Dawn French reveals the moment she 'couldn't do' French and Saunders anymore: 'I lost the joy of it'

Dawn French didn't want to do 'French and Saunders' anymore when she realised she had "lost control" of the joke.

The 66-year-old TV star had appeared alongside her fellow comedienne Jennifer Saunders, 65, in their self-titled BBC sketch series on and off for nearly 20 years when they filmed a skit with pop singer Anastacia in 2004 and she recalled that being the butt of the joke made her want to quit.

Speaking on ITV's 'Lorraine', she said: "It was the moment, and it's not Anastacia's fault, it's not Jennifer's fault - it's no one's fault - it was just a moment where instead of me being in control of the joke, it was sort of in control of me. I felt awful. It looked wrong, the joke had gone a little bit wrong.

"When I left the studio, I thought 'Oh, I don't want to do this anymore...' I had lost the joy of it, I lost the delight in my stomach which was a hard thing to say to Jennifer."

In the sketch, Dawn is in a toilet and has a fantasy of performing 'I'm Outta Love' live on 'Top of the Pops' but after the sequence is over, she exits the bathroom stall to find that Anastacia has overheard the whole thing, and the pop star compares her singing to a bowel movement.

Dawn returned to screens with 'Absolutely Fabulous' star Jennifer for a Christmas special in 2005 and the duo has reunited for various Comic Relief specials since but there was just one more regular episode of 'French and Saunders' following her uncomfortable moment with Anastacia.

The 'Vicar of Dibley' star insisted that she has "never had any shame" about using her body for comedy before but something had "gone wrong" in that sketch even though she is still very close with her former co-star.

She said: "It's about being inside the joke and knowing what it is.

"I've always thought 'Oh well I've got this body, I'll show my bum and wear a swimming costume' because I've never had any shame or anything but something just went a bit wrong. And I thought that before something went properly wrong, let's just step away. But we still obviously work together all the time, I couldn't be without her."