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pride
of manchester -
great northern comedians |
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15th
Sep 2003 |
| With
the passing of Les Dawson there was the passing of the best light
entertainment as we know it. When Les was the king of TV with shows
like Blankety Blank, life was sweet and life was innocent.
Les Dawson
was born on February 2nd 1931, in Collyhurst, Manchester to his
struggling parents Les and Julia. He spent many of his childhood
days just hanging around street corners, having a fight with other
young adolescent boys, looking at the girls and contributing to
the household income through a paper round. At 14 he joined The
Co-op but then wanted to escape the monotony of the job and so he
became a trainee electrician. Unfortunately he was no good what
so ever. He then discovered pubs and bars and gradually learned
to play the piano. Then at the age of 17, he was called up for National
Service
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Later he was to return
to the position of trainee electrician but he knew this was a really
bad idea and so he needed to escape. Paris was his destiny he thought
and following the foot steps of many famous artists he wanted to
settle and change the perspective of his life. He wanted to become
a writer, but to survive he had to use the one talent he had learned,
which was the piano. He got a job in a bar and played one tune only.
The tune was the theme from Chaplin's Limelight and he played the
management's favourite tune. A week after he'd been there he realised
the bar was actually a brothel and so struck up a relationship with
one of the 'members of staff'.
This wasn't what he'd planned and
so he returned to Manchester and found a job selling insurance.
He was playing the piano professionally in pubs by now and then
he started singing too. He joined a jazz band and by day changed
jobs selling Hoovers door-to-door.
One night he saw a poster for Max
Wall at the Manchester Hippodrome. They were holding auditions and
Les fancied his chances, so he went for the audition. He was in
and was requested to move down south where the real action was.
He obliged. But a scandal with Max Wall was to shatter the dream
and future for Les. He then found himself playing fishermen's clubs
in Hull while finally coming back to the Hoover job he'd previously
been doing. The gigs were aggressive, the heckling crowds unrelentless.
Les would have a drink to settle the nerves before a gig.
Then there was one gig in Hull one
night. He'd had too much to drink. He staggered onto the stage,
unable to focus on his piano, went to sit on the piano stool and
collapsed on the floor.
"Thank you for that brief spatter of applause that
greeted my appearance on the stage of this renovated fish crate"
Then there was a roar of laughter |
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This
sparked the debut of Les on the Manchester club scene. Working by
day and playing the clubs at night. He was not a man of many great
demands, he just wanted to earn enough money to live a comfortable
existence. In 1960 he married a girl called Meg, quit Hoover again
and had a bad time in other day jobs. His night cabaret job was
on the up and up and soon he managed to get a slot on TV. |
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was his manager who managed to wangle a deal for him to appear on
a show called Comedy Bandbox but alas this was a road to nowhere.
Not down trodden, he decided to audition for Opportunity knocks after
a stint of radio work and he won. 1966 saw him on a show called Blackpool
Night Out and earned him the celebrity status he carried through for
the rest of his career. |
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late 60's saw him in panto in Doncaster and summer seasons at Blackpool,
then in 1968 he had his own show, Sez Les, which was to run for
9 years and feature the actor Roy Barraclough. Then the Beeb took
on Les with The Les Dawson Show and in 1982 The Roly Polys came
into the picture thanks to Les. 1984 saw Wogan step down from Blankety
Blank to make way for the Mancunian marvel. Who stole the show with
his sharp humour and interaction with the celebrity panel. Les talking of the show. |
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Sadly the laughter stopped on the 10th June 1993, as Les aged 60,
passed away, whilst featuring in the ITV light-drama series Demobbed,
in which he played the variety legend Morton Stanley. Yet the legacy
of Les Dawson remains and so does his contribution to British comedy
and Northern comedy. |
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Some
of the best jokes from Les |
The wife's
Mother said, "When you're dead, I'll dance in your grave."
I said: "Good, I'm being buried at sea."
I took my mother-in-law to Madame
Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors, and one of the attendants said, 'Keep
her moving sir, we're stock-taking'
I used to sell furniture for a living.
The trouble was, it was my own.
My wife is a sex object - every time
I ask for sex, she objects.
I saw six men kicking and punching
the mother-in-law. My neighbour said 'Are you going to help?' I
said 'No, Six should be enough."
'Good evening. May I say what a thrill
it is to be in Blackpool - which as you know is Morecambe with O'levels'.
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The
Les Dawson Showcase |
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Of The Union - UK 1968
Sez Les - UK 1969
Holiday With Strings - UK 1974
Les Dawson's Christmas Box - UK 1974
Sounds Like Les Dawson - UK 1974
Dawson's Electric Cinema - UK 1975
The Les Dawson Show - UK 1975
Dawson And Friends - UK 1977
The Les Dawson Show -UK 1978
The Dawson Watch - UK 1979
Blankety
Blank - 1984 |
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