The French connections
Chattedto DawnFrench ON STEPHENS HANNAH with aboutherfriendship missing JenniferSaunders, newnovel hugsandher of blood aboutthebondse bonds instinct andmaternal aternal
I’ve worked for five weeks with a crew I’ve only met from the eyes upwards...
On filming Christmas drama Roald & Beatrix
DESPITE lockdown, Dawn French, comedian, actress and novelist, has welcomed the chance to get together with her old mucker, Jennifer Saunders.
They’ve been reunited for a podcast, are appearing in Kenneth Branagh’s movie remake of the Agatha Christie thriller Death On The Nile, due out in December, and have kept in touch during the pandemic, she reveals.
“My first bit of ‘back to work’ was with Jennifer,” she reveals.
“As soon as we were allowed to meet up at a great distance from each other, with a wall of cake in-between, we met up and devised a series for Audible called French & Saunders: T*****g About.
“We see each other all the time anyway as friends. We’re not very good on Zoom. I’d rather be on the phone to her or we text each other a lot.
“If we don’t get to see each other much, we just pick up where we left off. There’s never a guilty gap. It’s not a friendship that you have to feed on a regular basis to keep it topped up. It’s very secure.”
During lockdown, Dawn, 63, finished writing her first novel in five years, Because Of You, a story of love, identity and belonging as two baby girls born on the millennium New Year’s Day change the paths of the women who give birth to them.
One is stillborn and, in her desperate grief, the bereaved mother steals the other healthy baby from the hospital.
Dawn explains: “I wanted to find a story where it was a challenge to empathise with the main character. She is somebody who is honourable and who we want to love, flaws and all, who does something huge and wrong. I wanted to write about someone you would still love when she makes a giant mistake... to morally wobble the centre line.”
The novel explores the naturenurture debate and whether a child’s personality would naturally follow that of his or her birth parents or adoptive parents. It’s a subject she admits she’s thought about a lot – she has an adopted daughter Billie with ex-husband Sir Lenny Henry –
but hasn’t come up with an answer.
“It’s dollops of both and it depends on the people. The problem is that if you have somebody who is brought up by a different family than their blood relative, you could forever be saying, ‘Oh, clearly this person is the result of the nurturing in the new family’, or ‘This person is the result of the nature of the old family’. But how would you ever know?”
Dawn spent lockdown at home in Cornwall with her husband, Mark Bignell, who runs a drugs rehabilitation charity, her daughter Billie and her stepdaughter, Lily. She dedicates the book to Billie, Lils, as she calls her, and Olly, her stepson.
“Lockdown was frightening. It’s frightening to have an invisible enemy out there but I’m quite resilient and resourceful and to hunker down with my family was a kind of a treat.
“My two daughters came to live with me for three months and we cooked for each other and talked a lot and gave each other space and had robust debates about things.”
Being a key worker, Mark has worked throughout the period.
“When we get the chance to look back, what we’ll notice is all the little acts of kindness and the moments when people pulled together,” says Dawn.
“He came back with so many stories of that nature, so although it was difficult, it was rewarding in many ways.”
While 18 months of her work schedule went up in smoke and her tour was postponed, she’s missed other things too, she reflects.
“I’ve missed cuddles with my mates and it proves to me how much that stuff matters.”
She describes the Government’s handling of the crisis as ‘shambolic’.
“But then a pandemic throws you into a crisis,” she continues. “Nobody’s experienced at this. It’s no secret that I’m a ‘leftie’ and would
have preferred Keir Starmer to be guiding us through this.”
It may be no coincidence that Dawn’s novel features a selfabsorbed, pompous MP.
“Well, we are surrounded by men like that at the moment,” she says wryly.
“I didn’t base his character on a particular MP but on many people I see and listen to on TV and people I come across in my life. He’s a composite. I’m not naming names!”
She recently went to London to join fellow actresses in campaigning to open theatres.
“I just wanted to join forces with some so remarkable women I know kn who are just making quiet qu protests about opening the theatres. I’m befuddled by it all al because the discrepancies are hard h to get your head around. aroun I do not understand how you c can get on a plane or go to a pub bu but you can’t sit in a theatre.”
Despite Despi the restrictions, Dawn recently rrecently returned from Wales where she sshe was filming the new Sky One Christmas Christm drama Roald & Beatrix, about th the day when Roald Dahl, aged six, six met Beatrix Potter, aged 60. 660.
Dawn plays Potter and co-stars include iinclude Rob Brydon, Jessica Hynes, Bill BBill Bailey Bail and Alison Steadman.
“It was wa one of the first bits of filming that went back into production, product you have a Covid person on your crew... I’ve had nine tests in four weeks. Everyone who’s not going goin to be wearing a mask has to be tested, te everyone who is near you is te tested. I’ve worked for five weeks with w a crew I’ve only met from the th eyes upwards.
“We sat s in our caravans away from ffrom each ea other, we ate lunch on our own own, our costumes were sanitised sanitise and quarantined. But every si single person on that job was so happy happ to be back at work.”
Meanwhile, Mean the release of Kenneth KKenneth Branagh’s remake of Death On O The Nile, which features Dawn a and Jennifer, has been put back to December.
But they th are not in a comedic role, rrole, she sh stresses.
“Ken has been b quite brave to cast us u in this because if we’re in a big movie, normally we’re p parodying it. But he kn knows that we can not do that. You wouldn’t tip up a giant budget film like that with two pe people a****g about.”
T Tour or no tour, Dawn is clearly c still very busy.
““My big work has fallen aw away and I’ve had to find it el elsewhere and pray for thin things to come back.
“B “But I don’t feel any less crea creative. I will always write boo books because it’s where my h heart is.”
Does she think she will work on TV with Jennifer again?
“If we can think of the right thing and if we want to, I would never say no to anything. It’s just finding the time and the right job and getting on with it.”
Because Of You by Dawn French is published by Michael Joseph, priced £20.