Comedy’s getting tougher for women

 
9 October 2013

Jennifer Saunders thinks life is harder for female performers starting in comedy today than it was for her. “Think about Miranda Hart and how long it took her,” she said at a Q&A at the Royal Festival Hall last night. “If it was a man with that talent he would have been given a show a lot earlier.”

Saunders said her writing partner Abigail Wilson once pitched a show about a self-sufficient 30-year-old woman, only to be told: “I don’t think people will sympathise if she’s not looking for love.”

The comedian apologised for comments she made about the BBC in Glamour magazine (“How is Alan Yentob still allowed in the building?”). “I’m sorry Alan Yentob! I’m just saying that now,” she said.

Too late, Jennifer.

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