Editing French and Saunders (section)

===''French and Saunders'' (1987–2007)===
[[Image:Frenchnsaunders.jpg|thumb|right|250px|French and Saunders parodying [[James Cameron]]'s blockbuster film ''[[Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic]]'']]
In 1987, French and Saunders created their eponymous sketch show, which lasted six series and nine specials until 2005. Compilations of previous material appeared until 2017. The show began humbly but established its own niche.

The first series was intentionally set up to look like a low-budget variety show in which the duo constantly attempted grandiose stunts and often failed miserably. A "famous" guest star would often be brought on but mistreated. Also featured during this series were a troupe of geriatric dancers called The Hot Hoofers and a [[Bongo drum|bongos]]/keyboard music duo called Raw Sex, actually Comic Strip collaborators [[Simon Brint]] and [[Rowland Rivron]] in character as stepfather and stepson Ken and Duane Bishop respectively. [[Alison Moyet]] and [[Joan Armatrading]] each appeared in one episode. The dancing and music were included to fulfil the series' mandate as a [[light entertainment]] series to include "a certain amount of variety" rather than pure comedy (as the BBC's budget for Light Entertainment was considerably higher than that of their Comedy department).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Saunders|first=Jennifer|url=https://archive.org/details/bonkersmylifeinl0000saun_m1n0|title=Bonkers: My Life in Laughs|publisher=[[Viking Press|Viking]]|year=2013|isbn=9780241001561|location=London|pages=|author-link=Jennifer Saunders}}</ref>{{Rp|95}} The show-within-a-show premise was dropped with the second series in 1988.

As the show progressed, ratings skyrocketed, eventually prompting the BBC to move it from [[BBC2]] to [[BBC1]] in 1994. French and Saunders received higher and higher budgets to create elaborate parodies of mainstream culture. These ranged anywhere from re-creations of films (e.g., ''[[Thelma & Louise]]'', ''[[Misery (film)|Misery]]'', ''[[Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic]]'', and ''[[What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962 film)|What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?]]'') to spoofs of popular music artists including [[Madonna]], [[Bananarama]], [[ABBA]] and [[The Corrs]]. Certain spoken phrases and sight gags referencing previously performed sketches (often from years before) were incorporated for loyal fans. In particular, there is a running gag suggesting French and Saunders are unable to affect accents accurately: this first appeared in their spoof of ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' when they break their character in the middle of an elaborate and expensive parody to argue about the authenticity of their [[Southern United States|Southern]] accent. Saunders goads French to try the accent by saying: "How are you?", and French responds with an interpretation sounding more like a strong Northern Irish accent. Since then, the duo often break character in the middle of elaborate sketches to do an "accent check" and repeat these lines.

The show also contained numerous [[meta reference]]s: an awareness that the viewer was watching a parody. Unlike many parodies done straightforwardly for effect, French and Saunders use the viewer's awareness of what is going on to stretch out the joke further. For example, in their parody of [[Peter Jackson]]'s fantasy film epic ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|The Lord of the Rings]]'', an encounter between [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]] and [[Galadriel]] is thrown off after Saunders delivers her line: "I have passed the test, and now I will diminish, and go to the West and remain Galadriel". French responds, "You will what, sorry?", to which Saunders replies: "I will diminish... I don't understand, it's in the book!" Other characters that make a recurring appearance are the bald, fat, perverted old men ("Begging for it, she is!"); two perpetually overacting [[Extra (acting)|extras]]; and Star Pets ("What a lovely dog, Lady Fortescue: I bet he do's tricks").

The sixth and final series aired in 2004, returning to the first series' metafictional premise. In this series, the two lampooned themselves as incapable of getting any work done: Saunders later characterised it as "a fairly accurate rendition of our writing process" but asserted that, while they appeared to others to be procrastinating, they were actually generating writing ideas.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|100,103}} The series also starred [[Liza Tarbuck]] as a heavily fictionalised version of herself, forced to be the fictional show's [[Television producer|producer]] despite her actual career goal of creating and producing game shows, and [[Lorna Brown (actress)|Lorna Brown]] as the [[production assistant]], Abba. [[Maggie Steed]] appeared in two episodes as the duo's agent, Mo, based on their real agent, Maureen Vincent,<ref name=":0" /> while [[Eileen Essell]] and [[Brenda Cowling]] appeared briefly in several episodes as Abba's imagination of French and Saunders, respectively, as old women. The show ended with a final Christmas special in 2005. A compilation series, ''A Bucket o' French and Saunders'', aired in 2007.

In 2008, the pair retired the show after performing a sketch with the singer [[Anastacia]], in which French dressed in a similar outfit to the US star. French said she was left feeling "humiliated".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67760117|title=French and Saunders: How they proved that women are funny|date=27 December 2023|via=www.bbc.co.uk |quote="I looked in the mirror and I thought: 'Yes, this isn't it, this isn't what Anastacia looks like.' But instead of finding it funny, I just thought: 'Oh I don't like it.' "It just felt like I wasn't in control of the comedy. The joke was on me. I hadn't controlled it in any way."}}</ref>