his BBC television shows a dancing group of fat ladies called the Roly Polys. Dawson's style as a comic was world-weary, lugubrious and earthy. He was a talented pianist but developed a gag in which he played a familiar piece such as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and then introduced hideously wrong notes (yet not destroying the tune) 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. Personal life and death Dawson was married to his first wife, Margaret, from 25 June 1960 until her death on 15 April 1986 from cancer. They had three children: Julie, Pamela and Stuart. Dawson nearly died in February 1985 from a failing prostate gland, complicated by blood poisoning. On 3 September 1988, he suffered a heart attack in Blackpool and spent nine days in hospital. He married his second wife, Tracy Roper, on 6 May 1989; she was 17 years younger. They had a daughter, Charlotte, who was born on 3 October 1992. He died suddenly, aged 62, in June 1993 from a heart attack during treatment for a heart complaint at St Joseph's Hospital in Manchester. Legacy On 23 October 2008, 15 years after his death, a bronze statue by Graham Ibbeson was unveiled by his widow Tracy and daughter Charlotte in the ornamental gardens next to the pier in St Anne's-on-Sea, Lancashire, where Dawson lived for many years. In the Comedians' Comedian, a three-hour programme on UK's Channel 4 on 1 January 2005, Dawson was 37th in the top 50 comedians of all time, voted by fellow comedians and business insiders. The BBC broadcast, on BBC Two, The Many Faces of Les Dawson, a retrospective, on Christmas Eve 2011. On 1 June 2013 ITV broadcast Les Dawson: An Audience with That Never Was. The programme featured a Pepper's ghost projection of Dawson, presenting content for a 1993 edition of An Audience with... to be hosted by Dawson but unused due to his death two weeks before recording. The show served as a tribute and featured celebrities including Bruce Forsyth, Cilla Black, Terry Wogan and Ken Dodd. Also among the audience were Dawson's widow Tracy and daughter Charlotte. On 10 February 2014,