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What a cracking night at the Leicester Square Theatre. A sold out and very excited and up for it crowd (they even enjoyed me doing the clapperboard) were there primarily to see the wonder of nature that is Dawn French, but also got to see the force of nature that is Deborah Frances-White. It was an electric atmosphere and, I think, two of the best interviews of the series, if not the entire 126 episode run thus far.
I had spent the morning listening to the entire first series of Deborah’s radio 4 show “Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice” so I knew we were in for a funny, illuminating and possibly moving chat. And I wasn’t disappointed. Things occasionally entered inappropriate territory, but in a good way, I think and Deborah destroyed the pathetic myth of humourless feminists. In fact her explanation of privilege was not only self-effacing and funny, it was the clearest argument I’ve heard for understanding why some people, unknowingly, have it easy. And as you’d expect from the co-host of the Guilty Feminist Podcast, the contradictions between her philosophy and the reality were also hilariously explored. Deborah was adopted and was once a Jehovah’s Witness and we had a lot of fun discussing the supposed reward of that religion as well as its deficiencies. Really good fun, but illuminating too.
By the time we came off stage, the loveliest person in the UK was waiting for us. I haven’t seen Dawn for a good few years (and only met her two or three times back in the 90s), but she was friendly, warm, filthy and funny in real life as you would expect and want. When I meet people like her who were at the centre of the Big Bang when my comedy Universe was formed I find it very hard not to revert to being the teenage fan boy that I still am (not very far) underneath. As you’ll see on the podcast, I was nervous and silly and often totally inappropriate, wasting my time on much too rude emergency questions when I had this rare opportunity to talk to a legend - I realised during the day, that Jennifer and Dawn are by far the most successful alumni of the Comic Strip. And whilst there are some massive stars from that era, only they have stayed consistently at the top of their game and in the public eye ever since. It’s a nice pay-off to the fact that the two got £5 each for every night they played the Comic Strip when their male counterparts were (initially) earning hundreds.
I hoped to destroy the veneer and find the evil, selfish monster beneath French’s loveable exterior, but I couldn’t drag her down to my level. She talked lovingly about her double act partner (rather than resenting and hating them like any normal person would) and we were cheeky to each other, whilst (hopefully) remaining respectful. It was a real delight and privilege to get to talk to her for an hour or so. I still can’t quite believe it when big name comedians are happy to come on this stupid show to talk to me, but this was certainly one of the highlights for me. I think we’ve got some interesting stuff.
We had some good chats before and after the show and my wife got to meet Dawn. When she was 15 she’d been asked at school to write an essay called “My Hero” and whilst the rest of her class had written about firemen or their parents, Catie wrote about Dawn. They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but it seemed to go pretty well for Catie. Dawn even asked if she could read the essay. Which is the kind of thing a true hero would do.
You will have to wait until December to hear these ones.
Series 10 shaping up very well. Though Sara Pascoe has had to pull out of the show on 14th November as she had a double booking, but I am sure we’ll find a great replacement. Next week it’s Tony Robinson and Tom Davis, which should be another cracker.
All the details are in my latest newsletter.
