TO LLANDUDNO

Comedy genius, actress and now novelist, Dawn French has been keeping the nation entertained for 40 years. She’s back to her Welsh roots this month with a new one-woman show.

Funnywoman Dawn French is back in Wales this month as part of her latest tour, visiting Venue Cymru, Llandudno on 14th September. Dawn was born in Holyhead – her father was based at RAF Valley in Anglesey at the time. Her link with the area was short-lived as his next posting moved the family away, but the much-loved performer is looking forward to returning to ‘home turf’ for one night only, after adding extra dates to a sell-out run.

The star is one of the greats of British television, and not just because she’s hysterically funny. Dawn occupies a special place in the national psyche because we sense that, for all her talent and success, she is one of us.

Her new show, Dawn French is a Huge Twat, invites us to revel in the most excruciating gaffes and howlers of a 40-year career. It’s essentially a celebration of our gloriously messy common humanity. Dawn likes a laugh, and she likes it best when the laugh is on her.

“The people I love are flawed, hilariously flawed, and I can relate to that,” she says. “If you think of the best laughs you have with people, it’s when you say, ‘Oh my god, you’ll never guess what I did today?’ When you unzip and admit you’ve been a fool.”

Fabulous flaws

“We live in a time when we’re told we’ve got to be perfect, we’ve got filters and selfies and all we ever present is the good parts. I can’t relate to that because I know I can’t achieve it. I can’t look like that; I can’t be like that. I haven’t got that aspirational perfect life and I’ve no time for it either. My mum used to say, ‘We don’t do perfect,’ and she’s absolutely right. The mistakes are what make people so endearing. What I want is for people to leave the show feeling like mighty, glorious w****rs!”

This willingness to lay bare her imperfections is not new: Dawn’s last one-woman show, Thirty Million Minutes, was a striking piece of theatre exploring the ups and downs of her life off-camera.

Dawn French is a Huge Twat is like being at a dinner party with a bunch of mates all collapsing with laughter as the hostess – a woman of stature and some achievement – reveals her inglorious self. As a nation we love silliness and Dawn mines that appetite for the totally daft in the same way her idol Eric Morecambe used to. Among the funny anecdotes are deeper moments from her career, and one that audiences will relate to is that curious phenomenon where, without notice, a part of our life just dies. She tells the story: “I was filming at the BBC and there was one sketch that went a bit wrong, lots of the choices were wrong. I don’t know what happened in my head, but as I got in my car to drive home, I decided I could no longer do comedy sketches. I had to call Jen (Jennifer Saunders, Dawn’s long-term comedy partner) and say, ‘I can’t do it any more, I’m out of love with it.’ It was nobody’s fault, something went wrong and I never wanted to experience that again.”

Changing lanes

It takes courage to call time on such a hugely successful formula, but the decision turned out to be the right one. Dawn has gone on to enjoy further success as an actress and has written four best-selling novels, as well as revelling in the domesticity of her life in Cornwall with second husband, Mark. She is serious about family, friendship, motherhood – the things that actually matter most to all of us.

“As I get older I’m more introspective. It doesn’t mean you lose the fun and froth but I also don’t want to be pointless. I can’t be bothered to get in the car and trail all around the country if I can’t say something I really mean. Equally I don’t want to be worthy, so it’s striking the balance between laughter and sincerity.

“My life now is about being true to myself and living in my own skin. I’m 64 and I know myself.

I can do this tour at this stage of my career because I’m very happy to tell you all these idiotic things I’ve thought and done. This show is about mistakes and how you learn from them. How you process the humiliation of those moments, and ultimately wear them as badges.”