Les Dawson

{{Infobox person

|name = Les Dawson

|image = Les Dawson.jpg

|image_size =

|birth_name = Leslie Dawson

|birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1931|2|2}}

|birth_place = Collyhurst, Manchester, England

|death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1993|6|10|1931|2|2}}

|death_place = Whalley Range, Manchester, England

|resting_place = Lytham Park Cemetery and Crematorium, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England

|occupation = {{hlist|Comedian|actor|writer|presenter|pianist}}

|years_active = 1956–1993

|spouse = {{marriage|Margaret Rose Plant|1960|1986|reason=her death}}The Annual Obituary, St James Press, 1993, p. 464
{{marriage|Tracy Roper|1989}}

|children = 4

}}

Leslie Dawson (2 February 1931 – 10 June 1993) was an English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and pianist. He was known for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona, musical routines, and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.

Early life

Les Dawson was born in Collyhurst, Manchester, on 2 February 1931,{{Cite web |title=Les Dawson {{!}} British comedian |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Les-Dawson |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024233809/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Les-Dawson |archive-date=24 October 2019 |access-date=25 April 2022 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}} the only child of bricklayer Leslie Dawson (2 August 1905 – 10 April 1970) and Julia Nolan (14 January 1908 – 29 September 1957), who was of Irish descent.{{Cite ODNB|id=51827|title=Dawson, Leslie [Les] (1931–1993)}} His first job was in the parcels department of the Manchester Co-op.{{cite news

|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-les-dawson-1490938.html | title=Obituary: Les Dawson | first=Nick | last=Smurthwaite | date=11 June 1993 | newspaper=The Independent | access-date=15 June 2013 }} He worked briefly as a journalist on the Bury Times.

Career

Early in life, Dawson wrote poetry and kept it secret. It was not expected that someone of his working class background would have literary ambitions. In a BBC Television documentary, he spoke of his love for canonical figures in English literature, in particular the 19th-century essayist Charles Lamb, whose florid style influenced Dawson's. As a young man he appeared with The Nelson Players in Nelson, Lancashire as Mr Justice Wainwright and Carter, chief clerk to Sir Wilfrid Robarts QC in Agatha Christie's play Witness for the Prosecution in December 1956.

Dawson wrote in his autobiography that he had a job as a pianist in a Parisian brothel.{{cite web | url= https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/urban-myths-series-4-review-les-dawson-paris-brothel-steve-pemberton-682663 | title= Urban Myths: Les Dawson's Parisian Adventure, Sky Arts, review: A funny, but surprisingly touching, tribute to the comedian | work=inews.co.uk | first=Emily | last=Baker | date=7 October 2020 | access-date=6 July 2023}} Making a living as a pianist evolved into comedy when he got laughs from deliberately bad piano-playing by playing "all the wrong notes in exactly the right order"{{cite web | url= https://theartsdesk.com/node/88517/view | title= Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Les Dawson: Flying High / Boris III

| work=The Arts Desk | first=Veronica | last=Lee | date=7 August 2022 | access-date=6 July 2023}} and complaining to the audience. He first rose to public prominence on the talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1967 and worked as a comic on British television for the rest of his life.

Television series in which he appeared included the panel game Jokers Wild (1969–73) hosted by Barry Cryer, Sez Les (1969–76) and Dawson's Weekly (1975), all for Yorkshire Television. After joining the BBC, his TV projects were The Dawson Watch (1979–80), written by Andy Hamilton and Terry Ravenscroft, The Les Dawson Show (1978–89), written by Terry Ravenscroft, and the quiz show Blankety Blank, which he presented from 1984 until its cancellation in 1990. Dawson starred in Listen to Les on BBC Radio 2 in the 1970s and 1980s.

He made many appearances on BBC Television's variety show, The Good Old Days, in the 1970s and 1980s. Dawson co-hosted Prince Edward's charity television special The Grand Knockout Tournament in 1987. When Richard Wilson turned down the part of Victor Meldrew in the BBC sitcom One Foot In The Grave, writer David Renwick considered Dawson for the role, but Wilson changed his mind before it was offered.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/26/victor-meldrew-role-les-dawson-one-foot-grave-in-grave-richard-wilson|title=I don't believe it! Victor Meldrew role almost went to Les Dawson|first=John|last=Plunkett|date=26 July 2016|newspaper=The Guardian}}

In 1991, Dawson starred in the BBC television production of Nona, an adaptation of the 1977 play La Nona ("Grandma") by Roberto Cossa for the Performance series. Performing in drag, he was cast as a 100-year old, compulsive eater in a Buenos Aires household.{{Cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7b749ff0|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170310074327/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7b749ff0|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 March 2017|title = Nona (1991)}}

Dawson was the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions, in December 1971 when Eamonn Andrews surprised him on Opportunity Knocks,{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}} and again 21 years later, in what would be one of his last television appearances, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel on stage at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, at the curtain call of the pantomime Dick Whittington in December 1992.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}} His final TV appearance was on the LWT series Surprise, Surprise hosted by Cilla Black, in which he sang a comic rendition of "I Got You Babe" with a woman from the audience who wanted to sing with him. The episode was aired shortly after his death.

Dawson was a heavy smoker and drinker. When not working he would often drink a bottle of whisky and smoke 50 cigarettes a day.{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/sep/29/les-dawson-wife-daughter-joke-book | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Nick |last=McGrath | title=Looking after Les Dawson's legacy| date=29 September 2012|access-date=10 September 2013}} Dawson was initiated into the famous show business fraternity, the Grand Order of Water Rats and served as that order's "King Rat" in 1985.{{Cite web |title=Past King Rats 1966-2018 |url=https://www.gowr.co.uk/our-history/past-king-rats-1966-2018/ |access-date=2025-02-06 |website=www.gowr.co.uk}}

Dawson also wrote novels.{{cite news |first=Andrew |last=Dipper |url=http://www.gigglebeats.co.uk/2013/09/ray-peacocks-tribute-to-les-dawson/ |title=Ray Peacock's tribute to Les Dawson |date=9 September 2013 |work=Giggle Beats |access-date=10 September 2013}} He told his second wife, Tracy, "Always remind them – I was a writer too.""The Unforgettable Les Dawson", ITV, 11 December 2000

=Routines and image=

Dawson's style as a comic was world-weary, lugubrious and earthy. Some of his routines featured Roy Barraclough and himself as elderly Lancashire women, Cissie Braithwaite and Ada Shufflebotham. Barraclough's character Cissie had pretensions of refinement and corrected Ada's malapropisms or vulgar expressions.{{cite web |title=Interview: Steve Nallon #1 – "A celebration of Les"

|date=12 September 2013 |first=John-Paul |last=Stephenson |url=http://www.gigglebeats.co.uk/2013/09/interview-steve-nallon-1-a-celebration-of-les/|work=Giggle Beats}} As authentic characters of their day, they spoke some words aloud but mouthed others, particularly those pertaining to bodily functions and sex. The characters were based on those Les Dawson knew in real life. He explained that this mouthing of words (or "mee-mawing") was a habit of Lancashire millworkers communicating over the loud noise of looms, then resorted to in daily life for indelicate subjects. To further portray the reality of northern, working-class women, Cissie and Ada would sit with folded arms, occasionally adjusting their bosoms by a hoist of the forearms. Many Cissie and Ada sketches were written by Terry Ravenscroft. This was also typical of pantomime dame style, an act copied from his hero, Norman Evans and his act Over the Garden Wall.

Dawson was portly and often dressed in John Bull costume. In his later BBC television shows he introduced a troupe of fat dancing ladies called the Roly Polys.

He was a talented pianist but developed a gag in which he played a familiar piece such as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and then introduced hideously wrong notes (while keeping the tune recognisable) without appearing to realise, smiling unctuously and relishing the accuracy and soul of his own performance.

Having broken his jaw in a boxing match, he could pull grotesque faces by pulling his jaw over his upper lip. This is described in the first volume of Dawson's autobiography A Clown Too Many.{{cite book |last=Dawson |first=Les |author-link= |date=1985 |title=A Clown Too Many |url= |location= |publisher=Fontana/Collins |page=124 |isbn=0-00-637067-5}}

Personal life and death

Dawson was married to his first wife, Margaret, from 25 June 1960 until her death on 15 April 1986 from cancer. They had three children: Julie, Pamela and Stuart. Dawson nearly died in February 1985 from a failing prostate gland, complicated by blood poisoning.{{cite book |last=Dawson |first=Les |author-link= |date=1985 |title=A Clown Too Many |url= |location= |publisher=Fontana/Collins |page=266 |isbn=0-00-637067-5}} On 3 September 1988, he suffered a heart attack in Blackpool and spent nine days in hospital.Liverpool Echo - 5 September 1988. He married his second wife, Tracy Roper, on 6 May 1989; she was 17 years younger.{{Cite web |last=Simpson |first=John |date=2019-02-19 |title=Les Dawson |url=https://britishcomedyradio.org/les-dawson/ |access-date=2022-08-02 |website=British Comedy Radio |language=en-US}} They had a daughter, Charlotte, who was born on 3 October 1992.{{cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/charlotte-dawson-enjoys-night-out-10115744|title=Charlotte Dawson has a night out in Barcelona with her mum Tracy|first=Jennifer|last=Crothers|website=Daily Mirror |date=28 March 2017|access-date=13 April 2018}} He died suddenly, aged 62, on 10 June 1993 from a heart attack, during treatment for a heart complaint at St Joseph's Hospital in Longsight, Manchester.

Legacy

On 23 October 2008, 15 years after his death, a bronze statue by Graham Ibbeson was unveiled by his widow Tracy and daughter Charlotte in the ornamental gardens next to the pier in St Anne's-on-Sea, Lancashire, where Dawson lived for many years.{{cite news |title=Dawson statue unveiled by family |publisher=bbc.co.uk |date=23 October 2008 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/7685723.stm |access-date=13 November 2008}}

In the Comedians' Comedian, a three-hour programme on UK's Channel 4 on 1 January 2005, Dawson was 37th in the top 50 comedians of all time, voted by fellow comedians and business insiders.{{cite web|url=http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2004/12/01/26/the_comedians_comedian|title=The comedians' comedian|date=1 December 2004|work=Chortle.co.uk|access-date=1 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130115750/http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2004/12/01/26/the_comedians_comedian|archive-date=30 January 2016}}

The BBC broadcast, on BBC Two, The Many Faces of Les Dawson, a retrospective, on Christmas Eve 2011.

On 1 June 2013 ITV broadcast Les Dawson: An Audience with That Never Was. The programme featured a Pepper's ghost projection of Dawson, presenting content for a 1993 edition of An Audience with... to be hosted by Dawson but unused due to his death two weeks before recording.{{cite news |first=Brian |last=Logan |title=Can a hologram Les Dawson tell 'em like he used to?|newspaper=The Guardian |date= 31 May 2013|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/31/hologram-les-dawson-comedian-last-show |access-date=10 September 2013}} The show served as a tribute and featured celebrities including Bruce Forsyth, Cilla Black, Terry Wogan and Ken Dodd.{{cite web|url=http://tvguide.co.uk/detail.asp?id=158021263|title=TV Guide UK|website=TVGuide.co.uk|access-date=13 April 2018}} Also among the audience were Dawson's widow Tracy and daughter Charlotte.

On 10 February 2014, the BBC reported that Dawson's daughter Charlotte had found a 110-page "unpublished story of love and mystery, titled An Echo of Shadows, [that] was written under the name Maria Brett-Cooper...".[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26065349 "Les Dawson wrote secret romantic novel in woman's name"] at BBC News, accessed 13 September 2014.

In 2020, Les Dawson's early years in Paris were portrayed in Sky Arts' series Urban Myths in the episode Les Dawson's Parisienne Adventure, with Mark Addy as the older Les and John Bradley as young Les.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13188544/?ref_=ttep_ep1|title=IMDb – Urban Myths – Les Dawson's Parisienne Adventure|website=IMDb |access-date=9 October 2020}}

In 2022, Jon Culshaw portrayed Dawson as part of The Edinburgh Assembly's Fringe programme.{{Cite web |title=Impressionist Jon Culshaw on paying a heartfelt tribute to Les Dawson with his new Edinburgh Festival Fringe |url=https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/impressionist-jon-culshaw-on-paying-a-heartfelt-tribute-to-les-dawson-with-his-new-edinburgh-festival-fringe-show-3641590 |access-date=2022-04-06 |website=www.scotsman.com |date=6 April 2022 |language=en}}

Books

;Fiction:

Card for the Clubs (1974)
The Spy Who Came... (1976)
Cosmo Smallpiece Guide to Male Liberation (1979)
The Amy Pluckett Letters (1982) / Hitler Was My Mother-in-Law (1984)*
A Time Before Genesis (1986)
Come Back with the Wind (1990)
Well Fared, My Lovely (1991)
The Blade and the Passion (1994)

;Non-fiction:

Les Dawson's Lancashire (1983)
A Clown Too Many (autobiography, 1986)
No Tears for the Clown (autobiography, 1992)
Malady Lingers on and Other Great Groaners
Les Dawson Gives Up
The Les Dawson Joke Book
Les Dawson's Secret Notebooks
Title changed for paperback release.{{cite book |last=Dawson |first=Les |author-link= |date=1985 |title=A Clown Too Many |url= |location= |publisher=Fontana/Collins |page=257 |isbn=0-00-637067-5}}