French and Saunders


French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. The show was originally broadcast on BBC Two from 1987 to 1993, and was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities, and art. French and Saunders continue to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have later been successful starring in their own shows.
In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, the duo were voted among the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Their last special, 2005's French and Saunders Christmas Celebrity Special, aired on 27 December 2005 on BBC One. In 2006, both French and Saunders announced that their sketch show was now dead, and that they had moved on to more age appropriate material. Their last ever concert, and last ever performing as a duo act, Still Alive tour ran until the end of 2008, and then resumed in Australia in the summer of 2009. In 2009, the duo were jointly awarded the BAFTA Fellowship.

History

Background (1978–1987)

and Jennifer Saunders met in 1978 while they were undergraduate students at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and began their career to collaborate on several comedy projects. They came to prominence in the early 1980s for performing at the London alternative comedy club The Comedy Store, which also gave its name to its television series The Comic Strip Presents... and the informal grouping of so-called alternative comedians. French and Saunders were featured on the live comedy album of The Comic Strip recorded by comedy entrepreneur Martin Lewis for his Springtime! label and was released in 1981. The duo made their first mainstream television appearance in the sketch comedy show The Comic Strip Presents..., where they appeared in approximately 30 episodes each as well as writing material for the show.
French and Saunders began to establish themselves in what was referred to as the "underground comedy" scene, along with many other prolific actors and comedians whom they would go on to work with for the next twenty-plus years. In 1983, they starred in an edition of Channel 4's series The Entertainers, and later went on to appear as comedy relief on the weekly music programme The Tube on the same channel, for which French received her honour of being the first person to use the word "blowjob" on British television. In 1985, French and Saunders collaborated on their programme Girls on Top, which they once again wrote and starred in. Co-stars Tracey Ullman and Ruby Wax rounded out a set of four oddball roommates, and the show ran for two years. In 1986, French and Saunders made their first of many appearances on Comic Relief, and they signed a long-term contract with the BBC.

''French and Saunders'' (1987–2007)

In 1987, French and Saunders created their eponymous sketch show, which has carried over six series up until 2007. Their show began humbly, but immediately established its own niche as a spoof on other types of shows. In the first series, it was intentionally set up to look like a low-budget variety show in which the duo were constantly attempting grandiose stunts and often failing miserably. Often a "famous" guest star would be brought on then treated badly. Also featured during this series was a set of geriatric dancers and a bongos/keyboard music duo called Raw Sex, actually long-time collaborators Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron and the vocal talents of Kirsty MacColl.
As their show progressed and ratings skyrocketed, especially following a move from BBC Two to BBC One from 1994 onwards, French and Saunders received higher and higher budgets with which to create elaborate parodies of mainstream culture. These ranged anywhere from recreations of films to spoofs on popular music artists. Certain spoken phrases and sight gags that referenced previously performed sketches were incorporated for loyal fans. In particular there is a running gag suggesting that French and Saunders are unable to accurately affect accents; this first appeared in their spoof of Gone with the Wind when they break their character in the middle of an elaborate and expensive parody to argue about the authenticity of their Southern accent. Saunders goads French to try the accent by saying: "How are you?", and French responds with an interpretation sounding more like a strong Northern Irish accent. Since then, the duo often break character in the middle of elaborate sketches to do an "accent check" and repeat these lines.
The show also contained numerous meta references: an awareness that the viewer was actually watching a parody. Unlike many parodies that are done in a straightforward manner for effect, French and Saunders uses the viewer's awareness of what is going on to further stretch out the joke. For example, in their parody of Peter Jackson's fantasy film epic The Lord of the Rings, an encounter between Frodo and Galadriel are thrown off when Saunders delivers her line: "I have passed the test, and now I will diminish, and go to the West and remain Galadriel", in which French responds: "You will what, sorry?", and Saunders replies: "I will diminish... I don't understand, it's in the book"! Other characters that make a recurring appearance are the bald, fat, perverted old men ; Star Test ; and Star Pets.

BBC Radio 2 (2010–present)

In Christmas 2010, French and Saunders are featured in three two-hour radio shows on BBC Radio 2. This was followed by further specials in 2011 for Easter and the Bank Holidays.

Episodes

French and Saunders first broadcast on 9 March 1987 on BBC2, with the first series consisting of six episodes. With its popularity and high ratings, a second series commenced on 4 March 1988, followed by a Christmas special in late 1988. The third, fourth and fifth series', which broadcast between 1990 and 1996, and all consisting each of seven episodes, relied heavily on movie parodies, and some music parodies, alongside their own material such as the sketch "Modern Mother and Daughter", which spawned Saunders' popular sitcom Absolutely Fabulous in 1992. Notable films parodied on the show included What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Exorcist, Misery, The Silence of the Lambs, Thelma & Louise, Pulp Fiction, and Braveheart. A second Christmas special was screened in 1994, between the fourth and fifth series. For the next several years the series included only Christmas and Easter specials; in 1998, a new special, "The Making of Titanic", was broadcast at Christmas and featured a spoof on the behind-the-scenes and making of James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, with Dawn French as Jack and Jennifer Saunders as Rose. Five further specials, including spoofs on the films and Love Actually, had been broadcast from 1999 to 2003, before the sixth and final series in 2004, and an additional Christmas special in 2005. A total of 48 episodes have been broadcast between 1987 and 2005.
The series additionally consisted of compilation specials starting in 1995 with the two-part "French and Saunders Go To the Movies", which highlighted their movie parodies from the series. A second two-part compilation special, "I Can't Believe it's Music" and "I Can't Believe it's Not Music" from 2005 showcased their classic music parodies from singers such as Alanis Morissette, ABBA, The Corrs, Guns N'Roses, and Björk. In 2007, the compilation series, "A Bucket o' French and Saunders", which featured new material, aside from the classic clips, was broadcast to highlight the 20th anniversary of the series. However, this proved unpopular with viewers and the initial seven-part series was edited down to six episodes. On 25 December 2017, a new compilation special, "300 Years of French and Saunders", marked the 30th anniversary of the series, and again consisted mainly of classic clips, while new material featured spoofs of Gogglebox and Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

Live shows

French and Saunders began what was announced as their final tour at Blackpool Opera House on 29 February 2008 in the UK. The first leg of the show concluded in May 2008, before moving to Australia. The tour ended 9 November, in London. Previously they have toured their comedy act / sketch show very rarely, with UK tours in 1990 & 2000. The tour contained a selection of their favourite sketches, as well as new material written specifically for the show. The tour was directed by Hamish McColl, set design by Lez Brotherstone, lighting, video and visual effects by Willie Williams.
Lananeeneenoonoo was a British spoof all-girl group consisting of comedians Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Kathy Burke. The group, and its name, was a spoof on the popular group Bananarama and was introduced during the 1988 Christmas special of "French & Saunders", in which Burke was a guest.
In 1989, along with Bananarama, they created a charity single called "Help", to raise money for Comic Relief. It was a cover version of the Beatles' song "Help!", and was released on the London Records label, entering the UK Singles Chart on 25 February 1989 and reaching a high of No. 3. It remained in the chart for nine weeks.

The Sugar Lumps

French, Saunders and Burke returned for Comic Relief in 1997 as the Sugar Lumps, along with Llewella Gideon and Lulu, to parody the Spice Girls, with whom they performed a version of Who Do You Think You Are.

Side projects and other appearances

Saunders won an international acclaim for writing and playing Edina Monsoon in her sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, based on the sketch "Modern Mother and Daughter" co-created with French. She also guest starred in the American sitcoms Roseanne and Friends, and voiced the wicked Fairy Godmother in the DreamWorks animated film Shrek 2. Saunders wrote and starred in another two BBC sitcoms Jam and Jerusalem and The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle. Her other work includes being the face of Barclays Bank and BBC America.
French starred as Geraldine Granger in the highly successful sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, which received great critical acclaim as well as numerous holiday specials and future airplay, achieving a 1990s British cult classic. She also starred in three series of the comedy show Murder Most Horrid, and voiced Mrs. Beaver in the of C. S. Lewis' fantasy novel The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. French starred in another BBC shows Jam and Jerusalem and Lark Rise to Candleford. For many years, French has became popular for her appearances in the Terry's Chocolate Orange adverts by saying her famous line: "It's not Terry's, it's mine!", and is currently the voice of W H Smith and Tesco adverts. In 2009, French released her autobiography Dear Fatty, referring to Saunders, to whom she gave the nickname "Fatty".

Featuring French and Saunders

UK video