Comic Strip revisited

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders were this evening seen speaking about their years as part of the Comic Strip, which started life in 1980 as an "alternative' comedy club in London's Soho and launched their careers as well as those of Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson (now married to Saunders) and Nigel Planer.

The pair openly admit that their early work was "crap" to the point where Mayall recommended to Dawn French that she instead persevere in her teaching career.

The comments were expressed in Channel Four documentary 'The Return of the Comic Strip: the Documented Story', an affectionate exploration of the anarchic comedy group. The documentary was itself preceded by two Comic Strip films, 'Four Men in a Plane' and 'Four Men in a Car'. The latter featured Jennifer Saunders as Helen, a diabetic whose medicine is destroyed by a bungling Nigel Planer, and Dawn French as Stella, the Assistance worker who treats her.