'She won’t be my friend' – Dawn French reveals heartwarming start to lifelong friendship with Jennifer Saunders
French and Saunders aren’t just a popular comedy pairing, the two have been real life friends for decades
Some things in life just always come as a pair. Fish and chips. Gin and tonic. French and Saunders.
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders’s hugely successful comedy career included their long-running sketch show, the sitcom Girls On Top, tours, podcasts and more. As Dawn celebrated the release of her upcoming book, Enough, she reminisced on where the friendship all began – and what might be next for the pair.
Appearing on This Morning, Dawn shared how it wasn’t necessarily love at first sight - initially thinking they were the 'wrong mixture' to get along - but today, after babies, loss and all the trappings of life, their friendship is 'more important than anything else'.
Speaking to Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard, Dawn said the pair first met at college back in the 1970s. 'She's very different to me in many ways, and yet we're very similar in other ways. When I met her, she was very confident, very beautiful, a bit sort of enigmatic.
'And I arrived at college, you know, bouncing and full of everything… I remember thinking, I know she's out of my league, she won't be my friend.
'Then a flat became available, which both of us wanted. And I remember when I got a place in that flat, which seven of us shared together, and I found out she was also going to be there, and I thought, ‘oh, no, not her’.
'But, you know, cut to a week later with best mates. And honestly, I just love the bones of her.'
She continued, 'We've known each other for so long now… we've been through births and deaths and illnesses and everything together. So the love is very strong. The friendship is more important than anything else.'
Over the May Bank Holiday weekend, Dawn dug even deeper into her bond with the Absolutely Fabulous star - offering a look at how Jennifer was there during one of Dawn’s toughest moments.
Speaking at the literary Hay Festival, Dawn shared that she met Jennifer not long after her father died by suicide.
'I went straight to college within weeks of my dad dying and my mum insisted on that. My mum was massively strong… She wanted us to carry on as normal and do the best we could.
'So I went to college, sort of dripping with grief and pretending to be cheerful, and meeting [Jennifer] there, you know, who very much, very quickly saw through all this.
Dawn shared how Jennifer's family took her under her wing.
'[Jennifer's] dad was amazing to me. The minute he met me and knew my story, he sort of stepped up as a bit of a surrogate dad to me, and so that’s a brilliant thing that happened there.'
Perhaps it’s not surprising why the friendship remains so important to them both. But what about working together again?
When asked by Cat and Ben if the pair would ever reunite on screens, Dawn had some good news for fans. 'We talk about it all the time and then we go off and do other things and forget. We've got a few ideas for things. And I would never say never.'
The pair briefly reunited on screens in 2022, appearing with Judi Dench in a Repair Shop sketch. And while it might not be a French and Saunders original, the pair are actually appearing on stage together for the first time in 17 years later this year.
They will join the star-studded line-up for the London Palladium’s Cinderella panto, playing the parts of the Ugly Sisters.
