I'm thrilled my mum got to meet my grandson'

Comedian Jenny Eclair on the joys - and sorrows - of family life, and why she's busier than ever

- SOFIA ZAGZOULE

After a tough start to 2023 - Jenny Eclair has experienced the grief of losing her mother in January and succumbed that left her bedridden in February - the comedian is back on her feet and keen to get on with the important work of being a grandma to Arlo, now eight months old. Not to mention being a TV star, author and podcaster, and going out on tour!

'Arlo is very sweet. Obviously he is a genius!' Jenny laughs. 'Maybe he's actually the most average child in the world but to me he's very, very special. He's a very reasonable baby - if a baby's allowed to be reasonable, then he's a very reasonable one! He's a rubbish sleeper, but when he's awake, to a serious virus he doesn't flip out for no reason. He isn't ridiculous.

But she admits wanting to be a hands-on grandmother partly stems from her guilt over being a busy working mum when her playwright daughter Phoebe was small.

'I'm helping out quite a lot. It's something I wanted to do - I've been quite a negligent mother! So I'm trying to be a hands-on grandmother for my daughter's sake as much as mine. I felt I owed her. What I'm realising is how little I did as a mum! I wasn't good at the baby stage - by the time [Phoebe] was five or six months old I had help though I came into my own when she was about four. I liked seven and eight. They can look after themselves more [at that stage].'

So what does Jenny do with little Arlo during their time together? 'I go over and take him for a bit... do some ironing.