We know you’re probably sick of hearing about today being Blue Monday (didn’t we just have a Blue Monday?), so we assure you we aren’t going to mention it again. But it is Blue Nun day! We teamed up with Blue Nun to find out your thoughts on women in comedy in a survey, the results are in and there were a couple of unexpected surprises. The main one being that a man topped the polls!
We asked you who your favourite older woman character on TV was and while June Whitfield’s Gran from ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ was popular and Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess Grantham gathered many votes, it was Brendan O’ Carroll’s Mrs Brown who stormed the poll – also beating Nana in The Royle Family and Mrs Slocombe. What would Mrs Slocombe’s pussy think of that?
Another surprise was to see Victoria Wood pipped to her usual post of favourite female comedian by comedy double act (officially retired) French and Saunders with 38% of the vote over Victoria’s 26%. Jo Brand, Catherine Tate and Miranda Hart were also hot contenders for top spot.
Sarah Millican was by far your favourite when it came to live comedy, with over 50% of the vote going to her. Nina Conti was also a popular choice – proving a monkey and a penchant for ventriloquism can take you far.
With 35% of the vote Sandi Toksvig reigns as queen of comedy on the airwaves for hosting BBC Radio 4’s 'News Quiz' but regular contestant Sue Perkins isn’t far behind for favourite female fronted radio show with 'Dilemma', as well as Bridget Christie’s 'Mind the Gap'.
You’re clearly ready for the new series of ‘My Mad Fat Diary’ on E4, voting Sharon Rooney's Rae your favourite female character in TV, who got 26% of the vote. Only 3% behind was Zawe Ashton’s Vod from ‘Fresh Meat’ which tells us you love women characters with personal struggles, an unusual outlook on life and great taste in music.
Funny Women executive producer Lynne Parker commented: “The continued popularity of French & Saunders, Jo Brand, Catherine Tate and Sarah Millican shows that the UK public are welcoming the return of more traditional comedy styles as pioneered by Morecambe and Wise and Marti Caine in the seventies and eighties. What is very exciting is that live comedy has driven most of the British acts on to the small screen and this has, by return, fed into a thriving new live comedy scene where acts like Miranda Hart can tour a show and sell out big venues.”
