The modern day criticism of these characters is that they are misogynist stereotypes, but it’s from people who are too young to remember actual women who were exactly like this! :D
My mum was a Lancashire Lass who worked in the cotton mills. I can confirm these guys have those ladies down to a tee. Edna from next door used to always walk in unannounced for a cup of tea and a chinwag and I would listen to their unintentionally hilarious tales. RIP Mum n Edna x
I remember my mum stood on the doorstep telling me about "what your father has done", with her arms crossed in that style of Les Dawson. Brings joy to my heart and an uproarious laugh as I remember. RIP mum, you were the best.
For those of us of a certain age, and especially from Northern towns and Cities, Cissie and Ada, were mirror images in looks, sounds and mannerisms of our Grandma's
Les Dawson was very under appreciated. A very intelligent man but rarely (if ever) offensive and with a clown comic manner. Miss him and his Mother-in-Law jokes a lot
A bit backstory to the two characters, they were Lancashire lasses who used to work in the cotton mills, these were very noisy factories and the workers there developed the ability to lip read as they couldn’t hear each other’s voices. So when in conversation it came to something that was embarrassing or they didn’t want anyone to hear they would mouth the words rather than speak them.
Les Dawson was actually a comedy genius and his delivery was so dry it made it even funnier. Love this clip and your infectious laughter makes me laugh more.
The Cissie and Ada skits were based on an even older British comedian called Norman Evans who did a skit called 'Over the Garden Wall'. It was done as a monologue of a woman (Evans in drag) talking to a neighbour over the garden wall. An example from 1950 is here: ua-cam.com/video/0XkG46bgVgc/v-deo.html
i was going to say that very good he was to iv made a study of comedy over the decades and its amazing how the same jokes get rehashed and used again, same with sketches etc , look at hilda baker with her stooge cynthia ,and victoria wood sketch with kimberly , you dont see kimberly as you did cynthia but basically the same comedy is a gift and unfortunately the PC brigade have left nothing to be laughed at ,
@@tinamiles9328 and yet you just watched this and laughed, and no one has come breaking down your door to take you off to the concentration camp ... can't be as bad as you think, can it?
I'm so glad you watched this, there are many more Cissy and Ada sketches to watch. the reason that they sometimes mouth words to each other when talking is, because most of the old women had worked in mills up in the North. so most of the woman could lipread and do so when talking about something private or using a rude word.
As a bus driver I can say l knew many dear ladies like these. Very lovable. Chindits are a branch of British and commonwealth soldiers that operated behind enemy lines in the jungle WWII. I met one once in Manchester traveling with me. He wore the Burma Star.
There were old ladies like this in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. They would often lip read and whenever the conversation got at all taboo or risqué they would mouth the sentence or final few words. They would often get things wrong and mishear things too.
It was fantastic observational comedy because I knew these 'stereotypes' from the 1960s and for much later. Older women WERE like this. BTW Cissy meant a Barium meal, but said Bavarian. My mother was like that. They chose a word to fit if they couldn't remember.
Overheard two old dears on a bus one day when one mentioned her newborn grandchild was premature and had to be rushed to the incinerator. I hope she meant incubator. I couldn't help but laugh and in fairness I probably earned the look of disgust they both gave me.
They were so so funny. I was watching them on UA-cam at Jersey airport whilst waiting on our flight home, just before the world closed down! I sat for ages watching them with the sound turned down as low as possible so as not to disturb the other passengers waiting. A couple got up for their flight, stopped next to me and asked if I was watching Roy Barraclough and Les Dawson! They could see my shoulders shaking with laughter, they said watch I don’t miss my flight 😂. Just loved Cissy and Ada, all British seaside humour, now long gone
The Chindits was a unit of the British 14th Army in Burma in WW2, led by Orde Wingate, which carried out long range missions behind Japanese lines. Les Dawson was a genius with word play comedy. He also had a radio show introducing characters like Wotan, Man Of Steel and The Desponds. Hilarious.
I remember women like this from my childhood. In fact, I know a woman a bit like this today and if she doesn't know a word she'll never be at a loss to make one up. She's hilarious 😂
my wife's like that, in the middle of a crowded pub she once said to me rather loudly "oh for goodness sake don't be so promiscuous".....she meant pedantic! needless to say I got some funny stares....
@@jonathancole833 actually this woman puts me in mind of Hilda, she says everything with great sincerity which makes it all the funnier. The only one I can think of at this point isn't hilarious but still makes me smile. She talks often about someone who better not make advantages towards her. Brilliant. She makes me smile and that's a lovely thing 🙂
Loved your reaction ❤️ Les Dawson’s character Ada, is exactly like my grandma. She was Lancashire lady, 5ft 2”, and um..well endowed. I’ve often wondered if Les based Ada on my grandma 😂
Saw Les live in Bridlington in the mid 1970's, Cissie (Roy Barraclough) sat next to me as the sketch required he came out from the audience. Didn't know it was him, thought it was some weird old lady. Hilarious live as they went further than you could go on the TV in those days. A great pairing, trying to make each other laugh.
Roy Barraclough was an incredibly versitile actor.I kind man when asked to pose for photos.Where I live he would sit in the local cafes and watch people to gain experience for the roles.
Like many others, these characters were a take on women everyone would recognise at the time. I grew up in Lancashire, my Nan was a former weaver. There was also a reserve among working class women and anything even remotely “delicate” was mouthed. I can remember them discussing -with only a few audible words - the sadness of a woman who had been in hospital and “had to have it all taken away you know” meaning she had a hysterectomy. Les Dawson was brilliant and still makes me laugh out loud.
My favourite Cissy & Ada sketch was about Ada's Greek holiday. Cissy: Did you have the sheesh kebabs? Ada: From the moment we arrived Cissy: Did you go to the Acropolis? Ada: I was never off it!
"Bavarian meal" refers to barium meal...a substance swallowed by the patient before x-ray to highlight any problems in the digestive tract. Very old name for a very old treatment.
in the seventies we were in Blackpool, i remember an old woman sat like les, legs wide open, looking like a string of sausages, my brother and myself were sniggering and laughing, then both of us felt blows on the back of heads from our mother. she dragged us over to the old lady and made us apologise.
When I was a kid, our next door neighbour used to do the thing of just mouthing certain words when talking to my Mum - so these two characters always remind me of that.
Thanks for doing another Les Dawson (with the late great Roy Barra .. cloff!). This wasn't their best sketch by a mile, but gives you a flavour. Definitely worth seeing other Les Dawson characters on his show. What shows his skill best of all is his piano recitals in full regalia where he gets one note wrong. Absolutely side splittingly funny, and by the accounts of many who were interviewed about him, took tremendous talent (and a straight or nodding face to the audience as if nothing happened). Big shout for Ken Dodd if you find the time and the material. He's up there with the Two Ronnies, I promise.
Have a look on UA-cam for Norman Evans doing “Over the garden wall”.Les Dawson was always honest that Ada was a homage to Norman Evans who was one of his personal comedy heroes.
I worked in nursing and healthcare until relatively recently (like within the last decade still) and can confirm there's still older ladies - and gents - just like that still today 'up north'! I remember in primary school aged around 7 for whatever reason we were putting on some school play and they had a girl playing basically this sort of character, but they'd got an old polyester dress and a belt and someone decided to put two balloons or balls (like the ones in junior school, smaller than a football), something like that into the top part of the dress costume. But only on the actual evening of the performance, so she ended up delivering half her lines while unknowingly doing a cracking les dawson impression!! I remember the adults - parents and teachers etc - found it hilarious but didn't understand exactly why until years later. as kids it was just silly-funny. I reckon the teacher who decided to do it (suggest the balloons) knew exactly what they were doing!
I remember women like these two. They wouldn't speak out loud about womens troubles but would mouth words it was a universal language that all women seemed to understand. Funny thing is as i get older i find i do it . Back in the day women were not offended by this sort of comedy. Everyone is so sensitive now. I know what times i prefer. We had the best comics, and i still love them now.
The silent mouthing of words is in charactor for the women in the area who worked in cotton mills and learned to read lips over the noise of the mill machines and contiuned to speak silent words even in their free time :)
They also mouthed words because it was considered common or rude to discuss certain topics. Private parts, women's trouble, nethers 😉, toilets At a certain time there were women like this 😁
She was referring to a Barium Meal - it's a thick milkshake-like drink that they give you in hospital. they take X-rays to see if you have any reflux after swallowing. Before gastroscopies, it was used to detect duodenal/gastric ulcers. Ada said it was a Bavarian Meal!
He gave her a Bavarian meal ( Bavaria is a German state, capital is Munich) she meant to say a Barium meal( a liquid that is visible on x-ray to see what happens when you swallow during a gastro intestinal examinations).
You don't see many of these old ladies anymore, but there was a time women wouldn't DREAM of leaving the house without a coat , handbag and hat or headscarf. They'd be "showing themselves up" if they weren't presentable in public. Now you go to the shops and there's women in pyjamas or crop tops and hot pants on a 300lb hippo of a thing.
I worked in a gynae operating theatre years ago, the sister would always call a hysterectomy an hystericalrectomy. Still call it that today though I now work in the neurosurgery theatres.
I'm from Yorkshire, a good ground for work class comedy and people and this sketch is exact to the period it was made across the UK plus other countries I imagine, not only Yorkshire. When I was a kid in the 80's, I remember women like this. My grandmother was one with her friends in the local area. The way they used to communicate with odd mannerisms is absolutely true! Actually, it used to drive me mad and I had to leave the house 😃
I was lucky enough to see Les Dawson live while on holiday when I was 9 or 11, I think it was 9. What I didn't know at the time was that my parents had told the box office that it was my birthday that week and they wanted me to go on stage with him to sing happy birthday. Being the scared kid that I was I didn't go up, but everyone did sing happy birthday. I regret not going on stage now but I did meet him afterwards. I don't know who was happier to meet him, me or my dad.
There was a documentary where Les went and spoke to the ladies who used to work in the mills, and explained the reason that they talked like they did, and could lip read. The noise from the machines was so loud that no-one could hear anything but the machines, so the gestures and lip reading evolved from there, plus (as @Paul Maxey has stated further down the comments) Les also used the old school comedians he had grown up with, such as Norman Evans.
My mum was born in 1933 and when I was a kid in the 70's this could have been her and one of our neighbours talking over the garden fence, anything and everything which happened to anyone locally would travel along the mum grapevine like wildfire! Les Dawson was hilarious, we'd never miss an episode when I was a kid.
There’s a Sissy and Ada sketch set in a cocktail bar which isn’t on UA-cam, features the exchange: Ada: “Would you like a Harvey Wallbanger?” Sissy: “I think I’ll have drink first!”
Hi Alan, I love watching your reactions and your appreciation for our comedy in the UK. Les Dawson was a clever wordsmith and very funny. I would like to recommend a tv comedy series called "Vicious" starring Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Derek Jacobi. They play an older gay couple Freddie and Stuart that have been together for almost 50yrs. They constantly insult each other. Freddie is outrageous with his sarcasm and scathing remarks. There was only 14 episodes made 2013 - 2016. Watching 2 of th Uk's finest actors in this hilarious sitcom is a hoot.
Les was great as hostvof a quiz show called Blankety Blank. Superb how he would criticise the standard of prizes or the celebrity guests for giving poor answers. He really was a superb all-round entertainer.
This is from memory, but I'm sure that Les Dawson once said that he worked in a very noisy factory with a lot of women workers. The women used to talk to each other with exaggerated mouth movements, almost a form of lip reading because of the noise. That is where he got that part of his act from, and it's something I used to see women do when younger and they didn't want you understanding them; it worked. This is not classed as the Queens English, and so if you can understand half of what was said, you are a small minority of Americans and well done for that. I was once asked about an IT colleague by a female director of a company I worked for, and I couldn't think of a suitable word for him, so I made a word up. He is very Shavonce I stated, and she was impressed with the term and stated she had never heard that word and asked me about the word. I just admitted that I had made the word up, but it seemed very him.
Oh help! The way Les sits showing off those directors knickers took me back to my school days, in the 1970’s , we had a female teacher who wore them and sat like that. She sat at the old high domanie desk with the high chair circa 1905. Made ye keep yer eyes down and on your work🤣🏴🏴
Another good Les Dawson one to watch is the Candle in Cumbria joke. 4mins of having people dying laughing by just pulling faces. You won't regret that one! 🤣🤣
There's another sketch on UA-cam where they play waitresses, and Roy Barraclough obviously changes his line slightly from what was in the script, and Les Dawson just about loses it completely. Dawson had just put his hand in a cream cake and Barraclough said: "You've ruined Florrie's cream lagoon!"
I've got a lot of his works and jokes he was a legend and on blankety blank he was the master absolute genius there will never be another like him rip les
Classic old style comedian, like most of them he played summer seasons at holiday resorts and saved most of his best materiel for his live shows so some of his tv shows can be a bit hit and miss at times.
Its from the 80s it was prolly transferred from VHS, they're men and Les was an excellent musician. Roy was a national treasure and star of the long running Coronation St. soap opera. Les is the one with the hat on. Takes me back to my childhood. There are lots more of the Cissy and Ada sketches.
Absolutely Hilarious, haven't seen this sketch in years & it's just as hilarious now as then,, it's left me with tears running down my face from laughing. So much
The boob moving and mouthing of some words are all part of the act you will see in all cissy and ada sketches. Sometimes roy will start laughing at les and then there both laughing and struggling to finish the sketch 🤣
Hello Alan. I looked on Wikipedia for the history of this routine which is from Lancashire music hall. I saw film from the 1930s or 40s on black and white and even grainier before of what this copi
I worked in a gynae operating theatre years ago, the sister would always call a hysterectomy an hystericalectomy. Still call it that today though I now work in the neurosurgery theatres.
Les Dawson was a fan of Norman Evans comedian, and Norman did a very famous skit called " Over The Garden Wall" and watching the archive film made in 1950 I can see the style of comedy and facial expression that Les that he used to the T.
Im so pleased you reacted to this, i suppose its quite difficult to grasp everything from this video unless your English. peter cellars in the short film the party is hilarious.
The modern day criticism of these characters is that they are misogynist stereotypes, but it’s from people who are too young to remember actual women who were exactly like this! :D
My Gran was one such lady, formidable being an appropriate description!
Here here!
Absolutely 💯
You got that right
They probably haven’t been to Barnsley then, lot still like this.
My mum was a Lancashire Lass who worked in the cotton mills. I can confirm these guys have those ladies down to a tee. Edna from next door used to always walk in unannounced for a cup of tea and a chinwag and I would listen to their unintentionally hilarious tales. RIP Mum n Edna x
I remember my mum stood on the doorstep telling me about "what your father has done", with her arms crossed in that style of Les Dawson. Brings joy to my heart and an uproarious laugh as I remember. RIP mum, you were the best.
my mam could hold a conversation across a room through lip reading she learnt from working int mills of Bradford
This was my nan in Liverpool with Marge next door. She loved it as she knew it was just her - miss you nan & Edna ❤😂😂😂😂
My Granny would have you at the table playing poker before we got our coats off Loved her penny poker
For those of us of a certain age, and especially from Northern towns and Cities, Cissie and Ada, were mirror images in looks, sounds and mannerisms of our Grandma's
My grandmother, God bless her, passed away at 105 ten years ago. This is so accurate for northern working class women of that generation.
Cissie and Ada! Roy Barraclough was a wonderful character actor, the perfect comedy partner for Les Dawson.
Les Dawson was a very talented man,watch his piano playing,it is truly amazing.
Les Dawson was very under appreciated. A very intelligent man but rarely (if ever) offensive and with a clown comic manner. Miss him and his Mother-in-Law jokes a lot
A bit backstory to the two characters, they were Lancashire lasses who used to work in the cotton mills, these were very noisy factories and the workers there developed the ability to lip read as they couldn’t hear each other’s voices. So when in conversation it came to something that was embarrassing or they didn’t want anyone to hear they would mouth the words rather than speak them.
Was the lip reading called me mawing
That's the story Les always used to tell. My great grandmother worked in just such a factory in Lancashire.
@@johnrobinson3905 so did my mum, in oldham. We had so many cottonmills
@@TheZad101 Mee-mawing is the full name for it, they would over emphasize the words so it could read/understood by the other person
@@thatsthat2612 All my ancestors were from the mills near Manchester/Oldham...
Les Dawson was actually a comedy genius and his delivery was so dry it made it even funnier. Love this clip and your infectious laughter makes me laugh more.
i used to go to school with Les's daughter... i often went to their house, and he always played the piano... made us all laugh so much
me too. Old Arnoldian, in same class as his eldest.
The Cissie and Ada skits were based on an even older British comedian called Norman Evans who did a skit called 'Over the Garden Wall'. It was done as a monologue of a woman (Evans in drag) talking to a neighbour over the garden wall. An example from 1950 is here: ua-cam.com/video/0XkG46bgVgc/v-deo.html
Well worth a reaction video.
i was going to say that very good he was to iv made a study of comedy over the decades and its amazing how the same jokes get rehashed and used again, same with sketches etc , look at hilda baker with her stooge cynthia ,and victoria wood sketch with kimberly , you dont see kimberly as you did cynthia but basically the same comedy is a gift and unfortunately the PC brigade have left nothing to be laughed at ,
@@tinamiles9328 I still use some of Hilda's funny sayings!
@@tinamiles9328 and yet you just watched this and laughed, and no one has come breaking down your door to take you off to the concentration camp ... can't be as bad as you think, can it?
@@grabtharshammer what are you on about .?
P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster once said that his aunts were ‘like mastodons bellowing across primeval swamps.’
I loved watching Les Dawson's show as he was a natural comic. When I was a child, I remember women behaving like Ada and Cissie. RIP Roy Barraclough.
I'm so glad you watched this, there are many more Cissy and Ada sketches to watch. the reason that they sometimes mouth words to each other when talking is, because most of the old women had worked in mills up in the North. so most of the woman could lipread and do so when talking about something private or using a rude word.
As a bus driver I can say l knew many dear ladies like these. Very lovable. Chindits are a branch of British and commonwealth soldiers that operated behind enemy lines in the jungle WWII. I met one once in Manchester traveling with me. He wore the Burma Star.
There were old ladies like this in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. They would often lip read and whenever the conversation got at all taboo or risqué they would mouth the sentence or final few words. They would often get things wrong and mishear things too.
It was fantastic observational comedy because I knew these 'stereotypes' from the 1960s and for much later. Older women WERE like this. BTW Cissy meant a Barium meal, but said Bavarian. My mother was like that. They chose a word to fit if they couldn't remember.
this reminds me of my grandmas when i was about 6 just looked like them except they had cigs hanging out the mouths im 55
Yeah...especially mouthing the rude/medical bits. I know old ladies still who do that.
My dad does that. He's in his 70s. He asked me the other day if I knew the chef 'Marco Polo'. He meant 'Marco Pierre White' 🤣
Overheard two old dears on a bus one day when one mentioned her newborn grandchild was premature and had to be rushed to the incinerator. I hope she meant incubator. I couldn't help but laugh and in fairness I probably earned the look of disgust they both gave me.
The publican where I worke used to get large bones for her dog from the butcher because she said he liked the Marylebone
Les said barium meal, it's a liquid to drink which shows up on X-ray to see any problems in your stomach throat etc.
They were so so funny. I was watching them on UA-cam at Jersey airport whilst waiting on our flight home, just before the world closed down! I sat for ages watching them with the sound turned down as low as possible so as not to disturb the other passengers waiting. A couple got up for their flight, stopped next to me and asked if I was watching Roy Barraclough and Les Dawson! They could see my shoulders shaking with laughter, they said watch I don’t miss my flight 😂. Just loved Cissy and Ada, all British seaside humour, now long gone
The Chindits was a unit of the British 14th Army in Burma in WW2, led by Orde Wingate, which carried out long range missions behind Japanese lines. Les Dawson was a genius with word play comedy. He also had a radio show introducing characters like Wotan, Man Of Steel and The Desponds. Hilarious.
Ah I’m so glad you chose this! Been wanting to see your reaction to this for ages.
I remember women like this from my childhood. In fact, I know a woman a bit like this today and if she doesn't know a word she'll never be at a loss to make one up. She's hilarious 😂
my wife's like that, in the middle of a crowded pub she once said to me rather loudly "oh for goodness sake don't be so promiscuous".....she meant pedantic! needless to say I got some funny stares....
Malapropisms - Hylda Baker used to use them as well.
@@jonathancole833 actually this woman puts me in mind of Hilda, she says everything with great sincerity which makes it all the funnier. The only one I can think of at this point isn't hilarious but still makes me smile. She talks often about someone who better not make advantages towards her. Brilliant. She makes me smile and that's a lovely thing 🙂
@@ladykaycey 😆😆😆
Loved your reaction ❤️ Les Dawson’s character Ada, is exactly like my grandma. She was Lancashire lady, 5ft 2”, and um..well endowed. I’ve often wondered if Les based Ada on my grandma 😂
Saw Les live in Bridlington in the mid 1970's, Cissie (Roy Barraclough) sat next to me as the sketch required he came out from the audience. Didn't know it was him, thought it was some weird old lady. Hilarious live as they went further than you could go on the TV in those days. A great pairing, trying to make each other laugh.
Roy Barraclough was an incredibly versitile actor.I kind man when asked to pose for photos.Where I live he would sit in the local cafes and watch people to gain experience for the roles.
I grew up knowing ladies like this. I love these two, they were just brilliant
Like many others, these characters were a take on women everyone would recognise at the time. I grew up in Lancashire, my Nan was a former weaver. There was also a reserve among working class women and anything even remotely “delicate” was mouthed. I can remember them discussing -with only a few audible words - the sadness of a woman who had been in hospital and “had to have it all taken away you know” meaning she had a hysterectomy. Les Dawson was brilliant and still makes me laugh out loud.
I love the way he messed up words like "hysterical rectomy" and "bavarian meal". Les was a genius and still sorely missed
I love that this old fashioned humour tickles you so. Your belly laugh is infectious :)
My favourite Cissy & Ada sketch was about Ada's Greek holiday.
Cissy: Did you have the sheesh kebabs?
Ada: From the moment we arrived
Cissy: Did you go to the Acropolis?
Ada: I was never off it!
Classic lines there that gave me a coughing fit reading them.
Hilarious
"Bavarian meal" refers to barium meal...a substance swallowed by the patient before x-ray to highlight any problems in the digestive tract. Very old name for a very old treatment.
in the seventies we were in Blackpool, i remember an old woman sat like les, legs wide open, looking like a string of sausages, my brother and myself were sniggering and laughing, then both of us felt blows on the back of heads from our mother. she dragged us over to the old lady and made us apologise.
When I was a kid, our next door neighbour used to do the thing of just mouthing certain words when talking to my Mum - so these two characters always remind me of that.
Thanks for doing another Les Dawson (with the late great Roy Barra .. cloff!). This wasn't their best sketch by a mile, but gives you a flavour.
Definitely worth seeing other Les Dawson characters on his show.
What shows his skill best of all is his piano recitals in full regalia where he gets one note wrong. Absolutely side splittingly funny, and by the accounts of many who were interviewed about him, took tremendous talent (and a straight or nodding face to the audience as if nothing happened).
Big shout for Ken Dodd if you find the time and the material. He's up there with the Two Ronnies, I promise.
I'd forgotten how funny Les and Roy were as Cissie and Ada, Mum thought they should done a sit com.
Have a look on UA-cam for Norman Evans doing “Over the garden wall”.Les Dawson was always honest that Ada was a homage to Norman Evans who was one of his personal comedy heroes.
I worked in nursing and healthcare until relatively recently (like within the last decade still) and can confirm there's still older ladies - and gents - just like that still today 'up north'! I remember in primary school aged around 7 for whatever reason we were putting on some school play and they had a girl playing basically this sort of character, but they'd got an old polyester dress and a belt and someone decided to put two balloons or balls (like the ones in junior school, smaller than a football), something like that into the top part of the dress costume. But only on the actual evening of the performance, so she ended up delivering half her lines while unknowingly doing a cracking les dawson impression!! I remember the adults - parents and teachers etc - found it hilarious but didn't understand exactly why until years later. as kids it was just silly-funny. I reckon the teacher who decided to do it (suggest the balloons) knew exactly what they were doing!
I remember women like these two. They wouldn't speak out loud about womens troubles but would mouth words it was a universal language that all women seemed to understand. Funny thing is as i get older i find i do it . Back in the day women were not offended by this sort of comedy. Everyone is so sensitive now. I know what times i prefer. We had the best comics, and i still love them now.
The silent mouthing of words is in charactor for the women in the area who worked in cotton mills and learned to read lips over the noise of the mill machines and contiuned to speak silent words even in their free time :)
What I loved with Les was the intricate detail of the stories.
The long story of Les on Wogan, or on Les; radio 2 comedy shows,
They also mouthed words because it was considered common or rude to discuss certain topics. Private parts, women's trouble, nethers 😉, toilets
At a certain time there were women like this 😁
She was referring to a Barium Meal - it's a thick milkshake-like drink that they give you in hospital. they take X-rays to see if you have any reflux after swallowing. Before gastroscopies, it was used to detect duodenal/gastric ulcers. Ada said it was a Bavarian Meal!
I love how you laugh at British humour. These two were so funny. You pronounce his name Roy Barrocluff.
He gave her a Bavarian meal ( Bavaria is a German state, capital is Munich) she meant to say a Barium meal( a liquid that is visible on x-ray to see what happens when you swallow during a gastro intestinal examinations).
You don't see many of these old ladies anymore, but there was a time women wouldn't DREAM of leaving the house without a coat , handbag and hat or headscarf. They'd be "showing themselves up" if they weren't presentable in public. Now you go to the shops and there's women in pyjamas or crop tops and hot pants on a 300lb hippo of a thing.
I remember all these, hilarious 😆🇬🇧🇺🇸
I worked in a gynae operating theatre years ago, the sister would always call a hysterectomy an hystericalrectomy. Still call it that today though I now work in the neurosurgery theatres.
The other night I watched a two-hour documentary about Les Dawson and this clip was in it. He was so funny I laughed through it.
With a few subtle variations this conversation with 2 old dears could play out anywhere.
Seen it before and im still in tears, thanks.
I'm from Yorkshire, a good ground for work class comedy and people and this sketch is exact to the period it was made across the UK plus other countries I imagine, not only Yorkshire. When I was a kid in the 80's, I remember women like this. My grandmother was one with her friends in the local area. The way they used to communicate with odd mannerisms is absolutely true! Actually, it used to drive me mad and I had to leave the house 😃
I was lucky enough to see Les Dawson live while on holiday when I was 9 or 11, I think it was 9. What I didn't know at the time was that my parents had told the box office that it was my birthday that week and they wanted me to go on stage with him to sing happy birthday. Being the scared kid that I was I didn't go up, but everyone did sing happy birthday. I regret not going on stage now but I did meet him afterwards. I don't know who was happier to meet him, me or my dad.
There was a documentary where Les went and spoke to the ladies who used to work in the mills, and explained the reason that they talked like they did, and could lip read.
The noise from the machines was so loud that no-one could hear anything but the machines, so the gestures and lip reading evolved from there, plus (as @Paul Maxey has stated further down the comments) Les also used the old school comedians he had grown up with, such as Norman Evans.
FINALLY! I love Cissie and Ada.
The real humour in this is that it's EXACTLY what it was like here in the UK when I was growing up in the 70's/80's 😄👍
My mum was born in 1933 and when I was a kid in the 70's this could have been her and one of our neighbours talking over the garden fence, anything and everything which happened to anyone locally would travel along the mum grapevine like wildfire! Les Dawson was hilarious, we'd never miss an episode when I was a kid.
Les is brilliant as Ada, it's the spitting image of my late mother even the mannerisms 😂
Such well observed caricatures. Wonderful stuff from a better rehearsed time. Thanks for it Alan. Be well.
There’s a Sissy and Ada sketch set in a cocktail bar which isn’t on UA-cam, features the exchange: Ada: “Would you like a Harvey Wallbanger?” Sissy: “I think I’ll have drink first!”
I was crying with laughter 😂 👍
Les Dawson, was one of our favourite British comedy stars..
He's humour was second to none. 😊
Hi Alan, I love watching your reactions and your appreciation for our comedy in the UK. Les Dawson was a clever wordsmith and very funny. I would like to recommend a tv comedy series called "Vicious" starring Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Derek Jacobi. They play an older gay couple Freddie and Stuart that have been together for almost 50yrs. They constantly insult each other. Freddie is outrageous with his sarcasm and scathing remarks. There was only 14 episodes made 2013 - 2016. Watching 2 of th Uk's finest actors in this hilarious sitcom is a hoot.
Les was great as hostvof a quiz show called Blankety Blank. Superb how he would criticise the standard of prizes or the celebrity guests for giving poor answers. He really was a superb all-round entertainer.
This is from memory, but I'm sure that Les Dawson once said that he worked in a very noisy factory with a lot of women workers. The women used to talk to each other with exaggerated mouth movements, almost a form of lip reading because of the noise. That is where he got that part of his act from, and it's something I used to see women do when younger and they didn't want you understanding them; it worked. This is not classed as the Queens English, and so if you can understand half of what was said, you are a small minority of Americans and well done for that.
I was once asked about an IT colleague by a female director of a company I worked for, and I couldn't think of a suitable word for him, so I made a word up. He is very Shavonce I stated, and she was impressed with the term and stated she had never heard that word and asked me about the word. I just admitted that I had made the word up, but it seemed very him.
Oh help! The way Les sits showing off those directors knickers took me back to my school days, in the 1970’s , we had a female teacher who wore them and sat like that. She sat at the old high domanie desk with the high chair circa 1905. Made ye keep yer eyes down and on your work🤣🏴🏴
So glad you came across this I grew up on this definitely find more so funny this is what we call Northern humour in the UK lol
At 8:59 it was Barium Meal which you drank before the XRay for ulcers My wife was still getting them into the 1980s
Laughing here love them 2 lol 😂😂😂😂
These 2 were the best, I grew up surrounded by women just like it. 🤣
normally dressed not as brightly, dark blues tended to be the thing, going on a coach outing to the seaside with the silver threads club ,etc
Another good Les Dawson one to watch is the Candle in Cumbria joke. 4mins of having people dying laughing by just pulling faces. You won't regret that one! 🤣🤣
Thanks I needed this been into London today to lay some flowers very emotional. Needed a good laugh when I got home 🤣
There's another sketch on UA-cam where they play waitresses, and Roy Barraclough obviously changes his line slightly from what was in the script, and Les Dawson just about loses it completely. Dawson had just put his hand in a cream cake and Barraclough said: "You've ruined Florrie's cream lagoon!"
I've got a lot of his works and jokes he was a legend and on blankety blank he was the master absolute genius there will never be another like him rip les
Such great and happy memories watching this at my Aunties house back in the 70's 😃
Dont know what's funnier this clip or your laugh it's funny love it
I remember this from the first time around - still as funny today!
Cissie and Ada...pronounced Aida...they were utterly brilliant. Battalion pronounced Barracluff.
Classic old style comedian, like most of them he played summer seasons at holiday resorts and saved most of his best materiel for his live shows so some of his tv shows can be a bit hit and miss at times.
Its from the 80s it was prolly transferred from VHS, they're men and Les was an excellent musician. Roy was a national treasure and star of the long running Coronation St. soap opera. Les is the one with the hat on. Takes me back to my childhood. There are lots more of the Cissy and Ada sketches.
Absolutely Hilarious, haven't seen this sketch in years & it's just as hilarious now as then,, it's left me with tears running down my face from laughing. So much
God bless 'em.
The boob moving and mouthing of some words are all part of the act you will see in all cissy and ada sketches.
Sometimes roy will start laughing at les and then there both laughing and struggling to finish the sketch 🤣
i grew up surrounded by these types of stereotypes who talked over the garden fences, they could put the world to rights listening to them 🤣
Hello Alan. I looked on Wikipedia for the history of this routine which is from Lancashire music hall. I saw film from the 1930s or 40s on black and white and even grainier before of what this copi
You really need to watch more of these if you can. They are hilarious.
Barra cluff :) He was trying to say Barium meal, it coats the stomach for an X-Ray. He was saying Bavarian (German) meal.
I worked in a gynae operating theatre years ago, the sister would always call a hysterectomy an hystericalectomy. Still call it that today though I now work in the neurosurgery theatres.
Les Dawson's character is based on Norman Evans "Over the garden wall" monologues,some of which are on UA-cam.
Yeah, from Rochdale east Lancashire
In the factory's in the north of England that's how the woman talked to each other over the sound of the machines Les and Roy were just brilliant 😂😂
Les Dawson was a fan of Norman Evans comedian, and Norman did a very famous skit called
" Over The Garden Wall" and watching the archive film made in 1950 I can see the style of comedy and facial expression that Les that he used to the T.
Im so pleased you reacted to this, i suppose its quite difficult to grasp everything from this video unless your English. peter cellars in the short film the party is hilarious.
Cissy and ada are a classic, and the one breast salute, is still a done thing where I'm from🤣🤣🤣, these remind me of my mum and aunts
I love Cissie and Ada, Les Dawson was so funny. All of the episodes of Cissie and Ada are on You Tube
This is such fun, loved your reaction, can't stop laughing. We need more of these murican buddy (lol). Cheers
Classic sketch and The Magic Of Travel is also very funny
Love your reactions and your wonderful laughter! 🇬🇧
Watch Cissie and Ada " at the art gallery ". It's hilarious.😂
The one with the nude statue? Hilarious.
They did a neighbours over the fence sketch regularly on his show. These two were regular characters.
The good old days 😂😂
Rip the pair of them surely missed