Dawn French has revealed she has plans for a brand new sitcom.
The actress, 66, is best known for starring in beloved shows French And Saunders and The Vicar of Dibley and is now plotting a return to the small screen.
Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, Dawn told how she hopes the show will air in either late 2024 or early 2025.
She said: ‘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.’
Dawn spoke about the state of comedy today and recalled how much difficulty her close pal Jennifer Saunders had in getting Absolutely Fabulous on screens.
Dawn French has revealed she has plans for a brand new sitcom
The actress is known for starring as Geraldine Grainger on beloved sitcom The Vicar of Dibley
She found widespread fame in sketch show French And Saunders with her close pal Jennifer Saunders
She said: ‘I remember Jennifer [Saunders] telling me how difficult it was to get Absolutely Fabulous off the ground, because her characters were smoking, drinking, and falling over and being complete eejits.
‘But you know, it all seems so mild now… Let’s be inappropriate, let’s wear purple, let’s just push the edges a little bit and laugh at ourselves when we get it a bit wrong.’
Asked whether comedy has become a ‘bit too vanilla’ these days, Dawn replied: ‘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.
‘Hatred? No. 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.’
Dawn is currently recovering from a partial recent knee replacement after she was injured recreating a Vicar Of Dibley stunt on The Paul O’Grady show in 2009.
Up until now, the star had been using steroids to deal with the pain.
She said: ‘It was on a recreation [of the Vicar of Dibley] on The Paul O’Grady Show so many, many years later, and I agreed to this idiocy because I’m British and because I’m not a girl, which is what my brother used to call me if I refused a challenge.
She said: ‘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’
Dawn is currently recovering from a partial recent knee replacement after she was injured recreating a Vicar Of Dibley stunt on The Paul O’Grady show in 2009
‘So, I agreed to do this jump and my left leg buckled underneath me and has given me trouble ever since. And I have very severe arthritis in that leg.
‘And recently, unfortunately, 10 shows before the end of my tour, my leg just gave up and I couldn’t walk anymore. And although I could have done the show sitting down, I felt that was cheating the audience.
‘So, we’ve moved those 10 shows to next year and I whizzed off and I had the operation that I’ve been longing to have and have been slightly putting off with fear.
‘So, I’ve had a replacement knee three weeks ago and I’m hobbling about with my crutches and I’m trying to do physio… and I have to keep the faith that it is going to get better. And it’s a partial knee replacement.
‘I was slightly insulted when I was told that I also have a fracture on the back of the knee, which is called an insufficiency fracture. So, my knees are insufficient.’
Elsewhere during the interview, Dawn detailed her low-key Christmas plans.
The actress is married to Mark Bignell while she shares daughter Billie, 32, with her ex-husband Lenny Henry.
She said: ‘The Muppet Christmas movie, I love that, and I love the old-fashioned films It’s A Wonderful Life, but you have to find the time when you’re on your own with the fire, and no other people to do that. And Christmas at our house is full of lots of people.
‘I’ll be hobbling about this year, so we’re going to a pub for lunch instead of cooking at our house. This is the first time we’ve done that, and I’m very excited about it.
‘But there will be lots of people about, so it’s hard to find that moment, isn’t it where, you know, you’re alone, you’ve got your Baileys and you’re enjoying an old fashioned black and white movie.’