Jennifer Saunders: The day I shot Lulu for real

Jennifer Saunders has admitted she accidentally shot Lulu for real in a TV sketch and landed her in hospital.

The comedian and her sketch show partner Dawn French once appeared in a scene on their show French and Saunders which involved machine-gunning Lulu for singing her hit Shout too loudly.

But Jennifer told the Cheltenham Literature Festival that Lulu had been hit for real, according to the Daily Mirror.

She said: "Lulu had been warned to keep her arms well away from her body when the blood pellets exploded."

After the scene - a Kill Bill parody - was over, Lulu realised she had actually been shot in the arm and had a wound the size of a £2 coin and twice as deep.

Jennifer said: "Lulu rolled up her sleeve and said, 'Look, I really have been shot.' She went to hospital but was really nice about it."

Lulu said: "I was the Uma Thurman part and they had to shoot me, which all went slightly wrong in rehearsal.

"The charges are worn by the person who is shot and they come off the body. The expert told me it wasn't a problem, just to keep my arms out.

"But they shot me and I have the scars to this day. I was bleeding and had to go to hospital and have stitches. Dawn and Jennifer sent me this little silver thing that had written on the front: 'We shot Lulu'. And on the other side it said: 'Sorry'.

"They are insane - they're mad. We had a lot of laughs."

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.