Jennifer Saunders attacks the BBC

For decades Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders were the jewel in the crown of the BBC's comedy schedule, with their sketch show French and Saunders and solo projects like Absolutely Fabulous and The Vicar of Dibley scoring high in the ratings. However, as they enter the last leg of their nationwide stage tour to mark their retirement from television, Saunders has revealed the real reasons why they have decided to opt out of working for the Beeb.

She claims that it is not because at 50 she feels too old, but because of the budget cuts and general dumbing down at the corporation. She tells the Daily Mail: "They are not making the kind of comedy we used to – what they want now is populist programmes because there isn't a budget to try the more ambitious things we were doing."

Saunders added: "We've been stopped from doing lots of sketches we wanted to do. If you go to them with something like [a sketch about] Fellini now, they just say: "No, no one will know who that is, it's not popular enough". That's partly why we've decided we don't want to carry on, as we can't do what we want on television." ·