A Comedy On This Day: Sez Les (5 July 1974)

 There's one of Dawson's best-remembered routines this week, the gesturing newsreader. John Cleese is given very little to do. Roy Barraclough fares better, playing a character outside his usual range - a haughty country squire visiting an armorer (Dawson) to buy a new fowling piece. This is one of those sketches that have almost nothing funny in it (the squire keeps on shooting the willing assistant to test the guns), save for what the performers can bring - which is enough! Barraclough is oblivious to the effect of his actions ("I'd laike you to run acraws me at medium grouse speed"), while Dawson - who I don't primarily think of as a physical comedian - totters and falls in an original way with every new gunshot wound.

 The Hollies - a hot property at this time having just had a huge hit with 'The Air That I Breathe' (as plagiarized by Radiohead) - perform their new single. 'Son of a Rotten Gambler' failed to set the charts alight, but is actually pretty good. A cover of a Chip Taylor song better known in Anne Murray's country version, the melodic rock arrangement plays to the group's strengths. Even as early as 1974 The Hollies were getting on a bit though, and they have a weather-beaten look about them. Alan Clarke was still only 32 when this was recorded, but he looks about 15 years older.

 The real business is this week's other musical guest, the lovely Amii MacDonald, singing her version of 'Make It With You'. Amii is introduced via a spotlight with a magenta filter that trails across her reclining body. What is she reclining on, though? Some bumpy sort of chaise longe? No, it's the six male Irving Davies Dancers, laid out in a line along the floor, rolling Amii along like a conveyer belt. The Dancers then sit up, revealing that they are dressed in matching maroon leotards with exposed chests. The six men then spend most of the song manoeuvring Amii through a series of lifts and rolls manipulated by moving their hips and bellies. A dance routine that's performed while either sitting or lying down is certainly original, and we DVD owners are lucky to be able to immediately rewatch such sequences to see how they're done. The original audience would be left wondering if what they'd just seen had ever really happened...