Comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders satirically present aspects of British life, films such as Batman Forever and Pulp Fiction.Comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders satirically present aspects of British life, films such as Batman Forever and Pulp Fiction.Comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders satirically present aspects of British life, films such as Batman Forever and Pulp Fiction.
- Won 1 BAFTA Award
- 3 wins & 13 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAlmost all episodes of the show featured live performances from a singer or band. This enabled the BBC to categorise the show as 'Light Entertainment' rather than 'Comedy', and therefore provide a bigger budget per episode, as budgets for Comedy were significantly lower.
- Quotes
Jennifer: With me on the couch today is our financial specialist Dawn French. Hello Dawn!
Dawn: Hello!
Jennifer: Now Dawn is here today to talk to us about what's going on in the market today. Dawn, tell us a little bit about what we might find in the market today.
Dawn: Well, in the market today you'll find apples, bananas, all types of fresh produce and things of that nature. Of course if we're talking about a farmer's type market you'll find all sorts of knick-knacks including those little plastic flowers that dance when you talk to them. of course they're not the Japanese ones, they're the imitation English ones.
Jennifer: Right. Actually I was talking about the financial market.
Dawn: Oh, the financial market! Well in the financial market right now people are very concerned about... money.
- ConnectionsEdited into Auntie's Bloomers: Auntie's New Bloomers 3 (1995)
Unfortunately, I didn't recognize some of the parodies, rendering them ineffective. A music video by 'The Raspberries' (Cranberries) was strange, not initially recognizing the group or the significance of the song, with the laugh track painfully reminding me of the jokes I was missing.
In general, the comedy is a mixed bag of over-the-top skits. In the Batman parody, the evil villains (the 'Krankies') used jokes as a weapon to someone else's uproarious laughter ("What do you call a man with a car on top of his head - Jack!" ). In more inspired moments, Batman (Saunders) forgets the voice he used to open the Batmobile, and so tries a Dalek voice (Dr. Who), and eventually fails. Later, when a woman offers to be Batman's love interest, Batman confesses he doesn't know what to do, not even being able to 'get the car started'.
One comic tool F&S use is to portray actresses in a production, sometimes slipping out of character to complain when something goes wrong. In the opening sequence of the Loveheart (Braveheart) skit, Saunders is credited for Liam Neeson, and French is credited for Mel Gibson. Other comic targets include attempting accents, Ireland and Scotland, special effects gone wrong, and playing male characters (using overtly masculine or feminine personifications).
One sketch was Lord Of The Rings, where F&S made extensive fun of the special effects (such as making hobbits appear small). While it was one of the funniest sketches on the DVD, there was a lingering awkwardness in that they were making fun of movie effects that were superb - not exactly cannon fodder for parody.
Thick British accents (especially when comically exaggerated or muted) complicated viewing by making some dialog difficult to understand. Unfortunately, there were often no subtitles to come to the rescue.
Highlights included parodies of Batman, Madonna, Lord Of The Rings, and Baywatch, all of which were worth seeing despite some comic unevenness. Others that didn't work as well included "The Gulf" and "Tripping", both of which were dated. Cute references to other British shows can be found (including 'The Prisoner' in the Batman skit).
Watch it someday if you can, but don't expect any mind-blowing revelations. Just make sure to have the remote handy to skip over dull moments.
- suffer-smart-magnet
- Sep 11, 2005
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