TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

Bored with the rank odour of mid-seventies British comedy on TV and in the clubs a bunch of university students took it upon themselves to provoke the establishment with comedy in the same way The Sex Pistols had done with music, but other than university canteens and halls they had nowhere to perform. Thankfully in 1979 Peter Rosengard, an insurance salesman by day, decided to start a weekly club, above a strip-joint in Soho, London to give new comedy and cabaret talent a chance. At the beginning it would take the form of an open mic' night, with poor souls getting 'gonged' off if they fared badly with the audience. The club was named to honour the Los Angeles nightclub which had given comedians like Robin Williams their first big break, The Comedy Store.

With lots of press coverage in Time Out it was just a matter of time before TV producers caught up with what was going on. They needed a John Peel, but what they got was a showcase, like the 100 Club punk gig in 1976. Many of the now familiar 'alternative comedy' acts broke through to TV via BBC2's Boom Boom...Out Go The Lights broadcast on 14th October 1980. BBC2's Friday Night Saturday Morning also found space for 20th Century Coyote (Adrian Edmonson and Rik Myall) as well as Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, with both duos appearing regularly at The Comedy Store.

Throughout the early eighties many Comedy Store regulars were given their own shows, and after The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap, The Alexi Sayle Show for BBC2, and The Comic Strip Presents for Channel 4 it would be French and Saunders' turn to host their own series, but it wasn't as expected a BBC2 outing. Girls On Top debuted on Central TV 30th October 1985 with a regular cast of French, Saunders, Tracy Ullman, legendary British actress Joan Greenwood and Ruby Wax. Lasting two series, the same as The Young Ones, it only found a small audience and the ITV network quickly gave up on alternative comedy, but LWT would go on to produce Saturday/Friday Live for Channel 4.

There was always BBC2 to turn to, so with producer Geoff Posner the first French and Saunders show debuted 9th March 1987 with music guest Alison Moyet, who, nearly twenty years later, would appear in the stage play Smaller, alongside Dawn French. The same night BBC2 also gave space for more Comedy Store alumni in Hello Mum.

The show initially was like a live action Muppet Show with the two hapless entertainers trying to persuade much bigger names to appear on the show, giving it much needed credence, but as time went on they took time to create new characters and perform memorable movie, television and pop star spoofs.

French and Saunders would have a regular musical duo, Raw Sex featuring Simon Brint and Roland Rivron as a seedy Bontempi and bongo playing cabaret step-father and son. Guests in the first series were Jools Holland and Joan Armatrading, and a year later they were back for a second series with Squeeze, Toyah, Kirsty MacColl, The Proclaimers, and Alison Moyet again, this time in their Christmas special. They skipped a year and returned in 1990 with Kirsty MacColl as a regular weekly guest and in one show an unforgettable court room sketch featuring Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour, Lemmy, Mark King, Gary Moore and Ralph McTell.

The show was then put on the back burner as Dawn French became The Vicar of Dibley and Jennifer Saunders took the essence of an old French and Saunders sketch and shaped it into Absolutely Fabulous, but in 1994 they took part in a documentary about one of their idols, Dusty Springfield called Dusty: Full Circle, and she reciprocated by appearing in one of their shows in a sketch on 4th January 1996.

More series and specials would appear until the mid-2000’s, but without a weekly music guest.

FRENCH AND SAUNDERS

BBC2

9th March 1987 - 2005