Day Dawn French, age three, met the Queen Mum – and thought she was a witch
Meeting a member of the Royal Family should be the most exciting event of a three-year-old’s life.
But Dawn French has revealed that her childhood meeting with the Queen Mother gave her ‘nightmares for years’ – because she was convinced she was a witch due to her ‘virtually black teeth’.
the comedian’s father Denys was an RAF sergeant who was chosen to host the Queen Mother for tea during a visit to the Leconfield base in Yorkshire in 1961.
in footage from the RAF archives, which Miss French showed in her stand-up show, Dawn French Live: 30 Million Minutes, her young self can be seen dressed in a yellow cardigan standing with her family as the Queen Mother arrived at their home.
However, after shaking the Queen Mother’s hand and bobbing her required curtsey, she said she refused to talk to the royal after spotting her teeth – describing the visit as ‘the most terrifying half hour of my life’.
the comedian, 59, revealed: ‘We commenced our well-practised bowing and curtseying
‘And what happened next was the stuff of my nightmares for years to come, because as i arose from my rather well executed curtsey, the Queen Mother smiled – and she had virtually black teeth. Black teeth, like a witch. Believe me when you’re three years and nine months old, black teeth equals witch.
‘i couldn’t believe that a queen witch is coming into my house and nobody was doing anything to stop her.
‘i was utterly dumbstruck and refused to look at her or talk to her for the entire rest of the visit.
‘it was quite simply the most terrifying half hour of my life.’ Miss French and her family moved frequently during her childhood because of her father’s position in the RAF.
However he suffered from depression and tragically killed himself when Miss French was 18. She has previously said it was ‘just like a bomb went off in our family’.
‘He’d lived his whole life with it but this was in a time when you didn’t say you had mental illness if you were the head of a family,’ she said. ‘i still have sadness about it ... And i think it’s been a centre point of my life.’