In this section you should be able to find several interviews with M&S.. though at the moment theres only the one.. but rest assured.. I'll be getting some more in in the future.

Lunch is for wimps!

Bold-as-brass Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins have achieved cult status with their Light Lunch and Late Lunch shows. But here they reveal some of their more terrifying moments

Struggling comics may well dream of being called out of the blue by Jennifer Saunders and offered a job. But when it happened to Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins of Channel 4's Late Lunch they thought it was a sick joke. "I assumed it was someone mucking about and I yelled "Oh, for gods sake, leave it out," says Sue, the dark haired one (Honestly and all this time I thought it was the other way around -Stu), cringing at the memory. "I was really rude until the penny dropped. Then I felt sick with nerves. I thought she was calling to complain about me or something."

Mel was too scared even to pick up the reciever when the call came through. She simply listened, panic-stricken while Jennifer left a message on her answer machine. "I was paralysed with fear. The last thing you expect is that someone so great is going to phone up and offer you a job," she says.

Jennifer had seen them in a sketch on ITV's The Little Picture Show at 2am one morning, three years ago. She was so impressed, she asked them to write for French and Saunders. They appeared in the show, too. The story is typical of the anecdotes that tumble out when you talk to Mel and Sue about how they landed the job presenting Channel 4's daytime food and chat show Light Lunch which recently moved to a three-evenings-a-week slot, and renamed Late Lunch.

Like tomboy sisters rather than comic partners, they finish each others sentances and Mel affectionately calls her other half Perks. A hangover (I thought the word was holdover? -Stu), no doubt, from their student days together at Cambridge University where Mel studied Languages and Sue reaad English. Working with Jennifer Saunders was the highlight of three dismal years on the comedy circuit, but it didn't launch their TV careers. In fact, after several other minor screen appearances, they were on the brink of giving up - until Channel 4 asked them to screen test for Light Lunch last year.

"To be honest, we didn't think Light Lunch was for us at first. It sounded a bit cheesy," says Sue, 28. Since then they've steered a course so far away from cheesy that their mix of food and celebraty chatter has won a cult following - not to mention a string of top flight guests, including Robbie Coltrane, Boyzone, Ruby Wax and Joanna Lumley. However, hollywood glamour girl Gwyneth Paltrow had to step in at the last minute recently when Madonna pulled out of a half-hour special (It's her loss -Stu). "We suddenly had 30 minutes of live TV to fill," says Mel, 29 "I haven't felt that nervous since we started Light Lunch. It gave me flashbacks of the bowel-wrenching nerves I suffered at the begining."

Sue interrupts - apparently she can top Mel in the bowel-wrenching nerves stakes. She was reduced to mush during an appearance on Have I Got News For You recently. "I didn't think I could be so frightened. I was paired with Ian Hislop and it was really competative with all this wit flying around. I wasn't well known, so the pressure to be good was more intense, but I didn't say anything for the last half an hour of the recording. At one point Ian passed me a note with "just talk" written on it." Mel makes soothing comments such as: "You were brilliant, Perks." and "It was a very long day."

They seem so close at times I wonder wat it must be like to be one of their boyfriends (many, many people have wondered that, and vocalised about it in the cakeshop -Stu) They admit it can be difficult because they never see as much of their partners as they do of each other. Sue's been seeing someone on and off since they met at a partylast July, but won't reveal his identity as he's not in the business. "Come on Sue, its Micheal Portillo," jokes Mel, who's dated Father Ted writer Arthur Mathews for "a few months". She and Arthur were due to fly off on holiday to Rome last month, but then the news came through about the death of Father Ted star Dermot Morgan. They called off the trip so Arthur could attend the funeral in Ireland. "It was so shocking and unexpected, he was an icon for a new wave of Irish writers and it's a real loss," says Mel, wistfully.

They share a poignant moment, but it's not long before Sue's mischievious face lights up again "Remember that time at Broadcasting House during the election in 1992, when we decided to moon out of the window at John Major?" she says "We thought we were so left wing, but when we saw him we just waved like childeren. Our big political statement went out of the window and it wasa just a case of: 'You're on the telly! You're John Major!'" no doubt the former Prime Minister will soon be discussing his memoirs on Late Lunch...

Interview by Mary Comerford

Typed up and fiddled with by Stuart B