Dawn French reveals sketch that ‘humiliated’ her and led to end of French and Saunders

Dawn French has revealed the sketch that led to her desire for French and Saunders to end, after she was left "humiliated" and "wept all the way home" when filming was finished.

The comedian reflected on the sketch show's legacy with her collaborator Jennifer Saunders for BBC's Imagine... French & Saunders: Pointed, Bitchy, Bitter. In a clip from the special, which airs on Wednesday 27 December, she explained that a 2004 sketch performed alongside singer Anastacia was the final straw because she felt she was the butt of the joke and had "no control" over the comedy.

The series 6 sketch sees French do an impression of Anastacia whilst in the toilets at the BBC, and the singer overhears and says she should join her on stage for Top of the Pops.

French shared: "I went and I got into the costume, and as I got into the costume the costume designer fell onto her back, a sort of beached whale, laughing helplessly at me, at what I looked like. And I looked at myself and said yea this isn’t what Anastacia looks like, but instead of finding it funny I thought ‘oh I don’t like it, I don’t like it’.

"It just felt like I wasn’t in control of the comedy. The joke was on me. It was on me. It wasn’t… I hadn’t controlled it in any way, it wasn’t funny enough."

Saunders, who was sat beside French as she explained this admitted that she "didn't know this was the reason" for her comedy partner's desire to quit, adding: "I didn’t realise it was so traumatic you decided to end the whole act."

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French went on: "I came off the stage, it was the last thing we did that day and I said to everyone as I would: ‘bye everyone, bye everyone’ I offered to buy everyone a car, so that they liked me. And I got in the car and just wept all the way home and went 'I hated that, I hated everything about that day. I’m never going to do that again. I’m never going to feel humiliated like that ever again.’

"Now listen; could’ve been hormonal, could have been something I was going through at the time, could’ve been anything and I was just a bit weak. And I just hated it, and I hadn’t ever hated it."

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French & Saunders ran for six series from 1987 to 2004, with a final Christmas special airing in December 2005 on BBC One. Minutes, the episode that features the sketch with Anastacia, was the second to last episode of series six before the show came to an end.

Imagine... French & Saunders: Pointed, Bitchy, Bitter airs on BBC One at 10.30pm.