Les Dawson

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Leslie Dawson Jr. (1931-23), an English comedian, writer, and hostess, who is best known for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona, and quips about his mother-in-law and wife.

Early life

Les Dawson was born in Collyhurst, Manchester, on February 2, 1931, the only child of bricklayer Leslie Dawson, Sr. and Julia Nolan, who was of Irish descent. He started his career in the Manchester Cooperative's parcels department. He served on the Bury Times for a brief period.

Personal life and death

Dawson married Margaret, his first wife, from 25 June 1960 to her death on April 15th, 1986 from cancer. Julie, Pamela, and Stuart had three children: Julie, Pamela and Stuart.

Dawson almost died in February 1985 from a failing prostate gland, which was complicated by blood poisoning. He died of a heart attack in Blackpool on September 3rd, 1988, and spent nine days in hospital.

Tracy Roper, his second wife, married him on May 6th, 1989; she was 17 years younger. Charlotte, the family's daughter who was born on October 3, 1992, had a son, Charlotte.

He died suddenly, aged 62, in June 1993 after suffering from a heart attack at St Joseph's Hospital in Manchester.

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Career

Dawson wrote poetry early in life but kept it private. It was not expected that someone from his working class background would have literary aspirations. He spoke about his passion for canonical figures in English literature, in particular, Charles Lamb, whose florid style inspired Dawson's. Mr. Justice Wainwright and Carter, chief clerk to Sir Wilfrid Robarts Q.C., did, moreover, appear with The Nelson Players in Nelson, Lancashire. In Agatha Christie's play Witness for the Prosecution, December 1956, he was deposed in the Prosecution's testimony.

Dawson said in his autobiography that he began performing as a pianist in a Parisian brothel. When he got laughs by playing wrong notes and yelling to the audience, he turned into a comedian. He appeared on television for the first time in 1967 and spent the remainder of his life as a comedian on British television.

He appeared in a television series called Jokers Wild (1969–73), a television series starring Barry Cryer, Sez Les (1969–76), and Dawson's Weekly (1975), which was released in Yorkshire Television. Since joining the BBC, he has starred in The Dawson Show (1979–80), written by Andy Hamilton and Terry Ravenscroft, and the quiz show Blankety Blank, which he hosted from 1984 to 1990. Dawson appeared on BBC Radio 2 in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he appeared on BBC television's variety show, The Good Old Days. In 1987, Dawson co-hosted Prince Edward Edward's charity television special The Grand Knockout Tournament. When Richard Wilson declined to appear in Victor Meldrew's appearance in BBC sitcom One Foot In The Grave, writer David Renwick considered Dawson for the role, but Wilson changed his mind before being accepted.

Dawson appeared in Nona, a BBC television production of Roberto Cossa's 1977 play La Nona ("Grandma") in the Performance series. In a Buenos Aires household, he was portrayed as a 100-year old, compulsive eater.

Dawson appeared on This Is Your Life twice, first on December 1971 when Eamonn Andrews surprised him on Opportunity Knocks in December 1971, and again on December 21, one of his last television appearances, when Michael Aspel surprised him on stage at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, in December 1992. His last television appearance was on the LWT show Surprise, Surprise hosted by Cilla Black, in which he performed a comedic version of "I Got You Babe" with a woman from the audience who wanted to sing with him. The episode was broadcast shortly after his death.

Dawson was a heavy smoker and drinker. When not working, he would often enjoy a bottle of whisky and smoke 50 cigarettes per day. Dawson was initiated into the Grand Order of Water Rats, the Grand Order of Water Rats, and spent as the order's "King Rat" in 1985.

Dawson also wrote stories. "I always remind them -- I was a writer too," Tracey told his second wife.

Roy Barraclough and Dawson, Cissie Braithwaite, and Ada Shufflebotham were among his signature routines. Cissie's character portrayed Barraclough's refinement and corrected Ada's malapropisms or vulgar terms. They spoke some words aloud but mouthed others, particularly those relating to bodily functions and sex. Les Dawson's characters were based on people who lived in real life. This mouthing of words (or "mee mawing) was a tradition of Lancashire millworkers who argued over the blaring of looms, then returned to daily life for indelicate subjects. Cissie and Ada will sit with folded arms, occasionally lifting their bosoms by a hoist of the forearms, in order to better represent the true representation of northern, working-class women. Terry Ravenscroft wrote many Cissie and Ada sketches. This was also typical of pantomime dame style, an act that was based on Norman Evans' work Over the Garden Wall. Les Dawson was portly and often dressed in John Bull costume. The Roly Polys, a fat lady dancing group, was shown on his BBC television show. Dawson's style as a comedian included world-weary, lugubrious, and earthy.

He was a natural pianist but invented a gag in which he performed a familiar piece such as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and then introduced hideously bad notes (yet not destroying the tune) without appearing to be aware, smiling unctuously and relishing the authenticity and soul of his own work.

He could pull grotesque faces by pulling his jaw across his upper lip after breaking his jaw in a boxing match. In Dawson's autobiography A Clown Too Many, this is described.

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