Biography
Last Updated 04/06/03
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Biography


Jennifer Saunders was born on the 6th of July in 1958 in Sleaford,
Lincolnshire, England. She grew up there in a RAF family. After leaving
school Jennifer traveled to Italy. When she returned to England she went to
the London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, trained to be a teacher.
This is where she first met Dawn French, whom she would later team up with to become only the most famous two-some in England French & Saunders.
At first they weren’t exactly fond of each other and Dawn even claimed Jen was a flat bully but eventually they shared a flat and began a long and lasting friendship.
Jennifer didn’t like school too much and Dawn later said that Jennifer "thought she was at Drama School to get free tickets". My point exactly. The pair started writing together during their last term at school and did some comedy-acts together. When Jennifer left school she didn't turn to teaching unlike her mother who was a teacher, Dawn did become a drama teacher. When Jen spotted an add for two female comediennes to join the Comic Strip Team she dragged Dawn with her to an audition. They obviously got in.


This was her big break. Jennifer featured in the Comic Strip Team series as well as several TV films over the years. Jennifer didn’t only star in them but she was also given the chance to write some of them such as "Slags" and "Consuela". Her career was gradually going upwards as she was part of the regular cast in series such as Top Girls, Eat the Rich and Happy Families. But the real fame came with French & Saunders. It became an instant hit and has never given in on its success since. The comedy pair became a household name in Britain as well as other parts of the world.


But the two were capable of being successful on their own as well. Dawn featured in successful series such as Murder Most Horrid and The Vicar of Dibbley. Jennifer tried to write a series of her own. You might have heard of it. It’s called Absolutely Fabulous. It became slightly popular, NOT. It became huge!!!!!! It was a cult hit, in Britain, America, Holland, all over this globe. There was never made anything like this. The characters are probably better known then the names of the actresses themselves. I’ve given up saying that I’m a fan of Jennifer Saunders. Now I just say, I like the one who plays Eddie, you know Jennifer Saunders. It works as they immediately start laughing when I mention Eddie.


With this success came a lot of other parts, although most of them cameoroles in movies, TV series, voice overs and a lot of charity shows. She does a lot of writing now, and says she likes to focus on writing filmscripts for now.


Somewhere in-between all this (1985) she managed to get married to Adrian Edmondson a well-known actor and comedian himself. Inspite of this they don’t often collaborate with each other he says "We don’t really cross much, because most writers have a crisis of confidence. It’s hard to show anything until it’s finished, although she’s more confident than I, and shows me more stuff than I show her of mine. So I comment more on hers, but we work quite separately."


"Eventhough we work in the same field, we have an intense private life away from our professional lives. We don’t see ourselves as a ‘professional couple’ in the same way that most people must. I am sure they can’t help it - to most people we’re just two comedians who happened to once worked together, now live together, but happen to have separate professional lives. So it’s difficult for them to see how we could separate our professional lives from our personal lives, but we do. Not kind of self-consciously, but we do. It’s just a life." Jen and Ade live that private life near Richmond together with their three daughters Beatrice (1986), Ella (1988) and Freya (1991).


Many people think highly of Jennifer and respect her work as an actress and comedienne. The 1996 edition of Britain’s cosmopolitan magazine has shown that the women young British females look up to most is Jennifer. She won with 16% leaving behind other fabulous women such as Lady Diana, Princess of Wales with 11% and even Madonna with 10%. I think that says it about all. I read a lot of articles and essays on comedy and I think I can round this story off with some suitable quotes I found: "Saunders offers humor as power, sometimes the most liberating thing a woman can do is step back, take a hard look at herself and laugh. And it is women like Jennifer Saunders ‘who are the ones dragging England kicking and screaming into the modern world".