Comedian Les Dawson starred in this three-part Yorkshire Television series written for him by Alan Plater. The basic premise had come from Dawson, who played himself as a man living on his own halfway up a hill somewhere in Yorkshire.
He walked down the hill into an adventure in the nearest town each day – a world populated by strange publicans, eccentric policemen, useless businessmen, and cheerful subversives.
In the first episode, ‘Dawson’s Complaint’ (7/5/1975), a non-functioning Biro takes Dawson to the heart of big business, where it is explained to him that selling him a working pen would upset the fabric of society.
‘Dawson’s Connection’ (14/5/1975) indulged Plater and Dawson’s love of detective fiction with the bizarre tale of a parcel of forged banknotes and gangsters who quote English poet, satirist and politician Andrew Marvell.
The final episode, ‘Dawson’s Encounter’ (21/5/1975), was a reimagining of Brief Encounter, with Dawson enjoying a chaste romance with a woman he met in a cafeteria (Gillian Raine).
They meet in a pub with Gregorian chants on the juke box, but she flees before the affair becomes too real.
A dramatist with a brilliant comic mind, Plater understood Dawson and superbly tailored the material to the talent.
Dawson
Les Dawson Ted
Reginald Marsh Mave
Anita Carey Jack
George Malpas The Woman
Gillian Raine Charlie
Fred Feast Hilda
Helen Rappaport Sergeant Hardaker
Roy Kinnear Harding
Brian Wilde Miss Douglas
Sharon Maughan Lord Ross & Cromarty
Cyril Luckham Sid
Ted Carroll Ernie
Peter Ellis Jack
Tony Millan
He walked down the hill into an adventure in the nearest town each day – a world populated by strange publicans, eccentric policemen, useless businessmen, and cheerful subversives.
The final episode, ‘Dawson’s Encounter’ (21/5/1975), was a reimagining of Brief Encounter, with Dawson enjoying a chaste romance with a woman he met in a cafeteria (Gillian Raine).
