...
. When Ken Dodd began playing seaside resorts, he made famous his home area of Knotty Ash in Liverpool and popularised a miniature race of people who inhabited it. Diddy is an informal British word for "little".
The Diddy Men were originally an unseen joke but after a while began to appear on stage with Dodd, delighting children in the audience. They also appeared in Dodd's
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television programmes in the 1960s, as Marionettes. The Diddy Men tend to wear slightly oversized adult clothes in flamboyant style including tall furry hats.
Diddy Men characters
The Diddy Men include: Dicky Mint, Mick the Marmaliser, Stephen "Tich" Doyle, Little Evan, Hamish McDiddy, Nigel Ponsonby-Smallpiece, Nicky Nugget, Ben "Tiny Ween" Winston, Sid Short and Smarty Arty. Diminutive British
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
David Hamilton, who appeared regularly on Dodd's BBC shows, acquired the nickname 'Diddy David' which has stayed with him to this day. The original Mick the Marmaliser was the ten-year-old daughter of Little Jimmy, who appeared at the Blackpool Tower Circus with
and Paul.
The Jam Butty Mines in Knotty Ash were where the Diddy Men worked.
The Song of the Diddy Men
The Diddy Men have a song, once released as a single, titled "The Song of the Diddy Men", sung in a high pitched,
chipmunk
Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of the family Sciuridae. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is found primarily in Asia.
Taxonomy and systematics
Chipmunks may be classified either as ...
style voice. It includes the chorus: "We are the Diddy Men, Doddy's dotty Diddy Men, We are the Diddy Men who come from Knotty Ash". Another song "Doddy's Diddy Party" featured the refrain - "tonight's the night the Diddy Men paint the town, we'll lose our blues, and let our Diddy hair down". There were several other songs including "Diddycombe Fair" - a spoof of the well-known
West Country
The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...
song "
Widecombe Fair
Widecombe Fair is an annual fair in England, held in the Dartmoor village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor on the second Tuesday of September. It is well known as the subject of the folk song of the Widecombe Fair (song), same name, featuring Uncle Tom ...
".
Actors
On stage the Diddy Men are normally played by children or adults with
dwarfism
Dwarfism is a condition wherein an organism is exceptionally small, and mostly occurs in the animal kingdom. In humans, it is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than , regardless of sex; the average adult height among people with dw ...
. On
TV and in some stage performances, Dodd used a
ventriloquist's puppet of the Dicky Mint character. These days the Diddy Men are rarely seen outside
pantomime
Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...
season.
Carol Vorderman
Carol Jean Vorderman, HonFIET (born 24 December 1960) is a Welsh media personality, best known for appearing on the game show ''Countdown'' for 26 years from 1982 until 2008, as a newspaper columnist and nominal author of educational and diet ...
, of ''
Countdown
A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
'' fame, played a Diddy Man as a child.
References
{{Reflist
Fictional dwarves