How We Met: Mel Giedroyc & Emma Kennedy

Mel Giedroyc, 40, is an author and comedian best known for the late-1990s Channel 4 show Late Lunch, which she co-presented with her comedy partner Sue Perkins. She lives in north London with her husband and two children

My first instinct when I met Emma was to be quite jealous. I was in a comedy show at the Edinburgh Festival in 1988 [as a member of the Cambridge Footlights], and Emma was in one too. She was absolutely hilarious and compelling to watch. We got chatting afterwards and I remember thinking, "Oh my God, she's so funny – and very pretty."

In those days there was a whole crowd of us – Sue (Perkins), me, Em, a mate of hers called Ben Moore – all involved in comedy. Emma should have gone straight into the bosom of comedy, but after university she became a lawyer for four years. We all breathed a sigh of relief when she gave that up.

There were a few writers doing gags for Late Lunch, and in 1998 Emma came on board. She was brilliant. There's something incredibly cheeky about her; even though she is now in her forties, she's got this ridiculous 12-year-old inside her.

She's obsessed with her birthdays. Each year her parents hold a party in their house in Hertfordshire for Emma's friends. Each time, she'll call everyone to attention, head-girl style, and we all have to quieten down and sit in a circle to watch her open her presents. This is a 41-year-old woman.

We've only ever had one row, back in 1997. We'd gone on holiday with four other mates and there was this manky old croquet lawn so I suggested we have a game. She was being really competitive, and for some reason it hit the very core of my rage. I remember whacking my ball really hard at hers and shouting at her. We didn't talk for four hours. It was the lamest argument.

Over time people go on to do other things, so it's more one-on-one with Emma now. We both live off the North Circular, so spend a lot of time at each other's houses. My kids think she's the bee's knees.

In many respects we're quite different; she's a real geek (she collects figurines and doesn't take them out of the packets; it's not normal) and loves Facebook, while I'm a Luddite and pretty much illiterate when it comes to video games. But we just make each other laugh. I don't think either of us has changed over the years; I see her as I've always seen her, as this sort of stunted 12-year-old tomboy.

Emma Kennedy, 41, is an award-winning comedian, author, scriptwriter and actor who has starred in TV shows including Jonathan Creek and The Smoking Room and was in the movie Notes on a Scandal. She lives in north London with her beagle

I first clapped eyes on Mel when I was on stage; Richard Herring pointed to the audience and went, "That's the fucking Cambridge Footlights." I remember having a strange sense of somebody in pink dungarees with ludicrous 1980s hair and sensational teeth that looked as if they should have their own gravitational pull. I was in the Oxford Revue and she was in the Footlights, so we were mortal enemies. It was the Jets and the Sharks.

After university I didn't see Mel again until 1994. Then I bumped into Sue at Edinburgh. We went off and got plastered, and at the end of the evening she said, "Why don't you stay with me and Mel?" And that was it; they became my best friends.

Mel and Sue were doing their stand-up thing and I got involved as a script editor. When Late Lunch started, I came on board as writer. It wasn't like work; it was a joy. We've only had one work argument, when Julie Walters came on. We revere her like a goddess, and Mel and I had a tussle over who'd take her a cup of tea – Mel just looked me in the eyes and said, "I'm taking it."

Mel is the most extraordinarily warm-hearted person. She's the litmus paper for my life. If Mel tells me someone is not to be trusted and horrible, then you know they are an inch away from being a devil.

We are the squarest people you will ever meet in showbusiness. The wildest time I've ever had with Mel was when we somehow ended up going to Amsterdam with a member of KLF. I had never up to this point had a drug in my life. We were taken to a hotel and this huge marijuana joint gets passed around. I take two puffs and next thing I know I'm in the foetal position on the floor, rocking and shouting, "I'm having a bad trip." Mel is totally off her face, and I think Sue is a giant with no head who's come to kill me, so I try to punch her. Eventually, Mel realised I was in trouble and gave me a cup of coffee.

Since she's had the children Mel gets really overexcited about going out for an evening. If I invite her out to a party, she'll phone me every day for a fortnight beforehand; then she'll get there, have two drinks and have to go home.

Now we mostly go to see mutual friends in things, and we go round to each other's houses and just hang out. I'm very close with all of Mel's family and love her kids to bits. Mel's eldest daughter was the first one born of my contemporaries. When I first clapped eyes on her I cried my eyes out. Hers is the only picture of anyone else's child that I have in my house.

Mel Giedroyc stars in the Eurovision Song Contest-inspired musical 'Eurobeat' when it transfers to the West End's Novello Theatre, London WC2, on Tuesday. For tickets, visit www.eurobeatthemusical.com

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