Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders share the one sketch they regret making

28 December 2023 , 12:08

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Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders think they would be 'cancelled now'

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders have admitted there is one sketch they "shouldn't have done".

The two comedians left the nation in fits of giggles with their BBC sketch series, French & Saunders where they satirised a wide range of topics from films to plastic surgery. However, they have since admitted they're "very glad" to have performed their comedy during the 1980s and 90s because they would be "cancelled now".

Jennifer confessed: "I think as far as the humour goes, we are still the same, we still see things on telly and wish we were 30 years younger." Dawn added: "It'd be hard to know in this day and age how you could satirise something for the very simple reason you'd be cancelled now if it was all edgy."

Jennifer and Dawn regret a sketch from 1988 (BBC)

She continued to Alan Yentob in a documentary for BBC's imagine... series: "You know, everybody's fearful now. I'm very glad that we've done our comedy in the time that we did it. Not that we were particularly edgy but we weren't afraid of anything. You know, any philosophy, I would have had a go at, any person I'd have had a go at easily, because, partly because it's not with hatred, partly cos there's no venom, I hope, in it.

"But there is a poking, you know, that's the whole point. That's what comedians are here for." Jennifer explained there are now "a lot more filters to get through," and admitted she is sure they offended some viewers. "I've looked back and thought 'mmmm'," she added. The pair noted a 1988 sketch from their French and Saunders show that they regret.

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In the sketch, the duo dressed up as an ailing Katherine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. Dawn - as Ginger - is wheeled onto a stage in a chair for an 'event' honouring Hollywood legend Fred Astaire as Jennifer takes to the podium as an elderly Katherine.

She explained she performed as if "she had Parkinson's" and added: "We did a sketch where she had Parkinson's and I think we shouldn't have done that." Dawn also confessed she quit her sketch show with Jennifer after she was left "humiliated".

A 2008 scene with singer Anastacia saw her become the butt of the joke where she "wept all the way home". Dawn explained how the show's costume designer "fell on her back laughing" when the Vicar Of Dibley star dressed as the American singer.

She recalled: "I looked in the mirror and I thought, 'Yes, this isn't it, this isn't what Anastacia looks like' But instead of finding it funny, I just thought 'Oh I don't like it'. It just felt like I wasn't in control of the comedy. The joke was on me. I hadn't controlled it in any way."

Jennifer admitted: "[I] didn't realise it was so dramatic that you decided to end the whole act." Dawn continued: "I hated everything about the day and I said I'm never going to do that again. I'm never going to feel humiliated like that again. I could've just been hormonal, but I just hated it, and I hadn't ever hated it." French and Saunders, which was written by and starred Dawn and Jennifer, first aired in 1987.

Mia O'Hare