Dawson’s Weekly

1 9 7 5 (UK)
7 x 30 minute episodes

Rubber-faced comedian Les Dawson tried his hand at sitcom on Thursday nights in June and July of 1975 with a little help from legendary comedy writing duo Ray Galton and Alan Simpson and co-star Roy Barraclough.

The main titles opened with Les – wearing a leather Hell’s Angels-style biker jacket with ‘Darby & Joan Club, Leeds’ written on the back and a long white scarf – riding his motorbike which he called ‘Gladys’.

Les ranged from being a resting actor (“Stage-Struck”) to a childminder (“The Clerical Error”) and found himself on a sleeper train to Scotland (“Strangers in the Night”), looking to inherit on a will (“Where There’s a Will”), stuck in hospital (“Accident Prone”), and waiting to see if he had won the pools (“All Pools Day”).

The series was not as successful as his sketch show Sez Les (1969 – 1976) and Dawson did not look comfortable in a sitcom. He would return to sketch show format for his future television forays.

Also in 1975, Dawson starred in the one-hour ITV special Dawson’s Electric Cinema, set in a 1920s flea-pit, and in The Loner, an ITV series of three plays written by Alan Plater.

Switching to the BBC, he produced the successful Les Dawson Show (1978 – 1989) and The Dawson Watch (1979 – 1980). In 1984 he took over Terry Wogan’s ‘wand’ to present the game show Blankety Blank.

Les Dawson died on 10 June 1993, aged 60.