Dawn French has revealed she told a surgeon to take special care of her because she was ‘a national treasure’.
The Vicar of Dibley star groggily muttered the words as she went under anaesthetic for an operation, which she said was of the ‘female kind’.
But she wasn’t aware what she’d said until the surgeon told her after the procedure – to her abiding horror.
Describing her embarrassment after she came round from the surgery, the 66-year-old said: ‘In comes the surgeon and he said, ‘It all went very well.’ I said, ‘Isn’t it amazing, anaesthetic?’
‘He said, ‘Do you remember what you said to me?’ I said, ‘I thought I was counting backwards, wasn’t I?’
Dawn French has revealed she told a surgeon to take special care of her because she was ‘a national treasure’
‘He said, ‘Yes, but you did say to me at the very last minute…’ – I’m embarrassed to admit this – I said, ‘I’m a national treasure, no pressure! ”
Reflecting on that cringe-inducing moment, French added: ‘Imagine saying that about yourself! How revolting. I don’t even think that.
‘Why did I say it? I just wanted him to be extra careful.
‘It’s a great disinhibiter, an anaesthetic, and I’m ashamed. Luckily, he was laughing – he said, ‘Yes, that put me on my toes.’ How embarrassing, how revolting.’
Dawn confessed her blunder to comedy partner Jennifer Saunders on their podcast French & Saunders: Titting About
She confessed her blunder to comedy partner Jennifer Saunders on their podcast French & Saunders: Titting About.
French also described how she lavished praise on a nurse as she came round from the anaesthetic.
She said: ‘Next thing I know I’m waking up and I’m in the recovery room and I’ve got a lovely nurse right next me who’s helping me to recover. Coming out of that anaesthetic, I suddenly felt I sort of had to be in love with her.
‘I said, ‘What’s your name, I love you, thank you for looking after me, I don’t know what you have done to deserve this as a job or anything, but I will never, never be able to thank you enough for all the things that you are doing for me, for everything you are doing to help me now. I am not dying because of you.
‘I am not cold because of you.’ ‘
In the same podcast, Saunders revealed how her husband, Young Ones star Adrian Edmondson, went for a vasectomy and was assured by the doctor that the practice respected the confidentiality of its celebrity patients.
He then proceeded to undermine that promise by revealing how the late Sir Michael Parkinson had been in for a procedure a few days earlier.
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