Dawn Roma French is an English actress, writer, and comedian, best known for starring in and
writing for the comedy sketch show French and Saunders with comedy partner Jennifer
Saunders and for playing the lead role as Geraldine Granger in the sitcom The Vicar
of Dibley. French has been nominated for seven BAFTA Awards and also won a Fellowship BAFTA
with Jennifer Saunders.
Background French was born in Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales,
to English parents, Denys Vernon French and Felicity. She was educated at the independent
St Dunstan's Abbey School. She has a brother, Gary. Her father, Denys, served in the Royal
Air Force, stationed at RAF Valley. The RAF partly funded her private education. When
her father was stationed at the former RAF Faldingworth, she attended Caistor Grammar
School in Caistor, Lincolnshire, boarding in the school's Lindsey house. She later won
a debating scholarship that brought her to study at the Spence School in New York.
French has claimed that her self-confidence and self-belief stem from her father, who
told her how beautiful she was each day. She stated, "He taught me to value myself. He
told me that I was beautiful and the most precious thing in his life." He had a history
of severe depression and attempted suicides but managed to conceal his illness from Dawn
and her brother. She studied at the Central School of Speech
and Drama in 1977, where she met her future comedy partner, Jennifer Saunders. Both came
from RAF backgrounds. They had grown up on the same base, even having had the same best
friend, although never meeting. At first, as far as Saunders was concerned, French was
a "cocky little upstart". French considered Saunders snooty and aloof. The comic duo originally
did not like each other as French wanted to become a drama teacher whereas Saunders loathed
the idea and thus disliked French for being enthusiastic and confident about the course.
French and Saunders shared a flat whilst at college and were influenced to do comedy by
their flatmates as part of their projects for college. After talking in depth for the
first time, they came to be friends. While at college she broke up with her fiancé,
David Smyth, a former Royal Navy officer. After they graduated, they formed a double-act
called the Menopause Sisters. Saunders has described the act, which involved wearing
tampons in their ears, as "cringeworthy". The manager of the club recalled, "They didn't
seem to give a damn. There was no star quality about them at all." French and Saunders came
to public attention as members of the Comic Strip, part of the alternative comedy scene
in the early 1980s. French has also written a best-selling epistolary
autobiography, which she has titled Dear Fatty. French was paid a £1.5 million advance for
the book, which was released in 2008. On an appearance on The Paul O'Grady Show on 6 October
2008, French said that "Fatty" is her nickname for Jennifer Saunders, as a joke about her
own size. French said that she became great friends with Saunders well before they started
working together, which was "over 30 years ago". The book consists of letters to the
different people who have been in her life. Television
French has had an extensive career on television, debuting on Channel 4's The Comic Strip Presents
series in an episode called "Five Go Mad in Dorset" in 1982. Each episode presented a
self-contained story and, in addition to French and Saunders, showcased Comic Strip performers
Peter Richardson, Rik Mayall, Robbie Coltrane and Adrian Edmondson. She acted in 27 of the
37 episodes and wrote two of them. One episode featured a parody of spaghetti westerns and
another a black and white film about a hopelessly goofy boy. Some of French's first exposure
to a wider audience occurred when comedy producer Martin Lewis recorded a Comic Strip record
album in 1981 which featured sketches by French & Saunders. The album was released on Springtime!/Island
Records in September 1981 and presented French and Jennifer Saunders to an audience outside
of London. In 1985, French starred with Saunders, Tracey Ullman and Ruby Wax in Girls on Top,
which portrayed four eccentric women sharing a flat in London.
French has co-written and starred in her and Saunders' comedy series, French & Saunders,
which debuted in 1987. On their show, the duo have spoofed many celebrities such as
Madonna, Cher, Catherine Zeta-Jones and the Spice Girls. They have also parodied films
such as The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. After
20 years being on television together, their last sketch series, A Bucket o' French & Saunders,
began airing on 8 September 2007. French and Saunders have also followed separate
careers. During French's time starring in Murder Most Horrid, from 1991 to 1999, she
played a different character each week, whether it was the murderer, victim or both. In 2002,
French appeared in the comedy/drama mini-series Ted and Alice. In the series, set in the Lake
District, French played a tourist information officer who falls in love with an alien. She
also appeared in the BBC sitcom Wild West, with Catherine Tate, in which she played a
woman living in Cornwall who is a lesbian, more through lack of choice than any specific
natural urge. This series did not meet with as much success as her earlier roles and it
ended in 2004 after two years. French's biggest solo television role to date
has been as the title figure in the long running and popular BBC comedy The Vicar of Dibley,
which Richard Curtis created for her. She starred as Geraldine Granger, a vicar of a
small village called Dibley. An audience of 12.3 million watched the final full-length
episode to see her character's marriage ceremony. Her last appearance on The Vicar of Dibley
was with Damian Lewis in a mini-episode made for Comic Relief in 2013. She was nominated
for a BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance in the last episode of The Vicar of Dibley. Repeats
of the show on BBC One still attract millions of viewers and it also retains a following
amongst PBS viewers in the United States. French played a major role in Jam & Jerusalem
as a woman called "Rosie" who has dissociative identity disorder and with it an alter ego
called "Margaret". She co-starred alongside Sue Johnston, Jennifer Saunders and Joanna
Lumley. She made a guest appearance in Little Britain as Vicky Pollard's mother, Shelly
Pollard, seen defending her daughter in the dock in Thailand as she was charged with drug
smuggling and was sentenced to 27 years prison, 10 more than her daughter. French also appeared
in a special version of Little Britain Live which featured several celebrity guests and
was shown by the BBC as part of Comic Relief. She played the part of a lesbian barmaid in
a sketch with Daffyd Thomas. In 2006, French appeared in Agatha Christie's
Marple. She appeared as Caroline Arless in the BBC television drama Lark Rise to Candleford
in 2008. Talking about her role, she has stated, "I'm quite a vibrant character. She's quite
extreme, in that she drinks too much, laughs too much and sings too much. But she loves
her family very much; it's just that she goes over the top sometimes." In late 2010, French
starred in Roger & Val Have Just Got In with actor Alfred Molina.
French appeared in Little Crackers, short comedy films which were broadcast over Christmas
in 2010. French appeared as a special guest on Michael
Bublé's Home For Christmas in December 2011. In July 2012, she was a judge in ITV's Superstar
live shows. In March 2013, French became one of the four judges on the seventh series of
Nine Network's Australia's Got Talent. Film and theatre
In films, French played The Fat Lady in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner
of Azkaban, replacing Elizabeth Spriggs, who played the character in the first film of
the series. French's then-husband, Lenny Henry, provided the voice of the Shrunken Head in
the same film, though they shared no screen time. In 2005 French provided the voice for
the character Mrs. Beaver in Disney and Walden Media's film adaptation of C.S. Lewis' The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In 2010, French lent her
voice to the role of Angie the Elephant in the environmental animated film, Animals United.
She has also taken roles in the theatre. French has appeared in plays such as A Midsummer
Night's Dream, My Brilliant Divorce, and Smaller, which last is about a schoolteacher caring
for her disabled mother. January 2007 saw French performing as the Duchesse de Crackentorp
at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, in The Daughter of the Regiment by Gaetano
Donizetti. Soprano Natalie Dessay and tenor Juan Diego Flórez were the leads in the production.
French returned to Covent Garden and La Fille du règiment in the 2010 revival.
Advertising French was chosen as the face of Terry's Chocolate
Orange, until August 2007, when she was dropped. She has also been in advertisements for Churchill
Insurance Company. Music videos
French has appeared in the videos to Alison Moyet's songs "Love Letters" in 1987 and "Whispering
Your Name" in 1994. She also appeared in a Comic Relief version of the Spice Girls hit
"Who Do You Think You Are" in 1997. In 1986 she appeared as a blonde in Kate Bush's music
video entitled "Experiment IV". Personal life
French met Lenny Henry on the alternative comedy circuit. The couple married on 20 October
1984 in Covent Garden, London. They adopted a daughter, Billie. French has stated that
Billie has always known that she was adopted, but once took out an injunction when a biographer
came close to revealing the identity of Billie's biological mother. When faced with a question
about how she and Henry would feel if Billie wanted to find out about her birth mother,
French commented, "Whatever she wants to do when she's 18, we'll support her. What I do
worry about is anyone else making the decision for her."
The couple owned property in Fowey, Cornwall. The £2.3-million mansion with 40 rooms overlooks
Readymoney Cove and neighbouring Poldridmouth Cove, known as smugglers' cove. The grade
II-listed building dates back to the 19th century.
French is a supporter of the Labour Party. On 6 April 2010, French and Henry announced
they were separating after 25 years of marriage. It was reported that the separation was amicable.
They had decided to separate in October the previous year but left it until then as they
were still in discussion over the separation. Their divorce was finalised in 2010.
French began dating charity worker Mark Bignell in 2011. On 22 April 2013 it was reported
that they had married. In September 2014 French was named as the
new Chancellor of Falmouth University. Awards and recognition
French and Saunders won the honorary Golden Rose of Montreux award in 2002 and in 2003,
she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In a 2006
poll consisting of 4,000 people, French was named as the most admired female celebrity
amongst women in Britain. In February 2013 she was assessed as one of
the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.
BAFTA Awards 1989 – Nominated – BAFTA TV Award for
Best Light Entertainment Performance in French and Saunders
1991 – Nominated – BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance in French
and Saunders 1998 – Nominated – BAFTA TV Award for
Best Comedy Performance in The Vicar of Dibley 2000 – Nominated – BAFTA TV Award for
Best Comedy Performance in The Vicar of Dibley 2001 – Nominated – BAFTA TV Award for
Best Comedy Performance in The Vicar of Dibley 2007 – Nominated – BAFTA TV Award for
Best Comedy Performance in The Vicar of Dibley 2009 – Won – BAFTA Fellowship – awarded
with Jennifer Saunders 2011 – Nominated – BAFTA Best Female Performance
in a Comedy Role in Roger and Val Have Just Got In
British Comedy Awards 1997 – Won – British Comedy Award for
Best TV Comedy Actress in The Vicar of Dibley 1998 – Nominated – British Comedy Award
for Best TV Comedy Actress in The Vicar of Dibley
2011 – Nominated – British Comedy Awards for Best TV Comedy Actress in Psychoville
National Television Awards 1998 – Nominated – National Television
Award for Most Popular Comedy Performer in The Vicar of Dibley
2000 – Nominated – National Television Award for Most Popular Comedy Performer in
The Vicar of Dibley 2002 – Nominated – National Television
Award for Most Popular Comedy Performance in Ted and Alice
2003 – Nominated – National Television Award for Most Popular Comedy Performance
in Wild West Other
1991 – Won – Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for TV- Light Entertainment in French
and Saunders 2001 – Along with Jennifer Saunders, declined
an OBE. 2002 – Won – Rose d'Or Light Entertainment
Festival Award shared with Jennifer Saunders Credits
Television Theatre
Films Bibliography
Fiction A Tiny Bit Marvellous
Oh Dear Silvia Autobiography
Dear Fatty Comedy
Girls on Top A Feast of French and Saunders
Other Big Knits: Bold, Beautiful, Designer Knitwear
Great Big Knits: Over Twenty Designer Patterns Frigid Women by Sue and Victoria Riches
Cruising by Beryl Cook References
External links Dawn French at the Internet Movie Database
Biography at the Museum of Broadcast Communications French and Saunders