First viewed : Uncertain
I don't know when I first caught on to Les. His ITV show Sez Les finished in October 1976 which seems too early and his return on the BBC in The Les Dawson Show in January 1978 seems too late. I'm guessing that perhaps there was a repeat of the former in 1977 which would be about right.
Most of Les's most famous characters were introduced on Sez Les , including the celebrated double act with Roy Barraclough as two gossipy Northern harridans, Cissie and Ada. My favourite though was Cosmo Smallpiece , the short-sighted loser whose sexual starvation leads to eruptions of manic behaviour. I remember a great sight gag where Cosmo is running frantically up a descending escalator to paw at an advert for ladies underwear.
I don't remember the out of tune piano playing until the BBC show but I always found that hilarious too.
I always had affection for Les as a traditional Northern comic made good but I think doing Blankety Blank was a mistake which eroded his reputation. Les had no regular TV spot at the time of his death in 1993 but I wouldn't have bet against him making a comeback. Instead he died in hospital of a heart attack while awaiting the results of a routine check-up for insurance purposes. One likes to think he was conscious long enough to appreciate the irony.
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