Dawn loses out over last-minute film script

Funnywoman Dawn French has revealed how she lost a bet with Jennifer Saunders – when she sent the Absolutely Fabulous film script minutes before a midnight deadline.

French had stood to win £100,000 from her comedy partner if Saunders did not finish the movie’s screenplay by the end of 2014, but received an email with the script as an attachment, minutes before the clock chimed at midnight.

The 58-year-old comedienne told Alan Carr on his Chatty Man show on Channel 4 last night that Saunders is a procrastinator, saying: “She is a lazy mare. You have to remember she is very, very bright and she can get away with doing things at the last minute.

“I knew that writing the Ab Fab film, for instance, that she was never going to do it, because she was supposed to have done it for eight years.

“This was a one-way bet. She can give me £100,000 or the Ab Fab script. We shook on it. The year goes on, I know she isn’t writing it.”

Saunders and Joanna Lumley will reprise their roles as Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone in the big-screen adaptation of the BBC series, which is due to be released in 2016. They will also be reunited with co-stars such as Julia Sawalha, Jane Horrocks and June Whitfield.

French was convinced she would win the money, because she saw Saunders distracted with other pursuits as the months went on.

“It was getting later and later in the year and I said to her, ‘Jen, I am honestly going to take your money’. I even spoke to her husband (Adrian Edmondson) and told him to get the chequebook out,” she said.

She added: “I was away in Mexico on New Year and 11.55pm there was a ping on my husband’s email, and there it was. She got it in just in time.”

French, who has released her third novel According To Yes, also said how it has taken her time to adapt to Saunders not being on stage with her when she embarked on her solo show.