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Sez Les: Volume Two (TV)
R2 - United Kingdom - Network Review written by and copyright: Paul Lewis (25th May 2009). |
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The Show
 
A classic 1970s sketch-based comedy show, Sez Les (Yorkshire, 1969-76) was created as a vehicle for the gruff Les Dawson, the Manchester-born comedian who made his television debut on the long-running variety show Opportunity Knocks (ABC-Thames, 1956-78) in 1967. Featuring input from writers including Dawson himself, Barry Cryer, John Cleese and David Nobbs, like many of its contemporary sketch shows Sez Les features a mixture of monologues (by Les, and sometimes by his guests), comic sketches and musical performances from guests. 
This three-disc second volume includes episodes from the fifth and sixth series of Sez Les, originally broadcast between 1972 and 1973. Series five saw the series restructured, and in acknowledgement of this the first episode in this set begins with Dawson declaring ‘When you’ve seen this show, it’ll put bloody years on you. Despite the fact that we’ve been given an earlier programme of 45 minutes duration, I can assure our fans that it’s the same cheaply produced bilge’. Perhaps due to the expanded running time, these episodes feature more frequent musical performances than any other sketch show – there are certainly more musical performances per episode here than in comparative episodes of The Two Ronnies (BBC, 1971-87) or The Morecambe and Wise Show (BBC, 1968-77). This is unfortunate, as these musical performances tend to be very ephemeral, performed by rising stars of the era who have largely been forgotten by most people: the chief draw for a collection such as this is the quality of the sketches and comic monologues, which are mostly first-rate. (For example, in the second episode there is a very funny and suprisingly prescient sketch featuring Dawson as a drunk man who is ‘celebrating’ his separation from his wife in a pub that is completely automated.) That said, there are some very good musical performances here too, including Johnny Nash performing ‘I Can See Clearly Now’. 
Dawson’s skits and monologues tend to revolve around his stage persona as a grumpy misanthrope, which at this stage in Dawson’s career had been firmly established; evidence of this can be found in the Dawson-starring situation comedy Dawson’s Weekly (Yorkshire, 1975), written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. By series four of Sez Les, Dawson had also established a strong working relationship with Roy Barraclough; working together on Sez Les, Barraclough and Dawson created the iconic comic characters Cissie and Ada, who featured in many sketches both in Sez Les and elsewhere, including the famous ‘Naughty. But Nice’ advertisements for cream cakes. 
Although there do not appear to be any censor edits, in episode one there is a curious moment during which the assumed identity of the recurring superhero parody ‘Superflop’ has been eliminated from the audio track – perhaps for legal reasons. 
Video
Shot on video, these episodes look very good. They are presented in their original broadcast screen ratio of 4:3.
Audio
Audio is presented via a two-channel monophonic track, which is problem free, aside from the curious anomaly noted above. There are no subtitles.
Extras
There are no extra features.
Overall
Les Dawson was arguably one of British television comedy’s greatest performers. Whilst Sez Les isn’t quite as good as, say, The Two Ronnies or The Morecambe and Wise Show, the series was a great vehicle for Les Dawson’s talents. This second volume of episodes from Sez Les is more than welcome, and for fans of sketch-based humour or of 1970s comedy this set comes with a very high recommendation. For more information, please visit the homepage of Network DVD.
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