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Dawn French admitted she didn’t like “posh” Jennifer Saunders when they first met.

The ‘Vicar of Dibley’ star confessed to not taking immediately to her future ‘French and Saunders’ double act partner, 64, at drama school in the 70s but soon became such good friends they “sort of in love”.

Speaking to the ‘Finding the Funny’ podcast, the 64-year-old comic told Ange and Ruth Corden: “I didn’t really like Jen that much at the very beginning because she’s quite posh, or I thought she was but she’s not really. She had a whole friendship group of way out of my league sort of people, and then I had to share a flat with her.

“But as soon as I got rid of my prejudice about her, which I still have to this day – prejudice against posh people, they have to prove their worth to me – I thought, ‘She’s actually great.'”

“We were just children together, enjoyed showing off for each other, and were sort of in love, really. Because we were friends first and this career came as a result of that we have been very careful to make sure the friendship is what is preserved.”

Jennifer and Dawn will be reuniting for the Comic Relief, the charity pioneered by Dawn’s ex Lenny Henry, 64 – and the father of their daughter Billie, 31, – a gig she “wouldn’t ever want to let anyone down”.

Dawn said: ‘I know that the money is spent correctly and I know that there are projects that are ongoing that need us to be ongoing and I wouldn’t ever want to let anyone down.”

“So I think the more that we can do to boost and support, the better!”

The funny gals will be spoofing the BBC One show ‘The Repair Shop’, which the ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ star labelled as the “perfect thing” for them to parody.

Jennifer added: “As I watched The Repair Shop, I thought all I could ever see was these characters going into The Repair Shop, or me and Dawn, pretending to mend something or imitating the characters. You know, I just thought, this is the show for us.’

“Then Comic Relief said we’ve got The Repair Shop and it was like the perfect thing. It was so perfect!”