Les Dawson

A celebration of the comedian’s career that includes tales about shaggy dogs, vintage sketches, and his partnerships with famous people like Roy Barraclough, Shirley Bassey, and John Cleese.

Through previously unseen footage and clips, we reveal a very different side to the late comedian Les Dawson's public persona and discover the real Les away from the spotlight.

The history of British comedy from the 1970s to today, showing how the work of Reeves and Mortimer provided a link between old-style acts such as Bernard Manning and modern phenomena like Little Britain.

Les Dawson made the mother-in-law joke his stock-in-trade, but this master of stand-up comedy would play his audience with a rich array of comic talents. His deadpan "northern" delivery, a rubber-like miserable face (which he himself described as resembling "a sack of spanners"), his fishwife impersonations, comic monologues and a unique talent for just-off-key piano playing would leave them screaming for more. His sour, downturned grin, his cheeky flash of the eyes and an audience in uncontrollable hysterics are among the memories gleaned here as Les comperes Blankety Blank and Opportunity Knocks and displays his full range of comic talents in The Les Dawson Show.

British production of Argentinan Roberto Cossa's play, set in Argentina in 1982. Nona is an elderly woman who is causing a drain on the resources of her entire family, with her constant craving for food and demands, which everybody indulges, in spite of falling into prostitution and bankruptcy. Her two grandsons hit on the idea of marrying her off to an elderly man who runs a tobacconists and sweet kiosk, however, the latter believes that Chico is trying to hitch him up with the beautiful young Marta.

The Grand Knockout Tournament (colloquially also known as It's a Royal Knockout) was a one-off charity event which was shown on British television on 19 June 1987. It followed the format of It's a Knockout, a slapstick TV gameshow which was broadcast in the UK until 1982. The event was staged on the lakeside lawn of the Alton Towers stately home-cum-theme park.

Skits from: "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin"; "The Les Dawson Show"; "Yes Minister"; "Only Fools and Horses"; "Three of a Kind"; "Last of the Summer Wine"; "Sorry!"; "Butterflies"; "Smith and Jones"; and "Open All Hours".

A comedy set in the 1920s with Les Dawson (as his own grandfather) and family running a flea-pit cinema.

Les Dawson invites some familiar friends to join him in this one off special in which he performs sketches and musical numbers. Watch out for a rare clip of Les actually playing the piano properly.