» French & Saunders interview
Is this the end of French and Saunders? James Rampton asked the celebrated comedians why they swear this tour will be their last
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders are like fish and chips: great on their own, but there’s something special and comforting about them when they’re together.
Now the greatest British female comedy double act of all time are bringing their partnership to a close. After 30 years of making the nation roar with laughter, they are calling a halt to their sketch show. Time to reach for the hankies.
Their gigs this week as part of their Still Alive 2008 tour could well be the last time they perform comedy in Brighton together.
When the curtain finally falls on this widely loved duo, it promises to be a highly charged occasion. “I’m sure I’ll be a blubbering wreck on the last night,” Dawn predicts. “But we felt the time was right to stop. We’ve got lots of other things we want to do together – we jointly run a production company and we will still write and act together. But as a double act, we wanted to quit while we were ahead.”
Jennifer adds: “We’ll never stop working together, but we’re stopping the sketches – otherwise we’d end up just doing sketches about old people. We’ve done decades of stuff about young people, but I don’t think we can still pretend to be Britney Spears!”
The pair are regularly voted the funniest women in the country, thanks to their TV sketch show, which has run on the BBC for the past 20 years, and individual hits such as The Vicar of Dibley and Absolutely Fabulous.
Taking a break from intensive rehearsals, Dawn, 50, explains why they were eager to take their show on the road for one last hurrah. “As this is the final time we’re going to appear as French and Saunders, we thought we’d like to do it live. It’s what we’ve always enjoyed most and it’s how we started. Our telly work only came out of our stand-up. It seems like the right way to go out,” she says.
The pair met as students at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama in the 1970s and although they didn’t get on at first, they soon found common ground while realising that their differences worked well together.
“We will still write and act together. But as a double act, we wanted to quit while we were ahead”
Jennifer, 49, who is married to comic Adrian Edmondson and has three daughters, has more recently enjoyed big hits with such series as Jam and Jerusalem and The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle. She reckons that the fun she and Dawn generate on stage is infectious. “If we’re having a good time, then the audience does, too. We always do stuff that makes us laugh and hopefully it makes other people laugh as well.”
So what material will Dawn and Jennifer be making us laugh with in Still Alive 2008? “It’s about 70 per cent new stuff and 30 per cent old favourites,” explains Dawn, who has recently starred in BBC1’s highly successful period drama, Lark Rise to Candleford, and as Vicky Pollard’s mum in Little Britain. “For instance, we’ll be performing the original Ab Fab sketch. We don’t normally do old sketches word for word, but we thought this one would be interesting for the fans. “We’ll also be doing the two girls left at boarding school over Christmas and the first sketch we ever wrote. It’s called ‘Sex Talk’, and it’s about two teenagers discussing sex, even though they know nothing about it. They’re supposed to be 15 so that might be hard to pull off! “We’ll be doing quite a lot of French and Saunders stuff in the white room. That’s a schtick about our lives: who’s the most popular? Who’s got a future after this? Who’ll be the queen? It’s actually not a reflection of our relationship at all, because we’re not in the least bit competitive!”
Today, the pair are about to head off for a lesson with Strictly Come Dancing’s Anton du Beke – they are working on a hilarious sounding dance spoof. “He’s a very good dance teacher,” reflects Jennifer, before adding with a laugh: “but I can see his face fall at the sight of us mucking it up. I fully intend to fall over during the dance routine!”
One reason the double act is so well loved is that Dawn and Jennifer are so obviously best friends. That can’t be faked; audiences are drawn to that chemistry.
“We really do understand each other,” confirms Dawn, whose husband is fellow comedian Lenny Henry and who is the proud mother of Billie.
“Jennifer and I are so bonded. We’ve been through births, marriages and deaths together over the past three decades. We’ve never fallen out, and we can precisely gauge each other’s moods. For us, the friendship will always come before the double act.”
The duo paved the way for such popular female comedians as Catherine Tate, who costarred with Dawn in Wild West, and Kathy Burke and Jo Brand.
Jennifer, who picked up the People’s Choice Award for Favorite (sic) Movie Villain for playing the wicked Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2, reckons that they complement each other very well. “If we’re slightly nervous on stage, I say nothing and Dawn says far too much.
“I noticed that happened when we did a warm-up gig the other night, and I thought, ‘Thank God for Dawn!‘ I know that if I freeze, she’ll just keep on chatting. That has been the case for the past 30 years. And that’s exactly why the double act still works: we both curtail each other’s excesses.”
Finally, as they look back on one of the most adored partnerships in British comedy history, do the pair feel proud of what they’ve achieved? “I know it’s a great body of work,” replies Dawn. “I’m pleased we’ve kept working and we’re pleased with the things we’ve done, but I don’t think we could bring ourselves to say we’re proud yet. Perhaps we’ll do that when we turn 60!”
All six series of French and Saunders are available on DVD in a box set.
