Jennifer Saunders' actress daughter Beattie Edmondson on her crazy showbiz upbringing

Beattie Edmondson is sitting in a beautiful garden in south-west London. It’s a warm afternoon, and we’re surrounded by birdsong, plus the occasional squawk of a wild parakeet. She’s dressed in dungarees and a brightly coloured T-shirt, sipping from a water bottle. With her blue eyes and blonde hair, she bears a strong family resemblance to her parents, Jennifer Saunders and Adrian Edmondson.

The 31-year-old actor is their middle daughter, and the only one to settle on a career in comedy. Her elder sister, Ella, 32, is a folky singer-songwriter, and her younger sister, Freya, 27, has gone into costume design. Following in the footsteps of such famous parents is no easy task – both have enjoyed decades of success, in French and Saunders, Absolutely Fabulous, The Young Ones and Bottom.

‘Comparisons are quite hard,’ admits Edmondson, ‘not just from other people but from myself. I think, “What was my mum doing when she was 30? Oh, she had her own TV series and two children.” You really shouldn’t compare yourself to people, especially in this industry, but it’s difficult not to.’

Now, however, after three series co-starring with Josh Widdicombe in the BBC sitcom Josh, Edmondson has her first lead film role, in Disney’s Patrick. She plays a suddenly single teacher (and non-dog-lover) who is unexpectedly bequeathed her grandmother’s ridiculously pampered pug. Cue a power struggle between dog and owner, in a sweet romantic comedy.

Edmondson got a call almost ‘out of the blue’ from director Mandie Fletcher, who shot the Absolutely Fabulous movie, in which Edmondson had a small part. She did a screen test, but when she didn’t hear anything for a while, thought, ‘OK, they’ve come to their senses and hired a professional actress.’

This self-teasing quality comes naturally to Edmondson, and transfers easily to her likeable character, Sarah. In fact, Edmondson has put in years of work on the comedy circuit with friends Rose Johnson and Camille Ucan, performing in the trio Birthday Girls (on their website, each is described as ‘the funny one’).

They were originally part of a six- then five-piece act called Lady Garden, which had some early success on TV without making a major breakthrough. Now they have a Radio 1 podcast, and they recently finished a run at the Soho Theatre. There were times when she questioned her career choice. ‘When you’re using a blocked toilet as a dressing room and playing to a crowd of five people you can get a bit depressed about it,’ she says, ‘but I feel it’s a rite-of-passage thing.’

Going from co-star of a BBC sitcom to lead in a Disney film was a big step up, Edmondson admits. ‘It was nerve-racking,’ she says, ‘but I just didn’t let myself overthink it because I would have had a breakdown. I feel like I was ready for it, though.’

Some of the laughs in Patrick come from producer/screenwriter Vanessa Davies’ own experiences of adopting a pug. ‘I’ve met him,’ says Edmondson of the dog, ‘he’s absolutely mad.’

The film’s canine star (real name: Harley) was ‘more professional than a lot of actors I’ve worked with’, she adds. ‘He always hit his mark [the spot for which the cameras have been set up] – they have a little pebble or stick that they put down and he’ll go up to it.

‘I imagined he’d fall in love with me and I’d have to take him home, but no, he was uninterested in my affections. They had to put meat paté on my face to get him to lick me, which as a vegetarian was absolutely [horrid]… and not nice paté, paté from a tube… and he did lick that into my mouth on occasion.’

Her character may not love canines, but Edmondson is ‘dog-obsessed’, she says. ‘When we were growing up, we had two Border terriers, called Whisky and Beryl, who were hilarious. Every birthday, Whisky would come up into the bedroom like, “I’m here for the birthday, have the presents been opened yet?” And Beryl would come up and grab her by the collar and lead her downstairs, like, “Know your place, girl.”’

She’s also joined on screen in Patrick by her mother, who plays a home-economics teacher. It’s not the first time they’ve acted together. Saunders plays her mum in Josh, and Edmondson appeared on French and Saunders as a child. She visited the set of Ab Fab, too – ‘It felt like going to a playground, and Jimmy Krankie was always there.’ (The children’s TV entertainer Janette Tough, who played the cheeky schoolboy, appeared on the show.)

Comparisons are hard, I think. What was my mum doing when she was 30? Oh, she had her own TV series and two children.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of acting with her mother? ‘Pros: she’s amazing and she’s easy to bounce off, so we could do a little fun improv,’ Edmondson says. ‘Cons: it’s like taking your mum to work. I’m always thinking, “Oh no, she’ll ask how I’m eating, or about my skin regime.” And she’s not forthcoming with compliments… As a needy actress, I’m like, “So was that good? Did I do good, Mummy?” And she’ll say, “Yeah, it was fine.”’

Later I ask Saunders if she tried not to upstage her daughter. ‘Oh no, that’s my whole job,’ she laughs. ‘I consider that my prime purpose.’ I ask her if Edmondson shares any qualities with Saffy, the sensible daughter character Saunders wrote for Ab Fab.

‘I don’t think any,’ she says. ‘She’s a very different kind of person, and Saffy’s dynamic with her mother is very different from ours… I’m good at laughing at her and she’s good at laughing at me.’ Saunders suggests that Edmondson may actually have found her way into the writing of her own Ab Fab character, Edina, when she and her sisters were toddlers as ‘Edina was a toddler’. Can she imagine writing with her daughter now? ‘Yes, I can,’ she says. ‘I think it would be quite easy.’

Does Edmondson think women are funnier than men? ‘I think people are funny and it doesn’t matter what genitals you have,’ she says. ‘The idea that you can’t be funny if you are female feels surreal to me, having grown up in a house of funny women.’ Her own comedy has ‘definitely got bits of my dad’s humour in it’, she says. ‘It’s quite crude, with a lot of Bottom-esque jokes.’ But she also has a love of characters, like her mum. People expect her to be funny, she admits.

She thinks she is more like her mum than her dad – ‘We can be very comfortable in silence together.’ Saunders notes that her daughter has a better work ethic – ‘I think she got that from Ade’ – although, she adds, ‘We probably are both putter-offers, we like a good lie-in. She has the best capacity for sleep of anyone I’ve ever met. We put a doorbell in her bedroom, so that you could press a button in the kitchen to get her out of bed.’

Edmondson grew up in Richmond, south-west London, where much of Patrick was filmed. Her mother remembers her being ‘very self-contained’ as a child. ‘She wasn’t difficult as a teenager, in that she didn’t stamp her feet and slam doors, but she was the most secretive, so probably we only know half of what she got up to.’

For her part, Edmondson remembers her parents as ‘strict-ish’… ‘Well, my dad was quite strict. He’s a bit anal, so when things are not ordered it stresses him out. We did get in trouble a lot.’ She recalls the time in Devon as a young teenager when she told her parents she was going to a friend’s house, then switched off her phone and went to a party instead. ‘They told me, “You’re grounded until you’re 16.”

'I had to write a little essay that I think they’ve kept, about how it makes your parents feel when they don’t know where you are. Looking back at that now, it was an awful thing to do.’

The family moved to Devon when she was 13. She loved the fresh air but recalls constantly having to find someone to give her a lift. Their London life had been filled with famous visitors.

‘We used to see Ben Elton a lot; I always thought he was hilarious. Robbie Coltrane used to come round. I remember once Harry Enfield just saying the word ‘poo’ to my little sister over and over again. Honestly, I thought she was going to die, she was laughing so hard. I remember Joanna Lumley giving my rabbit some champagne. Floppy really enjoyed that.’

I remember Joanna Lumley giving my rabbit some champagne. Floppy really enjoyed that

Her father said they moved to the country because he didn’t want the children to ‘turn into pricks’, and Edmondson has admitted that she thought she was turning into one. ‘At the school we went to, everyone was very aware of “status”,’ she says.

Edmondson and her sisters ‘used to argue so badly’, she continues, ‘especially me and my older sister, because we’re so close in age, it’d be a battle… “You can’t be a goth, because I’m a goth.” I remember Ella being grumpy from the ages of 13 to 17, and I just thought my little sister was annoying, but now I think they’re both wonderful, and Ella’s got three kids I adore.’

Boyfriends could find meeting her parents quite intimidating. ‘I remember bringing one home and he was in the car sweating and heavy breathing, but I think they’re very inviting. My husband [she married BBC journalist Sam Francis last year] met them for the first time in Italy, and when we got there, they’d already had a meal and a couple of glasses of wine and were being extremely raucous, but he handled it very well.’

Edmondson began performing comedy as a drama student at the University of Manchester. It was while she was there, in 2009, that her mother told her in a phone call that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

‘I felt, “Oh no, I’m stuck up here and I should be down there,” but she kept going, “It’s fine, I’m going to be fine,” and obviously she was. It could have been awful. I felt guilty for not being there, but she handled it like, “It’s just an illness and it will go away.” I think she was trying to protect us.’

As the co-star of a sitcom about millennials, Edmondson says she feels part of a generation that is going to be worse off than their parents. And despite her father’s determination that his children make their own way, she has occasionally had recourse to the Bank of Mum and Dad.

‘I think I’m the one who’s really been his failure in that department,’ she says. ‘He keeps trying to teach me about money… I remember once on a school trip going to the airport in the car and him saying, “Just don’t buy a Furby as soon as you get to the airport, keep your money, don’t lose it.” So we got to the airport and I bought a Furby, and as I got on the plane with it, I looked up and saw my sister waiting to wave goodbye, going, “No…”’

I ask her if she has plans to follow in the family tradition and have three kids herself. ‘Even though I’m 30, I feel like I’m not ready for kids,’ she says. ‘I feel like I’m not grown-up; probably in the next couple of years I’ll start thinking about them. But I want to get a dog first.’

Patrick is out now

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