I watched a lot of male comedians with my dad, who was a Polish-Lithuanian civil engineer. We loved Les Dawson, Morecambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies. One day I joined our lodgers upstairs to watch Not the Nine O’Clock News and that blew my mind. Then the women who pioneered the way for female comedy came along: Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Victoria Wood, Julie Walters.
The annual pantomime at the Thorndike Theatre in Leatherhead, where I grew up, was the most important day of the year. During the show children were invited on stage and I was always trying to elbow my way to the front. I found being under the lights addictive. One year I was so excited for the panto
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