Dawn French

Dawn French: 'I'm still quite fond of my fat self!'

You'd expect that losing an astonishing 7 and a half stone would be a load off Dawn French's mind as well as her body. Yet the 55-year-old star has confessed she is not entirely happy about her slimline shape.

Fans of understated comedy will be delighted by the return of Roger & Val Have Just Got In, in which Alfred Molina and Dawn French trade tender blows as a childless middle-aged couple dealing with the minutiae and enormity of everyday existence.

As before, each slow-burning episode consists of a digressive exchange between the pair as they rattle around their careworn house, with the viewer cast as a silent eavesdropper gradually assembling the details of their unseen outside lives.

And though I'm loath to describe it as a gentle comedy - so often a pejorative euphemism - it really is apt in this case. Humour and pathos arise naturally from the comfortable eccentricities of its endearing protagonists, whose unwavering love and support of each other makes for a refreshing change from the usual antagonism of sitcom marriages.

And yet despite that, there's nothing cosy about Roger & Val..., as an underlying sense of impending tragedy is never far from the surface. Indeed, in its own quiet way, it's one of the most ambitious comedies on TV, almost like the anti-Mrs Brown's Boys.

How to avoid canned laughter in your Laugh Track script

We've just launched Laugh Track - a fantastic new comedy sitcom writing talent search which will be judged by none other than Dawn French.

Ab Fab was back with another so-so offering from Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, who never look tired in their respective parts, even if their scripts are occasionally lacklustre.

You can tell Saunders is missing her skits with Dawn French, because there were flashes of some very F&S-like sketches here, including an apparently pointless trip to the beauty salon, where a not-very-funny therapist took shot at Eddie's pampered life.

For a series that so often mocks the nepotism of the middle classes, there followed a lot of bit part-appearances by members of Saunders' daughter Beattie Edmonson's comedy troupe Lady Garden, but we'll skim over that.

After Eddie's hilarious attempts at speaking Danish in the Christmas episode, there were some slightly less amusing attempts to speak French and after the winning cameo from Sofie Grabol, there were slightly less endearing cameos from Emma Bunton, Lulu and La Roux.

Still, as the cast touched on everything from iPads to interns, there were enough funny moments to whet viewers' appetite for the Olympics special that will air later in the year.

Dawn French denies she has a gastric band

Super slimmer Dawn French has hit back furiously at speculation by Anne Diamond over whether she used a gastric band.

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders did so well with their Christmas and New Year specials last year that they've been invited back. Listeners liked the way they talk to each other (occasionally tartly) as if they were in on the conversation. The guests are good too although you never quite know who's going to turn up. It could be Michael Palin, it might be Tracy Emin or even Clare Balding and her mum. Laughter is guaranteed. Ditto music.

Dawn French shows off her new svelte figure

She was often referred to as a 'roly-poly' comedienne at the height of her fame. But nowadays 'slimmed down' is a far more appropriate tag for Dawn French.

Biting political satire has never really been The Comic Strip's main selling point.

But films such as a "A Fistful Of Travellers' Cheques" or "Five Go Mad In Dorset", which took the mickey out of spaghetti westerns and Enid Blyton novels, proved that you don't always need a big target to score a cracking comedy bullseye.

Their latest effort - the first for six years - is a peculiar, stylish mishmash that re-imagines the Iraq Inquiry as a black and white film noir. ­Unfortunately, not all of it works, perhaps because their confusing vision of the 1960s contains songs from both The Beatles and Duran Duran.

That said, Stephen Mangan - of Green Wing and Alan Partridge fame - makes a surprisingly plausible stand-in for the former, guitar-strumming Prime Minister who, very much like Corrie's John Stape, becomes an almost accidental serial killer.

As the bodies pile up, he's pursued by a pair of policemen played by Robbie Coltrane and The ­Inbetweeners' James Buckley, all the while ­maintaining an air of innocence.

There's no appearances from ­stalwarts such as Dawn French or Adrian Edmondson this time around, but Jennifer Saunders pops in with another take on Margaret Thatcher.

We also have Rik Mayall playing a music-hall psychic who makes uncanny predictions about weapons of mass destruction, Peter Richardson, who also directs, pops up as George Bush in gangster mode, and Nigel Planer simply IS Peter Mandelson.

The joke seems to be not how much the actors look like the people they're supposed to be playing, rather how much they don't.

You'd never guess in a million years that John Sessions is supposed to be Norman Tebbit, for instance.

After a shaky start, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders have found their radio feet and now provide a top quality show. There's less emphasis on their old records and more freedom to get on with what they do best - bounce off one another to the point of gentle anarchy.

Their most successful feature has been talking with their own mothers on air - there was no doubting where those comedy genes came from - and the familial baton is picked up today by guest Matt Lucas with his mum.

Apparently it's 20 years since Absolutely Fabulous burst on to our TVs. How can that be when it only feels like five minutes?

But at least it's an excuse for Jennifer Saunders to chat to her chums about the decade when comedy became the new rock 'n' roll and the alternative became the norm.

Reminiscing with her comedy partner Dawn French and hubby Ade Edmondson, the show gets off to an awkward start. Interviewer isn't a role that suits Jennifer and like the decade itself, this two-hour special only gets going at the midway point.

Clips of The League Of Gentlemen, The Royle Family and The Fast Show make a great case for a 90s revival.

And when Jen catches up with Joanna Lumley, there are hints that another series of Ab Fab might be on the cards.