Dawn French says BBC would 'never make' French and Saunders today in harsh reality TV jibe

Dawn went on to detail how the cost of production demands, including prosthetics and set design, would simply not be met today.

She remembered: “We would go to them and say we want to do some characters, we need you to build a dentist office, prosthetics that cost £3k each and I don’t know quite what we’re gonna do when we’re in the prosthetics.

“They are not making the kind of comedy we used to do – they want populist programmes. There isn’t a budget to try more ambitious things,” the actress concluded.

Dawn is best known for writing and starring on the BBC comedy sketch show French and Saunders with her best friend and comedy partner, Jennifer Saunders.