About
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 her latest show ‘Because I forgot to get a Pension’ will continue to tour, because guess what? She forgot to get a pension.
Some of you might recognize her from tv, small screen highlights include, 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’. Later this year she will crop 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’. 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.
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, ‘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)
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 is currently attempting to write her third novel and ‘do something’ about the tops of her arms. She lives in South London with St Geof of Camberwell and has a daughter at university.
