I’ve been run over, thrown off a cliff edge and plunged into freezing cold water. I will do anything for a laugh
Comic’s fun-filled adventures, from wacky stunts to grape-eating contest
No one likes a laugh quite like Dawn French does.. and she’s gone to some lengths to prove it down the years.
She’s been soaked, run over and tossed off a cliff. All in the name of entertainment.
Christmas brings the best – and the funniest – out of national treasure Dawn. And when she donned her dog collar for her much-anticipated return as the Vicar of Dibley, well, it really was a blessing.
The final instalment of her three 10- minute specials airs on BBC1 tomorrow – and it’s another hoot.
Hard to imagine, then, that Dawn worried about taking the role back in 1994. The issue of women in the pulpit was still a fierce talking point in the Church of England. But show creator Richard Curtis was determined the lead should be a female vicar.
Dawn, 63, said: “I was worried about it at the beginning. Richard wanted to do that show for a long time but had to wait unt i l it was church law.
“There was such a lot of controversy about it.
But he was the one who went to a wedding where there had been a female clergy member who had off iciated somehow and he just said, ‘ This is the most natural thing’.
“He said that when he thought about his childhood if he needed emotional help he went to his mum. And he thought, ‘ It is all very well for guys to do that job but why wouldn’t a woman be able to do that job’? People were invested in that phenomenon.
“Whatever Richard’s agenda was to normalise women in the church, he still was very strict that it should be funny and this group of people would be crazy.”
The show ran for six years after it debuted on BBC1 to a rave reception in November 1994. Viewers were hooked on the mundane goings- on in the fictional Oxfordshire village of Dibley, assigned a female vicar after the landmark rule change.
Co-stars included James Fleet, 68, and Emma Chambers – just 53 when she died from a heart attack.
Christmas and New Year specials in 1999, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 all entered the UK top 10 programmes of the year.
The show received multiple British Comedy Awards including Best TV Comedy Actress for Emma – and two International Emmys. In April, it returned for a short segment in The Big Night In – fundraising for both Comic Relief and Children in Need.
And last month, the three festive specials were announced with Dawn, as vicar Geraldine Granger, delivering monthly sermons via Zoom.
Dawn said the specials revived “very happy memories”. One of her favourite scenes is from 1999 when the vicar falls into a giant puddle while trying to impress the roguish brother of the parish council chairman.
Dawn – who admits she will do anything for a gag – revealed it was filmed in one take.
She said: “We had some problems as they had to dig the big hole on a farmer’s track. It was November. I said
‘How cold is the water’? And they said
‘We can’t have it warm as it will steam’.
It had to be as cold as the land. But I am the kind of person that given a challenge like that, as in a dare, I thought I would jump into that. I thought, ‘ This might be a hoot so why not’?
“At the very bottom they had foam so I did not hurt myself. And yeah, I knew where it was and saw where it was and thought, ‘Let’s go for it’. It came up to my neck. I just knew it was a great gag.
“I remember a day in The Comic Strip when I got run over by a car for a gag. I think we were doing The Famous Five. I have been thrown over cliffs, I will do anything for a gag. I’m a tart.”
Before Dibley, Dawn enjoyed huge success with sketch show French and Saunders alongside pal Jennifer, 62.
Talking about Jennifer, she said: “I will do anything to make Fatty laugh. It is like being a kid in a dressing up box and you can’t wait to make your mate laugh, so why not? I probably would be teaching if I had not met Jennifer.” In 2001, the duo turned down OBEs for services to comedy drama.
Later Jennifer said: “If I felt I deserved a damehood I’d accept it. At the time, we felt that we were being paid very well to have a lot of fun. It didn’t seem right.”
Food lover Dawn, who features in next month’s Good Housekeeping, admits she and Jen have eating
competitions.
She said: “I never regret eating anything. Jennifer once said, ‘See how many grapes you can fit in your mouth’?
It was in our f lat and she was shoving them in.She was choking. She wanted to win but she lived.
“I could never give up pasties. They are made with love. I miss my mum’s pasties so much.
I’m learning to make them. Food of the gods.”
Dawn is currently wr i t ing a book , filming new series of
Sky 1 drama Delicious and ITV talent show
Little Big Shots and work ing on a new project with Jennifer.
Harking back to her days when she trained as a drama teacher, she would love to return to the classroom.
Dawn said: “What I would really like to do when I am really decrepit and old would be just to sit and be a classroom assistant and help l it tle k ids to do reading.
“When my girl went to infant school I’d stay for the morning. You could watch the kids come in and read with them. That at is what I’d like to do. I love teaching.
It was ver y hard for me to leave it.” The Vicar of Dibley, in n Lockdown, BBC1, 8.50pm m tomorrow.