The Dawson Watch

TV Series
1979–1980
30m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Les Dawson has a team of assistants and a computerised system in "Dawson Control", enabling him to put together footage and reports on the problems of modern society.Les Dawson has a team of assistants and a computerised system in "Dawson Control", enabling him to put together footage and reports on the problems of modern society.Les Dawson has a team of assistants and a computerised system in "Dawson Control", enabling him to put together footage and reports on the problems of modern society.

Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

YOUR RATING

Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Episodes19

Browse episodes

TopTop-rated3 seasons2 years

Photos30

+ 24

Top cast99+

Edit

Les Dawson

Self…

• 1979–1980

Roy Barraclough

Cissie

• 1979–1980

Gordon Peters

Jacob Marley…

• 1979–1980

Daphne Oxenford

Mrs. Despond

• 1979–1980

Vicki Michelle

Sandra

• 1979–1980

Debbi Blythe

• 1979–1980

Michael Sharvell-Martin

Ghost of Christmas Present…

• 1979–1980

Neville Barber

Geoffrey Livingstone MP…

• 1979–1980

Jay Neill

• 1979–1980

John Pennington

• 1979–1980

Robin Parkinson

Bob Cratchit…

• 1979–1980

• 1979–1980

• 1979

• 1979

Dawson Control Girl

• 1980

David Rowlands

• 1979

Kirsten Cooke

• 1979–1980

Roland MacLeod

• 1979

User reviews3

6.921

Featured reviews

4stellastreet

Dire

My opinion of Les Dawson has gone down since watching all of The Dawson Watch.

Series 1 contained some great sketches introduced by Dawson, belonging to the same style as The Frost Report and Not the Nine O'Clock News, but series 2 and 3, with Dawson appearing in the sketches and joining the writing team of Andy Hamilton and Terry Ravenscroft, were miserable affairs. Overlong sketches, Dawson often underrehearsed, the jarring slapping of the ladies' bottoms in the 'control room', and not particularly funny recurring characters all added up to a show that almost sent you to sleep to miss the few good lines that made it through.

There are some notable cameos in the sketches, such at Johnny Ball, Robin Parkin, and Peter Blake who plays a DJ in one episode almost identical to his character in the excellent Agony.

I am grateful to Simply Media for releasing these shows on DVD, but cannot imagine wanting to sit through it all again.

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
Les wrote fondly of The Dawson Watch, particularly in comparison to The Les Dawson Show (1978), which, while eventually resurrected in 1982, had run for just one series before The Dawson Watch began.

In his 1984 autobiography "A Clown Too Many", Les stated: "The Les Dawson Show ended its run on television, and nobody noticed its demise. But I knew it had harmed my career, for when I played cabaret dates, the halls had vacant tables, history was repeating its charms. The BBC came up with an idea for a series during the summer run at the Spa Theatre, Bridlington in 1978. It was a spin off from an American show hosted by that sardonic comedian Alan King. The idea was a sort of comic 'watchdog' programme. I saw a video of it and the theme was to take on all the situations that beset people, like the law or medicine and put humour into stock procedures such as house conveyancing or the National Health. The programme appealed to me, and we arranged to start taping the series in late September.

[...] it was produced by Peter Whitmore, a very able man who steered the show along nicely. The set was in the shape of a giant computer with two or three lovely long-legged girls walking about with note books and pencils to give it an air of efficiency. The Dawson Watch, although not perfect, did much to wipe out the memory of the previous series and to my astonishment, it appealed to a higher intellectual bracket."