Les’ legend will live on forever

The 20th anniversary of the death of Les is fast approaching - he died on June 10, 1993.

And to mark the occasion ITV asked daughter Charlotte and mum Tracy for permission to make an hour-long special. It is called Les Dawson: An Audience With ... That Never Was and was filmed in ITV’s South Bank London studios at the weekend, using a hologram of Les.

“It is unbelievable how they did it but absolutely fantastic,” said Charlotte, who was just a few months old when her father suffered a heart attack and died. I was blown away by all the friends, families and celebrities who were at the filming and there was so much love in the room ... there was a standing ovation at the end.

“It shows how popular he is even after all these years and hopefully a lot more of his material will get shown on television - I think he deserves to be introduced to a younger generation.”

Celebrities at the show included Cilla Black and Terry Wogan. But it was Les, or at least his hologram, who was star of the show.

“I laughed from start to finish,” said Tracy, who married Les four years before his death. “But it was emotional because the hologram made it seem as though Les was actually there.

“They even had him playing the piano in his trademark style - it was superb and I can’t wait until people see it.”

The show will be screened on ITV on Saturday June 1.

On the anniversary of Les’s death, Tracy and Charlotte will pay a visit to the statue of Les to remember a much-loved husband and dad. “I feel the same after 20 years as I did after one,” added Tracy, 62. “He was a wonderful man and I will never stop missing him.”