Les Dennis has experienced almost every high and low possible in his extensive showbiz career, ranging from prime-time stardom and stage acclaim to reality TV ridicule and tabloid scrutiny. Now, he is finally fulfilling one of his long-held ambitions.
If Taylor Swift believes her career has seen many eras, she should visit Les Dennis when her tour reaches Liverpool. If he had one, Les’s Eras Tour would be quite a rollercoaster. It would start with material from 1970s working men’s clubs, then TV’s New Faces—where he won the forerunner of Britain’s Got Talent—before showcasing impressions from his double act with Dustin Gee (his Mavis from Coronation Street would still send crowds wild).
“My years with Dustin Gee were incredible,” Les Dennis reflects. However, the partnership ended tragically when Gee suffered a heart attack on stage in 1986 during a panto performance. “When Dustin died tragically early, at 43, that was a sorrowful time. I then had to prove myself—that I could do it on my own.”
Les Dennis reinvented himself as a game show host, fronting Family Fortunes for 15 years. During his downtime, he explored serious acting, performing in plays like David Hare’s drama in Newbury and Stephen King’s Misery in Oldham. “Family Fortunes was great for me on both levels. I was on Saturday night television 26 weeks a year. But we recorded them all in three weeks, meaning I could go off and work at the Watermill [theatre] in Newbury for £250 a week.”
He also became Mr. Amanda Holden, marrying the actress and future BGT judge in 1995. However, the story soured five years later when her affair with actor Neil Morrissey made headlines. Dennis was targeted by phone hacking by the News of the World for nine years. Dubbed “Les Miserables” in the press, his attempt to reboot his image by going on Celebrity Big Brother in 2002 backfired, leading Piers Morgan to write in the Mirror that he was “the most pathetic man in Britain.” Despite finishing second, Dennis admits that Big Brother was “not the best” way to reinvent himself. “When I came out, I had lots of press stuff with what was happening in my life then. Lots of negativity.”
The next reinvention came when Ricky Gervais asked him to play himself—a “twisted, demented” and somewhat tragic version—in his sitcom Extras in 2005. By poking fun at both the honest Les and the tabloid caricature, he proved he didn’t take himself seriously and that he could act. More theatre roles followed in musicals like Hairspray and Spamalot, along with a two-year stint in Coronation Street as Michael Rodwell, who burgled then married Gail.
From soap to opera, Dennis appeared in the English National Opera’s production of HMS Pinafore in 2021. At the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), he appeared alongside his niece Jodie McNee in Thomas Otway’s Restoration tragedy Venice Preserved. Last year, Dennis returned to Saturday night TV to take part in Strictly Come Dancing. Judge Shirley Ballas wanted to give him a “10 for entertainment” but gave him a four for actual dancing, and he was the first contestant to be eliminated. “The audience loved what I did. I came out first, but, you know, I entertained, so that was what I wanted to do.”
A natural-born crowd-pleaser, Dennis will always be the cheery, cheeky face of light entertainment. However, there’s another side of him that craves credibility. He says trying to be taken seriously as an actor feels “like turning the Titanic around.” “My wife warned, ‘Be careful because the Titanic sank.’ But I meant that people pigeonhole you. They put you in a box.
In recent years, when asked whether he had any ambitions left after his varied career, Dennis would reply that he did—to act in a Shakespeare play. Now he’s ticking that off the list at 70, playing pompous servant Malvolio in Twelfth Night at the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, just outside Liverpool. It’s a play he first saw at the RSC on a school trip at 17. “I just was blown away by it. I loved it. The Shakespeare that I found difficult to read and understand suddenly was obvious.”
That experience made him want to act in Shakespeare, but TV came calling first. “So I’ve gone from 17 to 70 and eventually got here. It was a long, circuitous route.”
After securing a role in a Shakespeare play, he felt daunted by the prospect of delivering the Bard’s lines. “This is the biggest mountain because I always worried about the iambic pentameter, blank verse, and not being trained as an actor,” he says. “There’s a sense of imposter syndrome. I talk to all the actors, and they say they all have it anyway—’What am I doing here? I’m going to get found out.’ I was never trained, so I’ve learned on the job.”
Twelfth Night director Jimmy Fairhurst, artistic director of the theatre company Not Too Tame, had his lightbulb moment with Shakespeare when he was at school in Warrington. “Theatre was never my thing,” he says. “I was playing rugby league.” Jimmy Fairhurst credits an “incredible teacher” for helping him understand and love it—and he has brought that same teacher, Stephen Harrington, in to help Les and the rest of the cast. “He had his teacher at school, who was great,” Dennis says. “He flicked through it and went, ‘Malvolio only has one speech in blank verse. The rest of it is prose.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s OK then.'”
Fairhurst, who spent time managing rock bands on tour, was inspired to set this production of Twelfth Night in music festival season. With Shakespeare’s Countess Olivia now a pop star. “Malvolio being Olivia’s tour manager is perfect,” Dennis says. “He’s obsessed with his job. He does it well but is a little bit of a jobsworth.” Initially, the character is “uptight, serious, buttoned up,” Dennis has to curb his instincts to play up to the crowd.
“That’s difficult for me because I’m an entertainer, and when I’m on stage, the first thing I feel I’ve got to do is smile. Malvolio is a great part to play, but Jimmy has to keep telling me, ‘Stop the Les Dennis.'”
As the play progresses, Malvolio becomes the source—and butt—of comedy, as well as some tragedy. The actor “does comedy and pathos better than anyone,” Fairhurst enthuses. “You’ll laugh with him, at him, and he’ll break your heart.”
Put like that, it will be a medley of the many eras of Les Dennis. Twelfth Night is at the Shakespeare North Playhouse until 29 June.
