Tag Archives: Les Dawson

Songs and Laughter

For our meeting on the 1st of February the Forum’s Deputy Chairman Duncan Verity gave one of  his video presentations titled Songs and Laughter which featured singers and comedians from the 1970s to the present date.

The comedy clips all featured well known comedians such as the Two Ronnies and Les Dawson.

The songs were mainly by established singers such as Cliff Richard, Michael Ball and Tammy Wynette although Duncan found two unknown Irish singers whose efforts were very well received.

Chairman Mike Earle thanked Duncan for warming up the members on a cold day.

On the 8th of March the Forum will hold an open meeting when the guest speaker will be the celebrated Yorkshire author Gervase Phinn whose talk will be titled The School Inspector Calls.

When Forum members have obtained their tickets the remainder will be available for purchase by anyone at the cost of £8 each.

Monologues and Comic Verse

On the 26th of October the meeting was chaired by the Forum Vice Chairman Duncan Verity.

Speaker Finder John Spinner introduced our guest speaker Bill Baker, one of the presenters on Tempo FM, whose talk was titled Monologues and Comic Verse.  Bill related the history of the monologue from its popularity in the Victorian Music Hall, entertainment for serving soldiers in wartime and the folk clubs of the nineteen sixties to the present day where it regularly appears at funerals and weddings.

His interest developed from when he was involved in the production of a talking magazine for the blind which included a monologue in each issue.  Bill read a number of examples from various famous monologists (a term invented by Dame Thora Hird who performed many monologues herself).  The authors included Les Barker who was nominated for the post of Poet Laureate.  As his monologues are best performed in a Lancashire dialect it is understandable why he was rejected.  We also heard examples from Rob Wilton, Benny Hill and Pam Ayres.

Duncan Verity thanked Bill for a very entertaining morning.