'I'd wear horse hair for extensions': Jennifer Saunders addresses thinning hair during hilarious The Claudia Winkleman Show appearance

There was also plenty of chat about ghostly hauntings during the highly anticipated opening episode of the chat show

Jennifer Saunders attends the Newport Beach Film Festival UK & Ireland Honours 2026 at Raffles London at The OWO
(Image credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

The queen of TV is back, and the opening episode of The Claudia Winkleman Show does not disappoint.

Of course, we adore Claudia on The Traitors, but her first major gig since leaving Strictly was always going to be met with trepidation.

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During a clip the film shown to audiences, Grandma Thompson appears sporting 'the flip' - her very thick hair is styled with a side parting and perfectly curled ends.

"It's a great wig," Jennifer says of the hair, adding, "A really great wig, look at it, that's the hair I want."

"I want that hair, she continues, going on to say that she coveted the thickness of the wig and how it just stayed in place.

"This is thin," she says, gesturing to her own hair. Explaining that her blonde, textured bob consists of extensions because of her thinned out hair, she says, "Most of this is nuns hair woven in with extensions"

"Did you know nuns sell their hair?" she asks, before adding, "They get made into extensions."

Jeff Goldblum, Jennifer Saunders, Claudia Winkleman, Vanessa Williams, Tom Allen on The Claudia Winkleman Show

(Image credit: BBC/So Television/PA Media/Matt Crossick)

During a later conversation between the guests, a discussion ignited about which animals they would save, after an audience member described spending time saving the lives of toads as they migrate to another pond to breed.

Again alluding to the thinness of her hair, Jennifer said she'd choose to save horses. "I would save a horse", she begins, adding, "I would need the hair for my extensions."

"I'd save them for the hair, for the hooves, for the mental health," she says, as Claudia sniggers at the implication that Jennifer would wear horses hair alongside her existing extensions of "nuns hair."

Once talk of thinning hair came to an end, chat takes a bizarre turn as the stars discuss hauntings - this time a medium from the audience gets involved to talk about her experience with spirits.

Spookily, Vanessa, Tom and Jennifer have all experienced ghostly happenings in theatre.

Vanessa speaks of one at the Dominion Theatre, where a child reportedly died in an explosion when the basement of the theatre was a brewery. The explosion allegedly caused a flood of beer, which the child drowned in, and her spirit is said to haunt the area.

Jennifer recalls seeing "the ghost of half a man sitting in a seat" at the Drury Lane Theatre.

There are many hilarious, offbeat and uplifting conversations throughout the episode, and we can't wait to tune in to see who makes an appearance next week.

The Claudia Winkleman Show airs at 10.40pm on Fridays from March 13, on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Lucy Wigley
Entertainment Writer

Lucy is a multi-award nominated writer and blogger with seven years’ experience writing about entertainment, parenting and family life. Lucy worked as a freelance writer and journalist at the likes of PS and moms.com, before joining GoodtoKnow as an entertainment writer, and then as news editor. The pull to return to the world of television was strong, and she was delighted to take a position at woman&home to once again watch the best shows out there, and tell you why you should watch them too.

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