British Comedy Classics

French & Saunders – Madonna Parody, The French & Saunders Show, BBC

Dawn French & Jennifer Saunders started out in the early 1980’s as part of the so called ‘alternative comedy’ movement along with Ben Elton, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson (who Jennifer Saunders went onto marry) and shows like The Young Ones and the British version of Saturday Night Live, a stand-up comedy show which helped launch their career as a double act.

I remember French & Saunders first live act. Jennifer was a stand-up comedian and Dawn was her fumbling YTS (Youth Training Scheme) assistant. YTS was a UK Government initiative of the time brought in by the Thatcher government to offer school leavers a ‘real’ job, though as the sketch indicated, it was seen as a way of stopping young people claiming unemployment benefit.

The Alternative Comedy movement was very political and French & Saunders certainly flirted with it but their comedy was always more middle-of-the-road, even then and as they became household names politics vanished from their shows.

The French & Saunders Show peaked in its popularity in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s and the BBC rewarded its appeal by giving the show one of the highest budgets in BBC history.

A main diet of the sketches were aimed at hilarious spoofs of famous films and other tv shows, as well as parodies of famous celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Tina Turner and Madonna. In their parody of Madonna, they took the rise out of the Queen of Pop and how she still tries to be the person she used to be.

That said, she has outlasted The French & Saunders Show and is still selling out stadiums. You can now buy Madonna Tickets for her latest tour.

French & Saunders have now gone their separate ways, though another Christmas Special is always a possibility, the last one was the 2005 French & Saunders Christmas Celebrity Special. They have both continued to be successful, Dawn French with The Vicar Of Dibley, and Jennifer Saunders with Joanna Lumley in Absolutely Fabulous. The latter started as a French & Saunders sketch, with Dawn originally playing Joanna Lumley’s role.

But here is French & Saunders with their amusing Madonna parody

French & Saunders are not on tour but along with Madonna, many of the pop stars of the 1980’s and 1990’s that were victims of their parodies are. You can buy Janet Jackson Tickets for her forthcoming UK Tour dates and buy and sell Tina Turner Tickets from Viagogo.