Cramped up in a confined space for nearly five hours. Numbness in the posterior and other lower regions.

Stomach pains feeling as if your sides are splitting open. Uncontrollable tears rolling down your cheeks.

These are the symptoms of the disease known as Doddyitis. I contracted it, as did several of my party, at the Theatre Royal on Sunday night while seeing the best clean comic in the business at his first-ever show at that venue.

Was all the discomfort and suffering worth it? Yes, every penny, because not only does Ken Dodd cause this ailment, he also provides the cure.

Laughter. It's better than all the medicine in the world and comedians don't come any better than Doddy.

-Gerald Oxley, Selborne Road, Hove