French and Saunders reunited

...to receive a 'comedy legend' award

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders were reunited on stage last night, to receive an award from Bristol’s Slapstick Comedy Festival.

The pair were presented with custom-made versions of themselves based on Morph, the plasticine character created by Aardman Studios, which sponsors the Comedy Legend Award.

Their accolade marked the 30th anniversary of the start of the French & Saunders TV show, which ran for seven series up to 2017.

Saunders’s Absolutely Fabulous co-star Dame June Whitfield joined them on stage of the sold-out event at Colston Hall, hosted by Mel Giedroyc.

Other stars including Miranda Hart, Joanna Lumley, Barry Cryer, Griff Rhys Jones, Matt Lucas and Ruby Wax sent video messages.

In hers, Lumley confessed that she once lied to avoid filming a sketch with the pair based on her character in The New Avengers, because she was ‘afraid’ of meeting them.

She told the pair: 'Years ago, long before Ab Fab, you invited me to be a guest on French and Saunders. Tou’d written a very funny little piece about following me as admirers of Purdey. It was a wonderful little piece.

‘But this is the confession. I was so afraid of meeting my comedy heroines – that if you didn’t like me, my life would be over – I pretended I was busy and I couldn’t do it.

‘What a coward I was!’

In her message, Hart said; ‘Hello Sir Jennifer, Lady French. I could do that very British thing and start; "Who am I speaking to exactly?". But, frankly, you deserve more than that. I want to say a genuine and heartfelt thank you for inspiring me and countless other women working in comedy today.

'Thank you for your inspiration, your dedication and for your particular brilliance at clowning and slapstick. You are both wonderful people - very loving, kind, giving and amazing women and you have made me laugh such a lot. You rock!’