Jenny Eclair interviewed for 'Talking Comedy' Jenny Eclair interviewed by John Pidgeon for 'Talking Comedy', a BBC Radio 2 programme in which comedians talk about the people that make them laugh. This is the unedited interview, not the programme as broadcast. Summary: [00:23] John Pidgeon [JP] starts by asking Jenny Éclair [JE] who first made her laugh. [00:31] Lucille Ball [00:58] JE admits that she’s not “a comedy anorak” because she’s conscious of being original and not having too many influences. [03:17] JE talks about watching the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Specials. [04:00] Je says she was more into Donny Osmond and David Cassidy when she was a teenager. [04:57] She watched The Young Ones when she was a drama student, and did like Monty Python and got the Monty Python Big Red Book for Christmas [05:45] JE talks about punk poetry, she was a big fan of John Cooper Clark, [06:19] and her other favourites included Roger McGough, [06:51] and John Hegley. [07:00] JE goes on to talk about performing on the circuit in London with people who weren’t yet household names like [07:08] Paul Merton [07:15] and Julian Clary, known as The Joan Collins fan club in those days, performing with Fanny the Wonder Dog. [08:25] JE talks about collaborating with Frank Skinner on Packet of Three, [09:20] she says men’s wit is quicker than women’s and explains why. [11:47] JE says her favourite female comic is Jo Brand, [12:03] she first saw her at the Tunnel Club, [12:16] Harry Enfield vomited before he went on, Jo Brand acted like she owned the stage. [12:52] JE says there wasn’t a decent female comic working in the 1980s, apart from herself, Jenny Lecoat and Helen Lederer. [14:25] JE talks about Arthur Smith being underrated, she says he never had a good stand-up act, he was part of a good double act called Fiasco-Job-Job, and he was the world’s best compere, the serious plays [15:11] JE talks about the great brains in comedy, including Greg Proops and Simon Munnery also known as Alan Parker Urban Warrior and The League Against Tedium. [17:10] JE talks about Harry Enfield, and how strange it was to see a friend of hers on TV. [17:46] JE mentions a similar situation with Rory Bremner. She did a show in Edinburgh with impressionist Chris Barrie, where first saw a young Rory Bremner. [18:48] JP asks about her American choices, Sam Kinison and Denis Leary. [19:41] JE talks about seeing Denis Leary live, and having dinner with him along with Frank Skinner. [20:30] JP talks about interviewing Joan Rivers, who talked about the terrible irony of Sam Kinison cleaning himself up and dying in a car crash. [21:17] JE brings up being a fan Victoria Wood, despite the two of them being poles apart. JE was asked to go on the Wood & Walters Show, and goes on to talk about her chemistry with Julie Walters. [23:08] JE then talks about the other famous female double act French & Saunders, [23:50] JE talks about Jennifer Saunders’ huge hit with Absolutely Fabulous, with emphasis on Joanna Lumley’s performance as Patsy, who JE says closely resembles herself, and the physical comedy. [24:46] JE mentions Lee Evans in relation to physical comedians. [24:50] JE says she doesn’t like clowns, but there are certain performers who walk funny or have funny faces, and mentions John Cleese and Joyce Grenfell. [25:45] JP talks about Joyce Grenfell’s pathos in comedy. [26:11] JE describes it as a Dorothy Parker style of comedy, and also mentions Alan Bennett in this context. [26:54] JE praises Alan Bennett’s diaries and the play he did with Julie Walters, Patricia Routledge, and Thora Hird. [27:15] JP asks JE about Mark Lamarr. [28:54] JE talks about her seven year old daughter developing a sophisticated sense of humour and watching videos of Fawlty Towers, Mr Bean, and Dad’s Army. [31:26] JE talks about preferring British sitcoms to American sitcoms, and mentions how Men Behaving Badly eventually grew on her despite herself. [31:55] JE brings up character comedy, with emphasis on Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge in Knowing Me Knowing You, which she would try to record from the radio. [33:13] JE talks about Kenneth Williams. [34:28] JE mentions Malcolm Hardy to JP. [35:00] JP plays the clips. [35:35] – [36:11] Kenneth Williams [36:24] – [37:23] Morecambe & Wise, JE says Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer must owe a lot to Morecambe and Wise [37:34] – [38:13] Alan Bennett [38:24] – [39:27] Fawlty Towers [39:38] – [40:33] Blackadder [41:06] – [41:52] Sam Kinison [42:02] – [43:02] Victoria Wood [43:24] – [43:55] Denis Leary [44:05] – [44:36] Rory Bremner [44:45] – [45:52] Alan Partridge [46:14] – [46:53] Jo Brand [47:00] JP gets JE to record the trailers [50:28] Recording ends nd [1996]