Jenny Eclair - Great Hall -1.30pm

JENNY ÉCLAIR

Jenny Eclair, has been a stand up comic for Donkeys’ years, she was the first woman to win the coveted Perrier Award and hasn’t stopped banging on about it ever since. She still gigs regularly and in 2018 her stand up show  How To be A Middle Aged Woman (Without Going Insane).sold out venues in the UK and as far as Australia. She set off on her brand new Sixty![FFS] tour at the end of last year, where she discussed all the standard pointers about a sixth decade around the sun.

Some of you might recognize her from TV, small screen highlights include, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, the ‘Grumpy Old Women’ series, plus the ‘Grumpy Guides’, ‘Grumpy Holidays’ and ‘It’s Grim up North’. She also occasionally crops up on day time telly and gets very excited about doing things like This Morning and Loose Women.

Weirdly enough Eclair was actually trained as a straight actress and has done ’acting’ on ‘Holby City’ and ‘The Bill’. In early 2009 she cropped up playing women of forty plus, in Al Murray’s Multiple Personality Disorder (ITV1).

Other TV credits include Celebrity Weakest Link (BBC Two), Celebrity Fame Academy(BBC One), The Joan Rivers Position and Room 101 (BBC Two), Empire’s Children, hosting The Perrier Awards (Channel 4), The BBC New Comedy Awards (BBC One), The British Comedy Awards… The Fun Goes On (ITV 2) and the Eurovision Song Contest(BBC Three). Jenny provided the voiceover for A Place in France (Channel 4) and Celebrity Fit Club (ITV1).

Stage wise, Eclair’s biggest hit to date has been co-writing (with Judith Holder) and starring in ‘Grumpy Old Women Live’ and ‘Grumpy Old Women Live: 2 Chin Up Britain‘, a two hour extravaganza that toured the UK, Australia and recently opened (in Finnish) in Helsinki, the show (in English) is now available on DVD. Grump Old Women Live 2: Chin Up Britain enjoyed an 8 week West End run at the Novello Theatre.

Other West End theatre credits include ‘Steaming’, ‘Mum’s the Word’ and ‘The Vagina Monologues’. Most recently she appeared in the title role of ‘The Killing of Sister George’ for the Derby Playhouse, unfortunately she spent the entire time she was on stage looking like a fat Margaret Thatcher.

Eclair is a writer as much as a performer (sometimes it’s nice to just sit down). She has co-written (with Julie Balloo) a number of one-woman plays including the critically acclaimed ‘Andy Warhol Syndrome’, which was also adapted for BBC Radio 4. She is the author of two novels ‘Camberwell Beauty’ and ‘Having a Lovely Time’, whilst her non fiction books include, ‘Chin Up Britain’, ‘The Book of Bad Behaviour’, plus ‘Grumpy Old Couples’ and ‘Wendy The Bumper Book of fun for Women of a certain age’ (both of which were co-written with Judith Holder) Radio writing credits include the two series ofTwilight Baby (co-written with Julie Balloo) for Women’s Hour on BBC Radio 4. Her latest Sunday Times best selling book 'Older and Wilder' - A Survivor's Guide to the Menopause, is Jenny's hilarious,irrevant, and refreshingly honest compendium on the menopause 

She is an enthusiastic hired hack, happy to contribute to various newspapers and magazines, as well as being a willing, if stupidly inept and overly competitive guest on radio panels games such as ‘Just a Minute’ and ‘Banter’ (Radio4)

She lives in South London with St Geof of Camberwell and has a daughter at university.

AN AUDIENCE WITH JENNY ECLAIR IN THE GREAT HALL 1.30PM - 2.150PM. ADVANCE TICKETS £7, ON THE DAY PRICE £10 [SUBJECT TO AVAILABILTY]