Helen Lederer

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Helen Lederer
Lederer in 2023
Born (1954-09-24) 24 September 1954 (age 71)
Carmarthen, Wales
Alma materRoyal Central School of Speech and Drama
OccupationsComedian, writer, actress
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1989; div. 1991)​
(1 child)
Chris Browne
​
(m. 1999)​
Children1
Websitehelenlederer.co.uk

Helen Margaret Lederer (born 24 September 1954[1]) is a British comedian, writer and actress who emerged as part of the alternative comedy boom at the beginning of the 1980s. Among her television credits are the BBC2 sketch series Naked Video and BBC One's Absolutely Fabulous, in which she played the role of Catriona.

In 2015, her comedy novel Losing It was published by Pan Macmillan. It was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize[2] and the Edinburgh Book Festival First Book Award.

Early life

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Helen Lederer was born on 24 September 1954 in Carmarthen, Wales,[3] to an English mother and Czech-Jewish father.[4] Her father was born in 1926 in Teplice, Czechoslovakia, and many of her relatives did not survive the Holocaust.[4] Lederer's paternal grandfather, Arnost, worked as a clandestine listener to German prisoners of war at Trent Park in North London during World War II.[5]

She was raised in Eltham, southeast London,[6] and was educated at Blackheath High School (then a direct grant grammar school) and the Central School of Speech and Drama. She also studied at the University of Hertfordshire.[7]

She has a BA degree in applied social science and has received honorary doctorates from Middlesex University and Hertfordshire University.[8]

Career

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Lederer was the only woman to write and perform in BBC Radio 4's In One Ear. Produced by Jamie Rix with Clive Mantle and Nick Wilton, it won the Sony Award for best comedy and progressed to the TV version called Hello Mum.

Lederer established a stand-up act at the Comedy Store in London and then won minor parts in episodes of The Young Ones, which had been written by her Comedy Store contemporaries Ben Elton and Rik Mayall. She was linked with this scene for the rest of the 1980s, with a supporting role as housemaid Flossie in Happy Families and numerous appearances in related shows and live performances.

Lederer broke from the Comedy Store wing of the alternative scene in 1986 to take part in the BBC2 sketch show Naked Video, which had originated without Lederer on the radio in Scotland. Lederer played various roles, including that of a newsreader linking spoof headlines into clips which acted as punchlines, and a drunk Sloane who performed a monologue in each episode from a wine bar. In the 1980s, she reprised her Sloane role in a series of television adverts for Warninks Advocaat, with voice-overs by Stephen Fry.[9][10]

In the 1990s, Lederer was recruited by her old contemporaries Mayall and Ade Edmondson to play supporting roles in two episodes of their sitcom Bottom, including a part as a fallen millionairess on the make. Simultaneously, she played Catriona in Absolutely Fabulous, joining forces again with Jennifer Saunders. She had previously worked with Saunders and her comedy partner Dawn French in their sketch show French and Saunders, as well as Happy Families and the ITV sitcom Girls on Top. She also guest-acted in the Gregor Fisher sitcom The Baldy Man.

She was one of the first female stand-up comedians to feature on ITV's Saturday Night Live with her own stand up set. She then took part in The Vagina Monologues on the West End stage. Following 'The House of Blue leaves' at the Lilian Baylis Theatre with the late Denis Quilley and 'Having a Ball' by Alan Bleasdale at the Comedy Theatre, she then appeared in The Killing of Sister George at the Arts Theatres and Calendar Girls with Kelly Brook at the Wyndham's Theatre.

As a presenter, Lederer has hosted and voiced lifestyle, religious and children's programmes. She has appeared on numerous radio panel games including Quote... Unquote, The News Quiz and Just a Minute and written columns for newspapers and magazines. She wrote and starred in radio shows Life with Lederer[11] and All Change at BBC Radio 4.[12] In December 2009, Lederer appeared on Eggheads and went head-to-head against Kevin Ashman.

Lederer was one of eight celebrities who spent a week learning the Welsh language in an eco-friendly campsite in Pembrokeshire for the S4C television series cariad@iaith:love4language shown in July 2011. She appeared in the 2011 British live-action 3D family comedy film Horrid Henry: The Movie, as the title character's aunt Rich Aunt Ruby.

In 2013 Lederer played Miss Bowline-Hitch in the children's television series Old Jack's Boat on the CBeebies channel. This role was alongside veteran actor Bernard Cribbins, playing the role of Jack, and supporting actors Freema Agyeman and Janine Duvitski.[13]

In January 2013, she was a contestant on ITV celebrity diving show Splash!, but was eliminated in the first round. In October 2013, she played the midwife Mariam in Hollyoaks who was responsible for a baby-swap scandal, a role she reprised in 2015 before being killed off by the "Gloved Hand Killer".[14]

In February 2015, Lederer appeared, as grieving widow Safia, in the BBC soap opera series Doctors.[15] She has also appeared on Celebrity MasterChef, Loose Women and Countdown.[citation needed]

In 2017 she competed in Celebrity Big Brother 20, eventually becoming the 7th housemate to be evicted. In 2018, the BBC launched the comedy podcast series Knock Knock, in which she talks with guest comedians from across the UK.[16]

Lederer appears in the 2018 short film To Trend on Twitter in aid of young people with cancer charity CLIC Sargent with fellow comedians Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, David Baddiel and actor Jason Flemyng.[17]

In 2019 she hosted the "Women in Comedy" panel at Wilderness Festival.[18]

On 11 April 2024, Lederer released her memoir titled Not That I'm Bitter: A Truly, Madly, Funny Memoir.[19]

In 2025 she was featured in the BBC series Pilgrimage, following a revived medieval route, from Austria to the Einsiedeln Abbey, in Switzerland.[20][21]

In June 2025, Lederer joined the cast in the London West End stage adaptation of Fawlty Towers as the character Mrs Richards.[22]

Comedy Women in Print award

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Main article: Comedy Women in Print

In 2018, Lederer launched a new literary prize for comic fiction written by women.[23] The 2019 published winner of the CWIP award was The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven.[24] Kirsty Eyre was the inaugural winner of the unpublished prize with her comic novel, Cow Girl, which was published in 2020. The 2020 awards added a humorous graphic novel prize.[25]

The award was created because of dissatisfaction with the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, which was not awarded in 2018 and had up to that point only been won by a woman three times.[23]

Personal life

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Lederer has married twice and has a daughter with her first husband, the journalist and former editor of The Observer, Roger Alton.[26] Her second husband is Chris Browne, a GP.[27] Lederer is an ambassador for the King's Trust, the Eve Appeal Gynaecological Cancer Charity and the cancer charity GO Girls.

Television and Film appearances

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Year Title Role(s) Notes
1984 The Young Ones Gwendolyn
Bank Teller		 2 episode ("Time", "Summer Holiday")
Little Armadillos Various 1 episode
1985 Happy Families Flossie
1985-1986 Girls on Top Debbie, Felicity 3 episodes
1986-1991 Naked Video Argumentative Wife Appears in 12 episodes, also writer of 2 epiosdes
1987 Filthy Rich & Catflap Doctor 1 episode ("Dead Milkmen")
Hello Mum Herself Co-host and writer
1988–1998 French and Saunders Baby Sue
Make-up Artist		 2 episodes ("Episodes 2.3", "The Making of Titanic")
1989 The New Statesman Radio presenter 1 episode ("The Haltemprice Bunker")
1991-1992 Bottom Nurse
Lady Natasha		 2 episodes ("Apocalypse", "Digger")
1992–2012 Absolutely Fabulous Catriona
1992, 2011 Casualty Maria Harrap
Hillary Oppe		 2 episodes ("Profit and Loss", "Starting Over")
1992 Virtual Murder Meriel Connors 1 episode ("Meltdown to Murder")
Harry Enfield's Television Programme Prostitute 1 episode
1993 One Foot in the Grave Andrea Temple 1 episode ("Descent Into Maelstrom")
1996 Murder Most Horrid Yvonne Quail 1 episode ("Dying Live")
2000 Sooty Heights Mrs Frumpton 1 episode ("Too Many Cooks")
2002 Mr. Bean: The Animated Series Additional voices 2 episodes
2004 Mile High Julia 1 episode ("Season 2, Episode 11")
Fat Slags Hysterical Woman Film
2006 Heartbeat Kath Harrison 1 episode ("The Dying of the Light")
2008 Love Soup Maxine 1 episode ("Human Error")
Genie in the House Adiva 1 episode ("Genie Hotline")
2009 Agatha Christie's Marple Marjorie Attfield 1 episode ("Why Didn't They Ask Evans?")
Mist: Sheepdog Tales Lord Roberta
Colleen Cow (voice only)		 4 episodes
Banky's Coming to Dinner Herself
2010 The Kid Mrs Saunders
Hotel Trubble Marlene 1 episode ("Strictly Come Prancing")
Little Howard's Big Question Big's Howard's Mum 2 episodes
2011 Horrid Henry: The Movie Rich Aunt Ruby
2012 Iconicles Miss Moo 7 episodes
2012-2014 Big Brother's Bit on the Side Herself 10 episodes
2013-2015 Hollyoaks Mariam Andrews 8 episodes
2013-2014 Old Jack's Boat Miss Bowline-Hitch
2015, 2021 Doctors Safia Jobson
Maisie Oliver		 2 episodes ("The Rat", "Wonderland")
2016 Sarah Chong Is Going to Kill Herself HR Pam
Gridiron UK Derek's Mum
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie Catriona
2017 Celebrity Big Brother Herself
2018 Pointless Celebrities
The Ballad of a Haunted Man Ruth
To Trend on Twitter Belinda
Some Sketches in a Shed Tooth Fairy 1 episode ("Timmy Loves Easter Egg Hunting")
2020 The Schnoz Sandra
2023 Midsomer Murders Ginny Kilcannon 1 episode ("A Climate of Death"[28])
A Packet of Cheese and Onion Bureaucracy Voice of the Universe Voice
2024 Coronation Street Elspeth 1 episode[29]
Not That I'm Bitter Helen, Claudia TV mini-series, also co-writer
2025 Pilgrimage Believer in God "The Road through the Alps"

References

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