French and Saunders

Let Them Eat Cake - A View from the Audience

Diary of being in the studio audience of LET THEM EAT CAKE (9/7/99)

Plot:
In between their gossiping, the countess Colombine and her maid Lisette set out to try to arrange a marriage of convenience for a Duke whose reputation has come under suspicion after being caught in the stables with the blacksmith! They call on Colombine's sister Cecile, who they have to trek outside of the palace among the plebby poor people to find. (Dawn yells at Jennifer; "You stupid slag!" in her best Eastenders accent to her shocked mistress, before letting her know it was just to prepare her for the hard ways of the people outside the palace!!)

Cecile was played by Kathy Burke (a pleasant surprise) - who was lovely as Colombine's sister, especially funny when she put on a posh accent to talk to her sister. Without wanting to ruin the punchline - Cecile is at first eager to undertake whatever Colombine and Lisette have planned, in order to obtain a huge financial reward. But when faced with the prospect of an arranged marriage, despite the recent death of her husband, there is something holding her back.

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The episode was, for me, very funny and good overall (not that i'm biased or anything), and as usual it was fab to see the pair live. While there didn't seem to be as many quips between takes as the first recording, there was enough going on to keep us amused.

My friend and I waved to Kathy Burke who at the time was standing in between sets, and were delighted when she waved back (claim to fame!). And I was wetting myself with excitement when I noticed (how could you not?) Lenny Henry stride by to seat himself among the crowd - eek!! (looking rather yummy in a nice suit) And that jammy plebby woman sitting next to him - could've been me!! (What a joke, I'd have been frozen all night if Lenny had sat next to me, glancing sideways at every opportunity!!... OK stop dreaming now ..) I later noticed (not that I was constantly looking back and nosing of course!) that he was sitting with Richard Curtis (eek!!) And of course as usual with French and Saunders recordings, Jon Plowman (head of BBC TV comedy entertainment) introduced the show. My heart could barely take it - all these comedy Gods in the same room as me!!! Where were my CVs when I needed them!?

Overall, a fab night, lasted about 2 and a half hours (yay!). If I'd been personally invited back to the green room by Dawn herself then it could have been a bit better, but as i'm more likely to win the lottery than that happen, I won't even pretend I have a chance....!!

One or two sketches were filmed for other episodes (yay - all the more for us!) - including one with Lisette trying out pregnancy tests on the worried Colombine - one involving frogspawn (nuff said)... another Dawn outburst (hilarious in my opinion) - this time yelling 'You sicko! You disgust me!' Looking forward to watching it on telly!

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