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I had a feeling that tonight would be an electric RHLSTP and it turned out to be exactly that. Matt Forde was funny and self-deprecating and we had some good back and forth and Les Dennis was open and full of stories from throughout his long and varied career. He’s been on TV for nearly 50 years and there’s no sign of him slowing down. He’s reinvented himself many times and is now forging a path for himself as a respected actor. He’s had to endure all kinds of mockery and abuse and heartbreak in his life and yet here he is, still charming, still funny and still going.
Les and his double act partner Dustin Gee were not only there on the night that Tommy Cooper died, they had to do their act as paramedics tried to save Cooper’s life behind the curtain. The show has always gone on for Les, even when his own double act partner died in a theatre only months later.
There were some great memories of the working man’s club circuit and some of the greats and the less remembered old acts that Les worked alongside as a boy.
Many seventies entertainers’ careers ran into a brick wall when alternative comedy came along and it was interesting to rewatch some of the Laughter Show again and to realise it broadcast in 1986. It was the last hurrah of the variety show, with dancing girls and a twee barbershop quartet doing a song about blowing out a candle and there was even some blacking up. The tornado of alternative comedy would devastate this light entertainment landscape, but within the shiny floor and the yellow suits and eighties jumpers there were some more interesting ideas and even a song about Derek Hatton and Arthur Scargill. Dustin Gee really did have funny bones and Les and him worked very well together. Les talked very movingly about the loss, as well as being candid about the difficulties of being in a double act.
I could relate.
Les said he’d never done a stand up show about his life, but amply displayed tonight that he had the material to do so. As always I was particularly partial to the stories about working with comics of a previous generation. It seems sort of impossible that Les would have worked with Arthur Askey (just as Harry Shearer being in an Abbott and Costello film was mind-blowing) and he also talked about working with Tommy Cooper on other occasions and the way that Barry Cryer was the Kofi Annan betwixt the old style comics and the new. Even though the 80s was a bit of a battlefield as new wave comics took the place of the old and shows like the Laughter Show were consigned to the past.
It’s really great to have these stories told and recorded and I like the idea of comedy historians wading through these podcasts in future years, having to endure the stupid questions about ham hands and auto-fellatio to get to the gold.
I am pretty confident Les will be with us for a good while yet and will have many more stories to tell. But it was utterly wonderful to spend this time with him and he clearly enjoyed himself too. It’s rare to have a job that you are able to enjoy in the moment - there’s too much stress or worry or wondering if it will all come to an end. RHLSTP has none of this. I usually want to move on myself, but I feel like I might do this job for the rest of whatever short time Jesus has planned for me.
Only one more slot to fill on this London run as one of the guests on the 25th March show will be the Do The Right Thing podcast team.
Book here for all remaining shows (though two of them are sold out, but add your name to the waiting list) Hoping to have the other name for that show as well as the guest for Birmingham very soon.
