Editing Les Dawson (section)

===Routines and image===
Dawson's style as a comic was world-weary, lugubrious and earthy. Some of his routines featured [[Roy Barraclough]] and himself as elderly Lancashire women, [[Cissie and Ada|Cissie Braithwaite and Ada Shufflebotham]]. Barraclough's character Cissie had pretensions of refinement and corrected Ada's [[malapropism]]s or vulgar expressions.<ref>{{cite web |title=Interview: Steve Nallon #1 – "A celebration of Les"
|date=12 September 2013 |first=John-Paul |last=Stephenson |url=http://www.gigglebeats.co.uk/2013/09/interview-steve-nallon-1-a-celebration-of-les/|work=Giggle Beats}}</ref> As authentic characters of their day, they spoke some words aloud but mouthed others, particularly those pertaining to bodily functions and sex. The characters were based on those Les Dawson knew in real life. He explained that this mouthing of words (or "mee-mawing") was a habit of [[Lancashire]] [[Cotton mill|millworkers]] communicating over the loud noise of [[loom]]s, then resorted to in daily life for indelicate subjects. To further portray the reality of northern, working-class women, Cissie and Ada would sit with folded arms, occasionally adjusting their bosoms by a hoist of the forearms. Many Cissie and Ada sketches were written by Terry Ravenscroft. This was also typical of [[pantomime]] dame style, an act copied from his hero, [[Norman Evans]] and his act ''Over the Garden Wall''. 

Dawson was portly and often dressed in [[John Bull]] costume. In his later BBC television shows he introduced a troupe of fat dancing ladies called the Roly Polys. 

He was a talented pianist but developed a gag in which he played a familiar piece such as [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s ''[[Moonlight Sonata]]'' and then introduced hideously wrong notes (while keeping the tune recognisable) without appearing to realise, smiling unctuously and relishing the accuracy and soul of his own performance.

Having broken his jaw in a [[boxing]] match, he could pull grotesque faces by pulling his jaw over his upper lip. This is described in the first volume of Dawson's autobiography ''A Clown Too Many''.<ref name="jawbreak">{{cite book |last=Dawson |first=Les |author-link= |date=1985 |title=A Clown Too Many |url= |location= |publisher=Fontana/Collins |page=124 |isbn=0-00-637067-5}}</ref>