A sheepish character papa, in his dotage, ran amok (8)
I believe the answer is:
rampaged
'ran amok' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'a sheepish character papa in' is the wordplay.
'a' becomes 'amp' (A is the symbol for the amp or ampere).
'sheepish character papa' becomes 'raged' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'amp' placed within 'raged' is 'RAMPAGED'.
'his dotage' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rampaged that I've seen before include "Went berserk" , "ran riot" , "Rushed wildly" , "ran amok" , "Charged" .)