Absolutely Fabulous actors Jennifer Saunders, Dame Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha and Jane Horrocks are set to reunite for a one-off programme of the BBC sitcom they once starred in.
Quickly rising to popularity, Ab Fab – as it was known among fans – followed Edina (played by Saunders), and retired model Patsy (Lumley), as they attempted to relive their youth by chasing 90s fads and indulging in heavy drinking and drugs.
Their quirky and hedonistic lifestyle often meant the pair found themselves in personal crises which were inevitably solved by Saffron (Sawalha), with personal assistant Bubble (Horrocks) often featuring.
The four friends will reminisce about their time working on the 90s show during the new show which will tell the story of how it was made and also pay tribute to June Whitfield, who died in 2018 at the age of 93 and is known for her role as Mother in the series.
Absolutely Fabulous made a three-episode return between 2011 and 2012 to celebrate its 20th anniversary and in 2016 a film based on the series was released.
“I loved making Ab Fab but I can’t remember a great deal, so much of this retrospective is a revelation to me,” creator and actress Saunders said.
The sitcom first aired in 1992 and ran until 2003
BBC
Lumley added: “It was a fabulous wander down memory lane by actresses who only have the faintest grip on reality. Really thrilling, and I hope vastly entertaining. I loved every second.”
The documentary, named Absolutely Fabulous: Inside Out, will air on Gold later this year, with Kirsty Hanson who commissioned the series noting that fans are “in for a real treat”.
Fans of the beloved series rejoiced at the news, with one excited fan penning on X: “The Absolutely Fabulous cast looks great. From when they started doing the show they haven’t hardly changed only slightly older.”
“One of my favourite ever TV series. It was comedy gold,” another stated before someone else said: “One of my all-time favourite shows. I hope fans in the US will be able to see the special at some point, too!”
The cast reunited in 2016 for the film
20TH CENTURY STUDIOS
“I loved Ab Fab! Can’t wait,” a fourth commented before another added: “And may I say how Absolutely Fabulous they still look today! Bring It On! We need the laughs.” (sic)
Absolutely Fabulous was originally developed from a sketch Saunders wrote with her long-term comedy partner Dawn French in 1990, titled Modern Mother And Daughter.
Whitfield’s last appearance in the sitcom was in the 2016 movie adaptation, where Edina and Patsy were forced to flee the country after nearly killing model Kate Moss.
She died in 2018, two years after Saunders insisted that she was “done” with the BBC series, and told the Daily Mail in 2016: “I’m not doing anything more with Ab Fab. That’s it. That. Is. It. I can’t see the point of doing anything else with it, really.”
Fans were excited to see the cast return to their screens
GOLD
However, she gave fans a glimmer of hope in 2018 when she told the audience at Cheltenham Literature Festival that the idea of continuing Ab Fab was “always on my mind, always”.
“I am thinking at the moment of writing a little something. It has to be age-appropriate otherwise we’d have to be in wheelchairs basically. I think Julia is old enough to be my mother now.”
She also highlighted the issue of political correctness at the time and added: “I think it is harder to write what we used to write because there is just always someone tutting in the back of your mind. ‘Oh, what do you think? Don’t you think someone might be offended?’ It is very tiring!”
Saunders reiterated the point in 2021 when she claimed that the new “woke” mindset had changed comedy and people now “talk themselves out” of telling any jokes that might be considered controversial.
During a talk at the Garrick Theatre, she noted: “I think people do talk themselves out of stuff now because everything is sensitive in a funny way and what could be made to seem sensitive and it stops a lot of the fun maybe like jokes. I remember jokes. Silly jokes and stuff.”