2: Rik, Dawn, Jennifer, and a bit about cameos

We all know the power of a Rik Mayall cameo. From the sheer invigorating force of his Blackadder appearances, to the camp luridity of Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar, there’s not a single gig he got that he didn’t steal the show in. However, up until Christmas, one cameo had escaped my notice (and considering how much Rik-based material I watched as a 15 year old that’s quite surprising). It comes halfway through Episode 5 of French and Saunders Series One, consisting of two short film sequences totalling no more than half a minute each. Both basically consist of Dawn French acting sexily to the camera whilst Rik performs a strip tease (badly) and then gurns whilst Dawn attempts to take his trousers down.

Forgettable, right?

Wrong.

The power of this cameo comes both from the brilliant dynamic of French and Saunders’ double act, 

and Rik’s ability to make ANYTHING out of a role.

Throughout this first series, we have a firmly established comedic dynamic: Jennifer Saunders is the uptight, controlling one with delusions of grandeur, Dawn French lower-status but desperate for recognition (whilst equally deluded about Saunders’ opinions of her). However, tensions have been rising, hitting their stride in this episode where Jennifer has asserted herself as director, producer and star, by commandeering the Blue Peter studios.

However, in these short videos (found on Dawn’s tapes), Dawn is in control: telling Rik what to do, directing the “pornographic” content. It’s a role reversal which highlights the shifting power dynamics that come through fully in Episode 6, where Dawn finally (if briefly) gains control. The upper hand is also gained through the “sexual” nature of the video: Saunders’ persona comes across as rather under-sexed, if trying to present an image of the opposite, and so Dawn makes gains on a personal as well as professional level. The presence of this cameo, therefore, not only reinforces the changing comic tensions found throughout the whole series, but does it in a way that works on a character level as well as in the narrative of the episode, playing on what we know about these people and wonderfully exploiting it. It fits in with this first series’ air of ‘sketch-show-as-sitcom’, and prefigures the excellent character work of later F&S projects.

Also, it’s really fucking funny.

This is basically down to Rik: no one could gurn, jump about and flash his bottom so well. Also, although he quite clearly dominates both instances- I couldn’t find a clip but rest assured he can steal a sketch from behind a window- he also allows Dawn the space to take the narrative focus of the sketch whilst creating irony through the  heightened physicality, which creates a hilarious contrast to the supposed sexy nature of the videos. Yes, he’s playing himself, and yes, it is more or less what he does all the time, but that just adds to the wink-wink humour of it all: the added fun of good friends being silly and risqué for the hell of it.

Overall, these bits might not come to more than a minute, or mean much in the great scheme of comedy, but they manage to clarify character dynamics, progress a series-long narrative and give a great bit-part to a comedy superstar in less time than it takes to boil a kettle.

Not too shabby is it?