French and Saunders: 'We’re ready to get funny for Christmas special'

French and Saunders
(Image credit: PA Archive/PA Images)

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders have promised to "get funny" as the BBC officially confirmed the pair will reunite for their first show in 10 years this Christmas

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders have promised to "get funny" as the BBC officially confirmed the pair will reunite for their first show in 10 years this Christmas.

The BBC1 festive special will see the legendary duo celebrating 30 years of French and Saunders by performing brand new material.

Dawn French said: “We’ve got our lucky pants on and we're ready to get funny...”

Jennifer Saunders joked: “We have almost deliberately stayed alive this long just to force the British Broadcorping Castration to put us on television one last time.”

As well as new sketches, the special will also see the madcap twosome revisit some of their most memorable material.

Jon Plowman, Executive Producer explained: “To be honest I wouldn't have a career without them so it’s terrific that they're back together for this show of old, gold and new stuff. They are two of the greats and it's good that they've finally found each other's phone numbers for the first time in a while.”

The Beeb also announced it will repeat Dawn’s one-woman show, 30 Million Minutes, on BBC Two at 10pm on Sunday 1 October.

The show, which was originally screened on BBC4 last year, sees Dawn speak about the lessons life has taught her, and the things she knows to be true.

David Hollingsworth
Editor

David is the What To Watch Editor and has over 20 years of experience in television journalism. He is currently writing about the latest television and film news for What To Watch.


Before working for What To Watch, David spent many years working for TV Times magazine, interviewing some of television's most famous stars including Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland, singer Lionel Richie and wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough. 


David started out as a writer for TV Times before becoming the title's deputy features editor and then features editor. During his time on TV Times, David also helped run the annual TV Times Awards. David is a huge Death in Paradise fan, although he's still failed to solve a case before the show's detective! He also loves James Bond and controversially thinks that Timothy Dalton was an excellent 007.


Other than watching and writing about telly, David loves playing cricket, going to the cinema, trying to improve his tennis and chasing about after his kids!