Deadline, the US based entertainment news website, has reported that Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders are closing their production company, Saunders & French Productions.
The two stalwarts of comedy first set up their TV company in 1992 and it co-produced the BBC series Absolutely Fabulous, co-starring Joanna Lumley, which ran for 39 episodes and was subsequently made into a movie in 2016.
According to Deadline, French and Saunders have filed for voluntary liquidation, and Mustafa Abdulali and Neil Dingley of insolvency company Moore, have been appointed to wind down the production company’s affairs.
“According to Deadline, the process is a solvent liquidation, meaning that people or businesses owed money by Saunders & French Productions are expected to be paid in full.
The article states that according to the Companies House, Saunders & French Productions’ latest earnings for the year ended July 2019 showed that it had £281,622 ($369,852) of cash at the bank and in hand. It owed creditors £2,461,
French and Saunders’ agent Maureen Vincent, who also serves as a director at the production company, did not respond to Deadline’s repeated requests for comment at the time of publication.
There were signs of change at Saunders & French Productions when Jon Plowman, the prominent UK comedy producer who launched Absolutely Fabulous, stepped down as a non-executive director in August.
French and Saunders continue to collaborate and in 2017 made a special episode of their sketch show, 300 Years Of French And Saunders, for the BBC through BBC Studios. They both star in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming Agatha Christie adaptation Death On The Nile.”
Source: Deadline.Com