'Posh people have to prove themselves to me', says comedian Dawn French in conversation with Andrew Marr
15 December 2023, 12:10
'Posh people have to prove themselves to me' says Dawn French
Actress and comedian Dawn French joined Andrew Marr to discuss her new book and the state of comedy and discussed how her upbringing means that posh people still have to 'prove themselves' to her.
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Andrew Marr asked Ms French if questions of class remain "central" to British comedy and whether we as a society are still "class obsessed".
She replied: "I think it's much more of a mush now, it's more about money than it is about class these days."
She referenced her friendship with fellow actress and podcast co-host Jennifer Saunders: "Jennifer and I both come from RAF dads and in the RAF when we were kids, your rank really, was delineated very clearly.
"You know, she lived at one end of the camp where you had detached houses, I lived at the other end of the camp with attached houses and we didn't play with the officer's kids.
"When I met Jennifer I still had this ridiculous idea in my head, not only was she an officer's kid, untouchable, but she's a bit posh and she's from this posh family, the person who was prejudiced was me".
She continued: "Even to this day posh people have to slightly prove themselves to me, I have to really believe that they're okay before I want to know them better".
Take Rachel Johnson's 'Am I posh?' quiz
Ms French also teased future plans, when asked by Andrew if we would see her in a sitcom again soon she replied: "Watch this space Andrew, there are plans afoot..."
"I can't tell you too much about it at the moment. But at the end of next year or beginning of the following year there will be a sitcom and I will be in it".
Andrew also questioned her on whether comedy has become to 'vanilla', she responded: "No, because there's everything. There's everything for everyone. I would fight tooth and nail for people to be as offensive as they want to be".
"I think we do know when something sneaks into completely unacceptable incitement to hatred. I think we all know when that's the case. And of course, it's just not funny. That's the facts. It is just not funny to anyone except for the one person who thinks it is, who usually has lost their marbles".
She also defended Ricky Gervais’ style of comedy telling Andrew: "Ricky's got millions of people who love what he does, and good on him".
