French and Saunders

A dark Dawn in Psychoville

Prepare for a helping of horror in the new darkly comic serial thriller from two of the minds behind The League of Gentlemen. Dibley it ain’t.

Psychoville explores the lives of five curious characters — spread around the country and apparently unconnected. One thing unites them; they have each received an anonymous card that warns, “I know what you did…”

Dawn French plays Joy Aston, a desperately misguided midwife with a very odd child. As she and the other characters receive this chilling message, we follow their everyday, strange and scary lives.

Among the other characters are:

Mr Jelly (Reece Shearsmith) — an embittered hook-handed clown and children’s entertainer. Mr Jelly is tormented by the success of his rival Mr Jolly
Robert (Jason Tompkins) — a love-struck telekinetic dwarf. Robert is performing in Snow White as Blusher and in love with his panto Snow White
Debbie/Snow White (Daisy Haggard) — Debbie is beautiful and not very smart
David Sowerbutts (Steve Pemberton) — a serial-killer-obsessed man-child

Midwife Joy in Psychoville

A big part of this dark world is the online experience that the show’s creators Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have written to run in parallel with the show. Each character gets their own website with video, plus extra comedy and details about them. Users can also interact with the mystery blackmailer or blackmail a friend through a viral tie-in with The Graham Norton Show.

Psychoville

Psychoville starts Thursday 18 June 2009 10pm, BBC Two (see all)

French and Saunders in Australia

French and Saunders have called it a day as a double-act, but they’re not quite finished yet; they are taking their stage tour to Australia for the first time.

The tour will bring together new material with the best F&S characters and sketches from past.

They’ll travel the country on a string of dates in June and July starting in Newcastle, New South Wales and ending in Adelaide, South Australia.

Bafta Fellowship

The Bafta Awards take place next week and French and Saunders are due to receive a special honour.

They will be handed the Fellowship of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, a prestigious award that recognises achievement on film and television.

In winning this award, French and Saunders will join the club with fellow comedians such as Morcambe and Wise, but also film legends such as Anthony Hopkins and Ingmar Bergman (spot the connections?).

See the full list of people who have been awarded the Fellowship since its creation in 1971.

The British Academy Television Awards is on Sunday 26 April, 8pm BBC One.

Red Nose Day 2009 smashes record

Red Nose Day raised an incredible Â£59,187,065 this year, surging past 2007's Â£40m. The total after all donations have been counted will be announced later in the year.

Watch highlights from French and Saunders' version of Mamma Mia here and here. Then check out the making of Mamma Mia.

French and Saunders do funny for money

Here they go again! But Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders will perform as a double act for the last time on Red Nose Day.

It's wigs and dungarees all round for their final performance - a parody of the movie musical Mamma Mia. It's all in aid of Comic Relief which helps disadvantaged people in Africa and the UK.

Mamma Mia

Also featuring in the sketch are Philip Glenister, Sienna Miller, Alan Carr and Matt Lucas. Watch French and Saunders sashay into Red Nose Day on Friday 13 March from 7pm, BBC One.