Nanette made me realise that a show doesn’t have to be an hour of just jokes

Tatty MacLeod shares her comedy favourites

French/English bilingual stand-up Tatty Macleod is at the Edinburgh Fringe performing her (English!) show Fugue at The Monkey Barrel 4 at 2.10pm. Here she shares her Perfect Playlist of comedy favourites

Un Gars,Une Fille

Before Jean Dujardin became internationally famous thanks to The Artist, him and Alexandra Lamy used to do a sketch show on French TV channel M6. It comprised short comedy vignettes centred on the domestic life of a couple.

Looking back, that was my first introduction to what I now know to be sketch comedy. The show was so popular that we would discuss it in the playground the next day as it was just a given everyone had watched it.

Jamel Debouzze

Jamel was a comedy god when I was growing up. I came across a sketch he did with Gad Elmaleh on French TV when I was about 10. It was a dispute around the ownership of a football and (somehow) was hilarious.

I can’t remember the exact details but at the time I memorised the entire sketch and went on to recreate it at a summer camp talent show. I’m pretty sure I credited him.

Absolutely Fabulous

French comedy was easy to come by as we had access to French TV but English sitcoms were gold dust. English families in the area would trade videotapes of shows and when we got our hands on Absolutely Fabulous I was under strict orders to never lend it to anyone else.

Peter Kay: Live At The Bolton Albert Halls

This is the first stand-up show I remember watching. Our English neighbours Peter and Carole lent us the DVD. Though a lot of the content left me with more questions than answers. ‘What’s Stars In Your Eyes?’ ‘What’s a Hobnob?’ ‘Where is Bolton?"

I remember finding it hilarious and feeling able to connect with everything he was saying.

Kevin And Perry Go Large

My sister and I used to get shipped to South Ferriby in North Lincolnshire to spend a chunk of the summer with our grandmother.

The highlight of our trip was always our pilgrimage to Blockbusters in Hull. We took advantage of our grandmother's near blindness by sneaking this DVD into our basket. We watched it on repeat for the rest of the summer and Children by Robert Miles still makes me laugh.

Hannah Gadsby: Nanette

At the time this show came out on Netflix I was a point in my career where I needed to make a choice. Should I quit acting and directing in order to focus on stand-up? Nanette made me realise that a show doesn’t have to be an hour of just jokes, it can have highs and lows and can be used to tell a deeper story with pathos and meaning. So stand-up it was.