"There was a knock at the door and I knew it was the wife's mother - because the mice were throwing themselves at the trap" Nobody could tell a mother-in-law joke like Les Dawson, but there was always far much more to him than this workingmen's club school of humour - at which he was admittedly, unrivalled. For as well as being a superb stand-up comedian, Les Dawson was also a first-rate pianist, an excellent pantomime artist, a sketch-artist, writer and had even played in a jazz band in his time. In his later years, he made an anarchic success of both Blankety Blank and Opportunity Knocks, but it was with his own variety shows, like The Les Dawson Show that you got to see the full panoply of his talents.