Jenny Eclair

Eclair was born to English parents in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where her father, Derek Hargreaves, MBE, a major in the British Army, was serving in the Royal Marines, Parachute Regiment, Green Howards, Trucial Oman Scouts, and BRIXMIS, had been posted in 1952.[2] Eclair returned to England when she was two years old,[3] and she started her education at Queen Mary school (now King Edward VII and Queen Mary School) in Lytham St Annes. She is said to have adopted the alternative surname Eclair (later her stage name) in her teens, when she was at a disco in Blackpool and pretended to be French.[4][5] She studied at the Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama and joined a cabaret group variously referred to as Kathy Lacreme and the Rum Babas, and Cathy La Crème and the Rum Babies.

After moving to London, Eclair's first job was at Camberwell Arts College as a life model which she did for about two terms. She then saw an advert in The Stage looking for novelty acts and found work doing punk poems. In 1989, when she was named the Time Out Cabaret Award winner, she said it "was nice because it's the first time I've ever won without having to run 100 metres balancing an egg on a spoon."[6] In 1995, Eclair was the first woman to win the coveted Perrier Award, now known as The Edinburgh Comedy Awards, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

After an early appearance as a German hotel worker in Auf Wiedersehen Pet Eclair starred in the ITV drama The Bill and appeared in the early 1990s Channel 4 comedy series Packet of Three with Frank Skinner, as well as the follow-up series Packing Them In. In 1995, she became the first female solo winner of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival's Perrier Comedy Award. In 1997, she played "Josie" in the stage play Steaming by Nell Dunn. In 2001, she published her first novel Camberwell Beauty.

Eclair provided alternative commentary of the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 for BBC Choice viewers as part of the channel's Liquid Eurovision Party coverage, as a late replacement for broadcaster Christopher Price who died the month before the contest took place.[7][8]

Until April 2008, Eclair hosted a weekend talk show on LBC 97.3. Her other radio credits include appearing on BBC Radio 4 in the Just a Minute quiz and afternoon plays, various comedy shows on BBC 7 and regularly has covered for Sandi Toksvig on LBC's weekday lunchtime chat show (now defunct).

She has also hosted her own show on the London radio station LBC Radio and starred in various stage productions.

Eclair sat in for Danny Baker on BBC London 94.9 from Tuesday 30 August until Friday 2 September 2011.[15]

Eclair fronts the Food Standards Agency's salt reduction campaign "Salt, is your food full of it?".[16]

Eclair became an Ambassador for audiobook charity Listening Books in 2019

Eclair appeared at Derby Playhouse in The Killing of Sister George from 13 September 2008 until 18 October 2008.

• The Book of Bad Behaviour (non-fiction) Virgin, 1994. ISBN 0-86369-856-5; ISBN 978-0-86369-856-9
• Camberwell Beauty (novel) Little, Brown, 2000. ISBN 0-316-85318-6; ISBN 978-0-316-85318-7
• Sit-Down Comedy (contributor to anthology, ed Malcolm Hardee & John Fleming) Ebury Press/Random House, 2003. ISBN 0-09-188924-3; ISBN 978-0-09-188924-1
• Having a Lovely Time (novel) Little, Brown, 2005. ISBN 0-7515-3605-9; ISBN 978-0-7515-3605-8
• Life, Death and Vanilla Slices (novel) Sphere, 2012. ISBN 1847444938; ISBN 978-1847444936
• Moving (novel) Sphere, 2015. ISBN 9780751550955 (Italian translation: Le stanze dei ricordi, Sperling & Kupfer, 2017. ISBN 978-8820061531)

Eclair is married to Geoff Powell as of July 2017. She previously stated that marriages are naff.[17] She is the mother of the playwright Phoebe Eclair-Powell (b. 1990).

• Official Website
• Jenny Eclair at IMDb