This Is Your Life: Les Dennis

Les DENNIS (1953-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Les Dennis, comedian, actor and television presenter, was surprised by Michael Aspel while recording an edition of the television game show Family Fortunes at the studios of Central Television in Nottingham.

Les, who was born in Garson, Liverpool, began performing at a young age - winning a Butlin's holiday camp talent contest in Filey at the age of 10. He started his professional career while still at school, studying by day and working the local club scene by evening. In 1974, he won the ITV talent show New Faces.

He established himself as a familiar face on television, joining the team on ITV's Russ Abbot Madhouse television series in 1982 while at the same time teaming up with entertainer Dustin Gee to appear in their own programme, The Laughter Show, in 1984. He began hosting Family Fortunes in 1987 and appeared in his first West End musical, Me and My Girl, in 1992.

"I don't believe it! I don't know what to say!"

programme details...

Edition No: 968
Subject No: 943
Broadcast date: Mon 17 Feb 1997
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Fri 31 Jan 1997
Venue: International Banqueting Club, Nottingham
Series: 37
Edition: 21
Code name: Win

on the guest list...

Duncan Preston
Bella Emberg
Roger Edwards
Dennis Liddington
Amanda Holden - wife
Philip - son
Liz Dawn
Margaret - sister
Ken - brother
Mandy - sister
Stan Boardman
Bruce Prince
Denis Law
Malandra Burrows
Jim Bowen
Bobby Davro
Su Pollard
Freddie Starr
Thelma Barlow
Bill Tarmey
Russ Abbot
Lionel Blair
Ken Dodd

production team...

Researcher: Jo Grant
Writer: Alec Lom
Directors: Paul Kirrage, Peter Wisdom
Associate Producer: Sue Green
Executive Producer: John Longley
Producer: John Graham

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

It's a Funny Old Life

it's all about the comedy

Screenshots of Les Dennis This Is Your Life

Les Dennis recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in an interview with Colin Murray on his BBC Radio 5 Live show, broadcast in May 2021

Les Dennis recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, Must the Show Go On?...

One of my biggest regrets is that my mum and dad weren't there the evening that Michael Aspel surprised me with the 'big red book' on This Is Your Life in 1997. Midway through the show, the story about my name change was related and Michael said, 'Please welcome Denis Law.' I was thrilled and honoured to meet the great man, but our Ken, not the biggest talker anyway, was rendered completely speechless. To this day he supports Scotland, even when they play England.

Towards the end of the run, I began to get anxious about Amanda's behaviour. Whenever I came into a room she would be on the phone and would end the call hurriedly. On a shopping trip to Leeds, she bought an expensive trousersuit at Harvey Nichols. I thought it was a ridiculous buy as we were going off on holiday to Barbados in a few weeks. Being a typical man, I wondered when on earth she was going to get any use out of it. We rowed about it on the way back to Sheffield. What I didn't know was that she was secretly planning my appearance on This Is Your Life. All those calls were with Jo, the programme researcher, and Roger, who was helping her coordinate the guest list. So, early in February, as I finished recording an evening of Family Fortunes shows at Central Studios, the board behind me went mad - large 'X's appeared all over it and that wrong answer noise, 'Eugh-eugh', was repeated over and over. I looked behind me to read, 'Les Dennis, this is your life.' At first, I thought it was a surreal wind-up, but then Michael Aspel walked on with the big red book in his hand. Stunned, and touched, I was whisked off to the Commodore Club, where my family, friends and guests were already congregating. There were filmed messages from Thelma Barlow, Liz Dawn, Bill Tarmey and Ken Dodd. Guests included Jim Bowen, Freddie Starr, Bobby Davro and, as already recounted, the football god Denis Law. A particularly touching moment for me was the appearance of Bruce Prince, the English teacher who had cast me in all those school plays. Sadly, they couldn't find Ken Othen, though he watched the show, got in touch, and we met up again in Manchester.

Philip came on and was his usual laidback self, something that Lynda Lee-Potter would comment on in the Daily Mail (26 February 1997) the following week. There was a column on her page that was headlined 'Cool Kids With So Much to Hide.' It read:

Last week's This Is Your Life programme featured the comedian and impressionist Les Dennis. Michael Aspel asked Les's teenage son, Philip, if he was aiming to go into the entertainment business. The boy said he might but he wasn't sure. 'You don't seem very enthusiastic about it,' said Michael. 'That's him,' said Les irritably, 'he's never enthusiastic about anything.' It was a painful moment highlighting the perennial gap between adults and offspring. Parents desperately want their children to be bright-eyed, keen and bursting with ambition. Teenagers yearn to appear indifferent, cool and blasé to hide their inward uncertainty and embarrassment. I suspect Philip was anguished by his father's involuntary remark, and that Les was anguished that he'd said it. Meanwhile, every parent must have identified with Les and every teenager sympathised with Philip.

I'm annoyed with myself, even now, that I said it, but I know that at the time I most certainly was not irritated with Philip. Lynda made a hugely valid point, though, and caused me to reflect on my relationship with my son and see that, perhaps, there were some echoes of the distance from my own dad. Sometimes it is hard for Phil to have a well-known father. When he was asked as a child what it was like to be my son, he said something funny: 'I get my head patted more than that little bloke on The Benny Hill Show.' The question he now gets asked is, 'Are you going into the business?' but I think that watching some of the downtime I have had may have jaded his interest in the business. He definitely has talent and, at any stage could consider acting as a career option. He now though works hard for a living in the building trade and I am enormously proud of him. He has grown into a very caring, respectful young man who shows amazing compassion for others.

Series 37 subjects