Actress and comedian Dawn French claims she clashed with director Peter Richardson after being troubled by revealing onstage outfits and a “sexist” line he’d written which she didn’t want to repeat.
The 65-year-old alleges that the episode descended into a “full-on playground fight” and even turned physical.
She’d been working with the now 71-year-old on the 1980s series The Comic Strip Presents… and she and fellow star Jennifer Saunders were apparently the only women on the team.
“Jennifer and I found out whenever Peter Richardson and Pete Richens [Peter’s writing partner] were writing a script, suddenly we as the only women at The Comic Strip would be wearing very low cut tops, and fishnet tights and stiletto heels and fur coats,” she claimed, as reported by MailOnline.
“This was just the sort of writing that they did. But Jen and I had our sniffers out every time it was a bit silly or sexist. This was one of those moments.”
Talking at an Exeter show during her one-woman stand-up tour, she recalled that one role she’d been given as an “over-sexed teacher” contained a line she objected to.
“I had taken umbrage about the very last line of the film which I thought was a bit sexist,” the comic continued.
“The scene took place in an ambulance between my character Susie and a very handsome doctor who Susie was flirting with, and the line was something like, ‘Ooh what’s your name?’
“He said Kenny, and my line was ‘Ooh that’s a name you can wrap your lips around.'”
“I said, ‘Pete, seriously, can we just drop that last line?’ He agreed instantly and all the rest of the cast agreed so it was a done deal,” she claimed.
Dawn then alleged that on the day of shooting, the line hadn’t been removed – and that Peter told her it was a “deliberate” decision as he’d realised he liked it and wanted to retain it.
She went on to claim that she refused to include the line and was pulled aside on set to discuss the matter.
“The inevitable fight starts with words,” she explained, before alleging that he “shoved me with his hand” and she reciprocated.
“Before long it descended into a full-on playground fight. We were on the floor and everything. We were like angry toddlers on the floor!” she claimed.
She added that she told him in the heat of the moment: “You can shove your line up your boney a**e. I hate you. I wish you were dead.”
Dawn told the audience that she gave the scene another go, but that Peter ended up cutting the film short, meaning that she didn’t have to repeat the line that had upset her after all.
Express.co.uk has approached Peter Richardson for comment.
Dawn’s tour, Dawn French Is A Huge T***, has been enormously successful, with Dawn commenting on the official website that she’d “grossly underestimated just how many glorious T***s” would be interested in coming to the show.
She urged fans: “Stop nagging me on social media about the fact we missed your town… And get booking.
“I’m bringing my T*** to a theatre near you, it’s futile to resist!”
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