Absolutely Fabulous - 20th Anniversary

Absolutely Fabulous 20th Anniversary

They’re back! Absolutely Fabulous returned to our screens this Christmas. The first episode was aired on Christmas night with another to follow of New Year's Day.

Edina, Patsy, Saffy, Mother and Bubble were all on fine form. The most shocking news was that poor Edina was collecting someone from prison within the first ten minutes and guess what? It wasn't Patsy!

The wonderful Bubble withdrew the cork from the champagne too soon when our convict came to Edina's on her release and Edina screamed at her to not spray it everywhere so Bubble put the bottle in her mouth; funny stuff that champagne - once it's out of the bottle, it goes everywhere and Bubble drank the whole bottle!

Jane Horrocks was brilliant as always as Edina's hapless P.A. - I have missed her.

The main storyline of the first episode was how Edina could help Patsy pay off her drug debt (about £50,000) to a bit of a cockney charva fresh out of clink.

Lucy Montgomery (better known for her various roles in Tittybangbang) was fabulous as the charva with wonderfully affected cockney speech patterns. Edina did her best to copy but didn't manage.

Patsy, it turned out, had never claimed her pension and eventually discovered that she could get it all back as long as she could prove her true age.

She eventually found her paperwork and she must be quite old because she paid off all of her drug debt and still had enough money to shove handfuls of ten pound notes into her bra.

She also had six spliffs hidden in her beehive hairdo - you gotta love Patsy!

We still never discovered how old she was.

A wonderful special edition of The Complete Absolutely Fabulous is available on Amazon too, in a groovy fake designer case. Eddie would ask "LaCroix Darling?" She'd be very proud of this.

This hub is in honour of what came before. This is my bit of P.R. for the queens of P.R.

Let’s not forget Edina’s top P.R client, “Lulu, Darling!” Lulu recently enjoyed a stint on Strictly Come Dancing here is the UK, turns out she can still belt out a song but has two left feet, she was eliminated mid-competition.

The self-styled P.R. Queen is now well into her 50s. She has already been married twice and has 2 children, Saffron and Serge. Serge was a scientist and wasn't seen on the show until series 5. Saffy is the long-suffering daughter, trying to keep Monsoon on the straight and narrow (and often failing). Be interesting to see if Eddie's succumbed to botox and plastic surgery?

My favourite line from Edina..."Had two husbands, one was too short, one was gay. Still sweetie if you want to know how to peck a dwarf on the cheek as he's walking out of the house to the disco in your dress, then I'm your girl."

Jennifer Saunders is rumoured (according to her editor on the show, Ruby Wax) to have written every script just the night before filming. She likes that sort of 'organic' way of creating scenes and getting a spontaneity out of actors which would be lost if the scripts were rehearsed over and over again. If that is true, it is amazing! Her scripts are SO original. And is Edina (Jennifer) a bit psychic? - the people she satirised in the 90s are very much in the papers in the 2000s. "It makes a difference, darling, a mixed-race baby is the finest accessory a person in my position could ever have, sweetheart! Oh my God, it's the must-have of the season. It's the CHANEL of babies." So naughty!

Patsy's age has always been a bit of a mystery and it's a safe bet that if Edina has succumbed to the plastic surgeon's scalpel then so will Patsy (probably at Edina's expense).

Patsy is younger than her sister Jackie (she claims to be 72).

Patsy's real name is Eurydice Colette Clytemnestra Dido Bathsheba Rabelais Patricia Cocteau Stone.

Patsy Stone's Absolutely Fabulous Pearls of Wisdom

Patsy's favourite request of Edina was

• "Can I borrow the car?", usually emitted in a really sickly annoying voice.

Edina always said 'Yes". Patsy made Edina seem cool, so Patsy always got her way!

• "Click, click, flash, flash" - As rumours of Patsy's affair surface, she goes into hiding and has a facial peel. Her scheduled photo shoot for Hello! magazine leaves a lot to be desired.
• "Old, old, old" is Patsy's refrain for her sister Jackie and her mother. Jackie was a Marianne Faithful like character who visits Patsy after many years only for Patsy to find that she's pretty much past it. Jackie was brilliantly played by Kate O'Mara ("Patsy, I'm 72." to which Patsy replies, "So how old does that make me?")
• "Remember that weekend with Mick and the Boys." Sadly, Edina has no memory of the weekend, described by Patsy as a party-come-orgy. Turns out, Edina slept through the whole thing.

Perhaps Patsy's most memorable pearl of wisdom is emitted when Edina is trapped in the living room with Saffy and Patsy after Mother locks them in there by accident. Edina asks Patsy to give Saffron advice on men...

• ."Be careful of wigs". Brilliant!

Bubble is still be working as Edina's P.A.

And her dress sense is still a little bit 'out there'.

Has she met the man of her dreams? Are there little mini-bubbles around now? No!

Jane Horrocks has proved herself again and again as a talented actress but Bubble will remain her most endearing character.

She's just so quirky and silly (though she was the only one who spoke fluent French in "France", so not a complete nitwit).

She was never in a scene for long but Jennifer Saunders allowed her to always steal the scene because of her costumes (gaudy in the extreme!) and the brilliant dialogue, delivered in Horrock's own Lancastrian dialect.

What I want to know is how Jane Horrocks ever keeps a straight face when delivering her lines?

Julia Sawalha played Saffy completely straight. She is still a very likeable character in a parade of caricatures a lot of the time. She has an ally in June Whitfield's 'Mother' (Margaret Monsoon) but is otherwise short of family companionship though her father visits regularly. Saffron keeps Edina on the straight and narrow when possible and in the original sketch on the French & Saunders was played by Dawn French.

Saffron isn't such a goody two-shoes as the Chrsitmas 2011 episode shows us!

Absolutely Fabulous had a fantastic parade of peripheral characters.

Some favourites include

Bo and Marshall - Eddie's ex hubby and his OTT American wife, brilliantly played by Chris Ryan and Mo Gaffney.

Magda- the one, the only, Kathy Burke! "If the models get any younger, Pats, they'll be chucking fetuses down the catwalk."

Fleur and Catriona- Harriet Thorpe and Helen Lederer, excellent as 'journos' on Patsy's fashion magazine- "Moist is my word de jour."

Bettina and Max - Patrick Barlow and Miranda Richardson as the most anal minimalists whose lives are turned upsdie down by having a child.

Margaret Monsoon - June Whitfield does a fantastic turn as Eddie's mother; her comic timing is second to none and she was given some fantastic dialogue. Most famous in the UK as 'June' from 'Terry and June', she hadn't been on our TVs for a while when Jennifer Saunders brought her back.