French and Saunders: Series 1 - 6 (1987-2004)

It's taken a few months to get through all 6 series, slotted in among other DVDs and TV commitments, but we finally finished off the French and Saunders box set last week. None of the myriad Christmas specials were included, and not a single minute of a special feature, so what was there represents 6 series of laughs without much context or explanation, the shows stand by themselves. 

The first series is easily the weakest, with a higher ratio of unsuccessful sketches and unfunny bits, and the forced fake setting of a variety show at the BBC is a lot more believable and fun in the 6th series. The final series proper stands out due to the non-standard structure, playing like a docu-soap of the 'real' French and Saunders putting together the show they are actually starring in. It's all a bit 'meta', or something. Series 2 - 5 take the more standard approach of a load of sketches tied together without much of a storyline moving around them.

It's from series 3, if I remember rightly, that the movie parodies kicked in and became the highlight of each show, giving some structure to each episode, though not a lot. My favourites are the Misery parody and the spot on Silence of the Lambs one, with the Krankies and Christopher Biggins among the light entertainment stars of the early nineties locked up alongside Dawn's Hannibal Lecter. The House of Idiot is also pretty memorable, although I'd be hard pressed to remember anything about the House of Elliott that it was spoofing. 

Therein lies some of the difficulty with accessing the comedy in the earlier series - French and Saunders were topical, and some of the sketches, without any accompanying explanation or research online, don't strike such a chord so many years later. I remember Sonja, the ginger popstar, so Dawn's impression is amusing, and obviously Madonna's still around, but there were characters based on popstars I've never heard of, but thankfully these sorted of dated bits weren't frequent.

The best sketches are the timeless ones, or the ones with celebrity cameos. The first couple of series often played the musical numbers fairly straight, like they were imposed on them by the BBC, but later French and Saunders dicked about in the background, enlivening performances by Lulu, and, for a whole series, the late, great Kirsty MacColl. And, as much as I love Dawn and Jennifer, who really are one of the funniest double acts ever, they are given a run for their money by the hilarious Raw Sex, who began as the fake series 1 variety show's musicians, played by Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron, and went on to carve their own niche in each French and Saunders series, excepting 5 & 6 where they were sorely missed. Mel & Sue had regular parts in series 5, and even contributed to the scripts, and the lovely Liza Tarbuck was their 'producer' in series 6. Great casting, and showing how the central pair spread the comedy about around supporting players.
Watching all 6 series one after another, it really stuck me how excellent French and Saunders have been at comedy characters since the beginning, be they fat, randy old men, simple farmers, teenage girls or parodies of themselves in the oft bizarre 'white-room' sequences. Jennifer Saunders in particular disappears utterly beneath a costume or prosthetics and an accent - she *is* Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling - while Dawn French is harder to mask she's just as witty and a huge bundle of fun. I hope the BBC sees fit to release the specials on DVD sometime soon. Especially the well-remembered Titanic parody.