I was an ambitious, funny female … which wasn’t seen as a comfortable mix in the Eighties
Comic Helen Lederer lays bare the world of Eighties comedy in her new book. By JANE WARREN and SANJEETA BAIN
WITH HER appealingly goofy lopsided grin and large, quizzical blue eyes, Helen Lederer is often underestimated.
She is one of just a handful of female comics who did the nearimpossible and broke into the malecentric world of 1980s comedy.
The 80s and 90s were not exactly welcoming for women comics.
Many felt Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Victoria Wood were quite enough, without a quirky blonde storming her way on to the scene to show up the boys as well.
Not that this was going to stop Helen. She forged a career as a regular on some of the biggest shows of the era, from sketch shows Happy Families (1983-85), Naked Video (1987) and French and Saunders to sitcoms The Young Ones, Bottom and Absolutely Fabulous (as boozy journalist Catriona). But it wasn’t easy.
“People would actually ask me, ‘What is it like to be a woman and funny?’,” says Helen, 69, still staggered by the overt sexism.
“One is held accountable for being a female comedian, and I’ve
often been asked to justify it as a life choice. I was funny and ambitious, which wasn’t seen as a comfortable mix.”
Helen grew up Eltham, South East London and studied criminology before landing a place at drama school.
Once she started stand-up, she became friends with Ben Elton and Rik Mayall at the Comedy Store in London. But there was a certain pecking order once they made it to TV.
“Don’t crash my laughs,” Rik apparently warned her once.
Helen says: “I’d do the feed [the line that precedes the punchline].
“I was very earnest in the 80s. Like a comedy secretary.”
Yet it is the liaisons off camera which really raise an eyebrow.
There was – as revealed in her new Mirror Books memoir, Not That I’m Bitter – a particular buzz around her encounter with Rik at the 1983 Edinburgh Festival.
Namely because their session came to an abrupt end when “a bee decided to fly into the room”. The pair went for a walk instead.
“None of us were looking for an actual relationship,” she says.
“Rik was really an amazing, charismatic, unique and exciting performer and human.”
In the mid-80s, she dated Harry Enfield, who was seven years younger. It lasted until he caught her cheating.
“Harry was very talented, very clever and very kind,” she recalls.
Yet as his star began to rise with his Loadsamoney character, she began seeing her ex as well.
She felt guilty when Harry popped round after she shared a clandestine clinch with the other man in a botanical garden.
“[Harry] arrived at my flat with a perfume named Poison,” she says, noting it was apt. “I felt sick, ashamed and rumbled.”
The problem was she cared for them both.
“At the time the easiest way to avoid hurting either of them was to just crack on with both of them at the same time,” she admits.
Harry eventually sent her a “chucking letter”. But they made amends – a few years later, he cast her in The Harry Enfield Show... albeit as a sex worker.
Making her way as a young comedienne, however clever her material, was not easy.
“I go towards danger, I’m attracted to it,” says Helen, the daughter of an English mum and Czech dad.
The stand-up comedy world is currently in its own #MeToo movement, and
Helen has had plenty of her own experiences to talk about.
“Comedy and power can go together,” she says. “There’s a lot of adrenaline, there’s a lot of excitement, a lot of working late... but, you know, behaviours were different then.
“#MeToo is a reflection of people having voices who hadn’t [had] voices in the past. In my mother’s day, it would’ve been unheard of.”
Helen remembers a tutoring session at her home with a nowdeceased drama tutor, who invited another student to join them.
She recalls: “It mainly involved him sitting on the sofa and watching to see if we might become lesbians. I obliged as far as I could.”
Back in the early 80s, some men also thought little of putting their hands up people’s skirts.
She says: “This behaviour was accepted as bohemian, almost characterful. It was easier to just go along with things.
“I don’t see myself as a victim: I wanted to be a better actress. I felt I could go far, and sometimes it was quicker to say ‘yes’ not ‘no’.”
But behind the defensive candour lies a more fragile persona.
“I’m quite people pleasing,” admits Helen, who has been married to second husband Chris, a GP, since 1999. She’s still on a high after working with soap star Bill Roache, 90, during her Coronation Street cameo last month.
“Bill is lovely,” says Helen. “Fingers crossed I go back, I’d love to.” So how does she feel about turning the big 7-0 in September? “There is nothing I can do about time passing,” she says.
“No one else can do anything about it either. So as
I get older, so does everyone else.