"[7] Denys had a history of severe depression and made two suicide attempts, but managed to conceal his illness from Dawn and Gary.

After French and Saunders graduated from the Royal Central School, they decided to form a double-act called the Menopause Sisters.

"[10] French and Saunders came to public attention as members of the Comic Strip, part of the alternative comedy scene in the early 1980s.

French has had an extensive career on television, debuting on Channel 4's The Comic Strip Presents series in an episode called "Five Go Mad in Dorset" in 1982.

[9] Each episode presented a self-contained story and, in addition to French and Saunders, showcased Comic Strip performers Peter Richardson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Robbie Coltrane and Adrian Edmondson.

[9] One episode featured a parody of spaghetti westerns and another a black and white film about a hopelessly goofy boy.

The album was released on Springtime!/Island Records in September 1981 and presented French and Jennifer Saunders to an audience outside London.

In 1985, French starred with Saunders, Tracey Ullman, Ruby Wax and Joan Greenwood in Girls on Top, which portrayed four eccentric women sharing a flat in London.

[9] French's biggest solo television role to date has been as the title figure in the long-running BBC comedy The Vicar of Dibley, which Richard Curtis created for her.

[13] Although the main series ended in 2007, the show has returned for numerous short special episodes since, the latest four of which aired in December 2020.

In 1995, she appeared as a talk-show host in a Comic Relief sketch called Dawn, written by Victoria Wood.

The sketch also featured Wood herself, Celia Imrie, Lill Roughley, Anne Reid, Philip Lowrie, Robert Kingswell, Bryan Burdon, Duncan Preston, Jim Broadbent, and Lynda Bellingham.

In the series, set in the Lake District, French played a tourist information officer who falls in love with an alien.

She also appeared in the BBC sitcom Wild West, with Catherine Tate,[17] in which she played a woman living in Cornwall who is a lesbian, more through lack of choice than any specific natural urge.

She co-starred alongside Sue Johnston, Jennifer Saunders (who also created and wrote the series) and Joanna Lumley.

French also appeared in a special version of Little Britain Live which featured several celebrity guests and was shown by the BBC as part of Comic Relief.

From 2016 until 2019, French starred in three series of Delicious on Sky 1, co-starring as a talented cook who is having an affair with her celebrity chef ex-husband (Iain Glen) who has remarried and started a successful hotel business with his new wife (Emilia Fox) in Cornwall.

[29] In 1996, French appeared in The Adventures of Pinocchio as "The Baker's Wife" alongside Martin Landau and star Jonathan Taylor Thomas.

French's then-husband, Lenny Henry, provided the voice of the Shrunken Head in the same film, though they shared no screen time.

In 2005, French provided the voice for the character Mrs. Beaver in Disney and Walden Media's film adaptation of C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

January 2007 saw French performing as the Duchesse de Crackentorp at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, in The Daughter of the Regiment (La fille du régiment) by Gaetano Donizetti starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez.

The pair, in the main advert, go on a journey to fill Duckie with 'some festive cheer' while showing off the M&S Food Christmas range for 2022.

[47] On an appearance on The Paul O'Grady Show on 6 October 2008, French said that "Fatty" is her nickname for Jennifer Saunders, as a joke about her own size.

In 1986, she appeared in Kate Bush's music video "Experiment IV" alongside Hugh Laurie, Richard Vernon and Peter Vaughan.

French has appeared in the videos for Alison Moyet's songs "Love Letters" (which also featured Saunders) in 1987 and "Whispering Your Name" in 1994.

In 1989 she joined Jennifer Saunders and Kathy Burke to form Lananeeneenoonoo and, along with Bananarama, they created a charity single to raise money for Comic Relief.

[52] French, Saunders and Burke returned for Comic Relief in 1997 as "The Sugar Lumps," along with Llewella Gideon and Lulu, to parody The Spice Girls, with whom they performed a version of "Who Do You Think You Are?".

[62] French and Saunders won the honorary Golden Rose of Montreux award in 2002 and in 2003, she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.