Katherine MacAlister on a night of hilarious, interesting and uncomfortably personal anecdotes from the comedy star

When Dawn French bounded on to the stage on Thursday night it was to rapturous applause, not only fascinating to see her physically in the flesh, but also alone without Fatty Saunders, as she affectionately calls her, and with a story to tell — her own. And yet nothing could have prepared us for the personal nature of the hop, skip and a jump through life that French took us on. At times acutely personal and almost uncomfortably private, Dawn, aged 56, has obviously decided to get everything off her ample chest (GG she told us on her body chart of the bits of her body she liked the best).

Mainly demonstrated through a slide show of all the people she loved the most, this ‘evening with’ had nothing to do with Dawn French the comedian, her professional life rem-aining largely untouched. No, this was Dawn French the daughter, sister, grand-daughter, wife and mother, and how to be all the people she was expected to be.

We heard some wonderful anecdotes, such as when the Queen Mother came to visit and smiled, revealing her black teeth, striking Dawn dumb because she assumed she must be a witch, to the trials and tribulations of her 25-year marriage to Lenny Henry, of whom she was very generous, her adopted daughter Billie, and most of all her adored father Denys, whom she clearly still idolises. That he killed himself when Dawn was just 19 explained it all.

Why Dawn was choosing to tell us all this was another matter until she began showing us the intrusive media clips that have blighted her life. From taunts about her gastric band when she lost weight for a full hysterectomy to a journalist trying to trace her adopted daughter’s natural birth parents when Billie was just nine years old gave a new insight into her motives.

The racism she endured when married to Lenny was also extraordinary, all imparted in typical Dawn French style: “My favourite note pushed through our door said ‘go home cone’, so racists seem to be illiterate too,” she chirped. The gentleman sitting next to me summed up her new show best: “She’s taking control of her own life story,” he said, and for that alone it was a wonderful evening, and a one off.