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Introduction:
Jennifer Saunders, one of the most significant women in British television comedy throughout the last two decades, rose to prominence as one half for double act French and Saunders. Nonetheless, her standing as a key figure in British comedy was cemented when she wrote and starred in the iconic sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.
Jennifer Saunders was born in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England, on July 6, 1958. Her mother worked as a biology teacher, while her father was a Royal Air Force pilot. She met her comedy partner Dawn French while studying at the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1977.
Jennifer began her career after graduation at The Comedy Store in London, where she met comedian, actor, & writer Adrian Edmondson, who could really eventually became her husband.
Personal Life of Jennifer Saunders:
Jennifer Saunders’s mother was a biology teacher, while her father was a pilot who rose to the rank of Air Marshal in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He went on to work at British Aerospace after that.
Saunders had to change schools several times since her father has been in the military. She attended boarding schools from the age of five to eighteen. She worked as an au pair in Italy for a year after graduating from high school.
In 1977, she was accepted into a theatre teachers’ degree at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, whereupon she met her future comedy partner, Dawn French. Both had served in the Royal Air Force.
They had grown up on the very same street and even had a closest friend, but they had never met. French was a “cocky little upstart” in the eyes of Saunders at first. The animosity was reciprocal; the French thought Saunders was snobbish and arrogant.
The comedy duo didn’t get along at first because French wanted to be a theatre teacher, but Saunders despised the notion and didn’t completely comprehend what the course included; as a result, she detested French for being excited and comfortable about the course.
Saunders was taken aback when she learned that her mother had filled out the online application for her to become a teacher. Saunders’ mother, on the other hand, was disappointed that she did not apply for an Oxbridge university education.
The comedy duo didn’t get along at first because French wanted to be a theatre teacher, but Saunders despised the notion and didn’t completely comprehend what the course included; as a result, she detested French for being excited and comfortable about the course.
Saunders was taken aback when she learned that her mother had turned out the online application for her to become a teacher. Saunders’ mother, on the other hand, was disappointed that she did not apply for an Oxbridge university degree.
Following their initial animosity, Saunders and French shared an apartment during their undergraduate years. When it comes to Saunders’ filthy habits when sharing a home, French has expressed his displeasure “She had a room at the top of the house when we lived together in Chalk Farm. ‘Well, it’s fairly awful, but what’s worse is that room up upstairs,’ the cops commented after we were broken into.
Nobody has been in there, of course.” After graduation, the two continued to perform together on the festival, cabaret, and hold circuits. The Menopause Sisters was created by them as a duo. The performance, which entailed wearing tampons in their ears, was branded as “cringeworthy” by Saunders.
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Career and Achievements of Jennifer Saunders’s Life:
Saunders and French rose to prominence in the early 1980s as founders of the informal comic collective The Comic Strip, which was part of the alternatives comedy scene.
When they responded to a 1980 advertisement in The Stage newspaper seeking female painters to join the renowned The Comic Strip Presents, they achieved ultimate triumph. They mentioned that as soon as they went into the audition, they were told, “You’re booked.”
Saunders and French, as well as several of the performers who would go on to becoming their generation’s a very well comedians, such as Peter Richardson, Rik Mayall, and Robbie Coltrane, as well as Saunders’ future spouse Adrian Edmondson, were founding and continuous members of The Comic Strip.
The band played with regular visitors Jack Nicholson and Robin Williams at Soho’s Raymond Review Bar. Even by time Saunders and French joined The Comic Strip, French had already established herself as a theatre instructor, while Saunders was unemployed and spending much of her time in bed.
In Spring 1981, comedy composer Martin Lewis released a Comic Strip record album, which included sketches by French & Saunders. This was her first introduction to a broader audience. Springtime!/Island Records published the album in September 1981.
It was Saunders’ debut album, and it introduced her and her comedy collaborator Dawn French to a world outside of London. Julien Temple recorded a recent documentary on The Comic Strip in 1980, featuring Saunders as a shy, upper-class girl searching for her fame-hungry, media exposure prostitute sister.
Television Career of Jennifer Saunders:
On November 2, 1982, the comedy ensemble made their debut on Channel 4’s first night of broadcasting, in the inaugural installment of The Comic Strip Presents: Five Go Mad In Dorset. Saunders portrays a trashy rock journalist travelling with the fictitious heavy metal band Bad News in the episodes “Bad News” and “More Bad News.”
With French, Tracey Ullman, and Ruby Wax, Saunders acted in and co-wrote the 1985 film Girls On Top, which depicted four quirky women sharing an apartment in London. In Ben Elton’s Happy Families, Saunders played several close relatives, which include all four Fuddle sisters, during the course of the six-episode BBC situation comedy. Dawn French, Stephen Fry, and Chris Langham also made appearances on the show.
Saunders co-starred in The Supergrass, a little-known spoof of glossy 1980s police dramas produced by Peter Richardson, alongside her future husband Adrian Edmondson. She also had two appearances as a guest on The Young Ones, which starred Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson.
In 1987, she and French established French & Saunders, a successful sketch comedy programme for the BBC, which is still screened infrequently to this day. By the end of the 1980s, the show was an established comedy programming and became a fixture in BBC television.
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They have mimicked numerous well-known individuals such as Cher, Madonna, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and films including such Alien and Titanic in their large number of comedy skits. Along with Dawn French and others, Saunders featured in Amnesty International’s The Secret Policeman’s Biggest Ball live fundraiser in 1989.
Roseanne and Friends are two American comedies in which Saunders has appeared. She portrayed Emily, Ross Geller’s fiancée, in the Friends episodes “The One After Ross Says Rachel” and “The One with Ross’s Wedding” in 1998.
Andrea Waltham, her character, was not looking forward to the wedding, when she and her hubby attempted to extort as much money as possible from the in-laws. Let Them Eat Cake, in which she co-starred with French, was released in 1999.
Saunders has produced three new series in less than a year. She started working on two seasons of Jam & Jerusalem, about a Women’s Institute, initially. According to Saunders, “I wanted to write about the type of area I was living in, how it functions, and how unique it was.
How rustic living didn’t have to be dreadful.” The first season of Jam & Jerusalem premiered on BBC One on November 24, 2006, and was eventually renamed Clatterford by BBC America in the United States.
Some Interesting Facts About Jennifer Saunders:
- Mother was a geography teacher, while father was a Royal Air Force pilot.
- As a kid, she was schooled at boarding schools due to her father’s constant movement of the family.
- Dawn French met me while I was training to be a theatre teacher at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama.
- At The Comedy Strip in London, she met her husband of 25 years, Adrian Edmondson.
- Her character name on Absolutely Fabulous, Edina Monsoon, was a play on her actor-comedian husband Adrian Edmondson’s Eddie Monsoon, who has appeared on stage and television.
- In 2001, he turned down an OBE.
- For her performance in Shrek 2, she did all of her own singing (2004).
- The Eurythmics’ songs “Jennifer” and “Adrian,” respectively, are due towards her and her husband.
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