British Comedy Guide

Absolutely Fabulous to return?

Tuesday 9th November 2010, 12:30pm


Absolutely Fabulous. Image shows from L to R: Edina (Jennifer Saunders), Patsy (Joanna Lumley). Copyright: Saunders And French Productions / BBC

Joanna Lumley has said she and Jennifer Saunders are considering making another series of hit 90s comedy Absolutely Fabulous after having been approached by the BBC.

Ab Fab, a BBC sitcom about two immature, chain-smoking, alcoholic fashion-obsessed Londoners, made its debut in November 1992. It ran for three series up to 1995, and then returned for another series in 2001, a fifth series in 2004, followed by two final Christmas specials. In July 2005, Saunders announced she would not write another series of the comedy, saying: "The 6am calls to go to make-up and all the promotional work wear you down." However, it seems she may now have changed her mind:

Lumley - who is currently starring in a Broadway adaptation of La Bête - told Playbill magazine that she'd heard the rumours about the show returning, adding: "Jon Plowman, who's the Executive Producer, wrote to Jennifer, and Jen wrote to me and said, 'Let's talk through it. What do you think?' And I said, 'Bring it on.' Because we're all still here. Mother's still alive - the wonderful June Whitfield. Julia Sawalha, Jane Horrocks – the basic five J's – all our names began with J. We're all still alive and available - ish - to do it."

She added: "I think we just have to do it. And the great thing is that because in our show, we fast-forwarded to where they're very old and nearly dead and practically plugged into vodka machines and things. It doesn't matter how beyond [the original series] we do it because we know they've been that, that they still were Patsy and Edina at the time. So this makes it heaven!"

Here's a clip from the show:

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