80s icon reveals big mistake she made on set of classic Scots comedy show

Scottish Sun

09-05-2025

'I can still smell Edinburgh, the breweries, it brings on a mix of terror and familiarity'
COMIC legend Helen Lederer may have got her first big TV break in Scotland's iconic Naked Video series - but reveals she hit a bum note with her Scots co-stars.
The veteran funnywoman has released a searingly honest memoir, Not That I'm Bitter, which charts her rise to fame and the following five decades in the industry.
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Helen has written her memoir called Not That I'm Bitter.
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Helen in Absolutely Fabulous opposite Joanna Lumley.
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Helen taking part in the recent BBC series Pilgrimage.
But a false start at BBC Scotland in Glasgow gave her a life lesson in being humble.
Helen, 70, admits: 'I didn't quite get the hang of it.'
The comedian lived in the Scots city for the taping of the first two series of the groundbreaking show, which starred the likes of Gregor Fisher, Tony Roper and Elaine C Smith.
But for series three, an agent had advised Helen to fly in just to film her characters, including the famous boozy singleton Drunk Sloane.
And the result was a frosty reception from her co-stars who felt the actress had 'declared herself too grand to be in the team'.
Recalling the error, Helen says: 'That was when I had been advised to just turn up and record my monologues for the last lot of series.
'Oh my god, you look back, you go, 'Oh that was a mistake'. But then, you know, you do what you do, we all live to tell the tale. And you have to look back and just not be too hard on yourself.'
Helen was born in Wales and brought up in south-east London where she was told at school she'd be famous one day.
She went on to study at drama school and try her hand in both community theatre and stand-up before heading for the comedy Mecca, the Edinburgh Festival.
And she was in good company, appearing in the same year as the likes of Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lenny Henry, who were coming on to the scene.
Helen said: 'I can still smell Edinburgh, the breweries, it brings on a mix of terror and familiarity.
'It takes me right back to a really stinging review, when I was up at the Gilded Balloon. You think 'it can't get worse than this', and then it does.
'On the other hand, I have had some great festivals there. I just think it's exciting, it's unique. I was up there last year to see my friend John Hegley, just to support people that you know.
'I love the individual poet scene and the comedian scene. There's nothing to replace it, really.'
She adds: 'And in those days, you just had to be there. I remember being in the Assembly Rooms bar, you'd be having a drink and everyone would be looking at the door to see who would come in.
'You'd would have one eye on the person you were talking to, and the other eye to see who was around
'Like The Flying Pickets, they were a really cool political, agitprop group. Everything was vibrant and we were making points. I don't know what the points were, but we were busy making them.'
Helen started landing some major TV roles after her stint at the festival in the early 80s taking one-off parts in now cult shows such as The Young Ones and Happy Families, then her long-running role in Naked Video.
And later she also had a regular slot alongside Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley in the brilliant Absolutely Fabulous as magazine employee Catriona.
But while she was working in the public eye, it wasn't easy being a female comic in the 80s and 90s, with fewer women in leading roles than men.
The performer said: 'When we join something in the moment, we don't have any control over that era, as a human being you can't affect society's values that much, so I didn't go around going, 'Oh this is unfair, I must wave a banner and change the system'.
'It was actually much more naive, I just wanted to do comedy.
'Now as an older woman I think about what motivated us.'
And in the spirit of looking back, now also seemed like the ideal time to pen her 'alarmingly honest' memoir, which was published last month.
Helen, married to GP Chris Browne and mum to Hannah Lederer-Alton, said: 'A lot of people did it in lockdown, I've been wanting to do it for a while but I couldn't quite find the right voice.
'It just felt too worthy, everything felt too earnest, just listing your so-called achievements. My main goal is, and continues to be, to make a reader laugh when they open the book and to do that someone like myself has to be honest, otherwise people smell a rat.
'Also there was a part of me that wanted to remind myself, let alone anyone else, that I actually had been a stand-up comedian in the 80s because there weren't that many women writing and doing their own material in that era.
'I think maybe it was to convince myself that I actually had had a life, maybe it came from complete insecurity, who knows, but I just thought I'm just going to go there and see what happens.'
Now, as a result of the autobiography being released, the comic is getting to travel the UK for literary events, including the Boswell Book Festival, held at Dumfries House, this month.
And she is loving her new audience.
She said: 'I enjoy doing the book festivals, it's taken me all this time, 40 years, to actually love going into a room, whether it's 20 people or 200 people, and just doing something different each time.
'I love the Q&A section, to just hear what people think and the discussion is just amazing.
'It can go into lots of different, quite serious areas, which actually leads to a bit of an analysis about how we can be with each other or modern comedy - there's always loads to talk about.'
And despite her tricky time with Naked Video, Helen can't wait to come back to Glasgow - and looks back at her time on the show as an amazing opportunity.
She says: 'In the book I do talk very honestly, I hope, about my time there and the people.
'The show had this kind of fast-paced joy, it was a very unpretentious sketch show at a time where there was a lot of political correctness.
'What an opportunity, I absolutely loved it.'
And there was clearly no long lasting hard-feelings between the funny woman and her Naked Video co-stars.
Helen added: 'Gregor sold me his house in London when he moved back to Scotland.
'At one point it even looked like they were going to do our Naked Video characters Bernard and Miriam as a spin-off series, but it was actually Rab C Nesbitt that grew out of that show and became a phenomenal hit.
'But Gregor and I have stayed mates for years.'
Helen Lederer appears at Boswell Book Festival on May 10, for tickets and more information, visit boswellbookfestival.co.uk