Absolutely Fabulous is now just as easily recognisable by its abbreviated form, ‘Ab Fab’, which can mean only one thing: that it has earned itself a place in the heart and minds of the British public, a lofty domain shared with the likes of Only Fools and Strictly.
What originated as a French and Saunders sketch spawned several series, and sent up the rise of the 90s media elite in the most outrageous of fashions and in what was surely some of the best comedy of the decade.
The show emerged in the early 90s, when ‘greed is good’ was the mantra, and the words ‘credit’ and ‘crunch’ had yet to become quite so well acquainted. Jennifer Saunders wrote and starred as Edina, the madcap and label hungry PR guru, with her indomitable sidekick Patsy, played by the fantastic Joanna Lumley, never far from her side.
The pair career from one catastrophe to another while Pats cries out for some “BOLLY!” or “LACROIX!” to take the edge off whatever disaster they happened to find themselves in – be this a botched face lift or a family gathering featuring Eddy’s gay ex-husband and disgruntled daughter.
Patsy and Edina are wickedly entertaining as the preposterous double act, who generally greet everyone and everything with a “sweetie darling,” but have also been known to refer to someone, in what was a particular highlight of mine, as a “little bitch troll from hell!!!” The duo use the riches they have somehow acquired as women in the world of fashion to indulge in a life of booze and recreational drugs, trying and (on the whole) spectacularly failing to recapture the glory days of their youth as girls about town in London.
Some of the show’s best comedy, however, comes from their encounters with the supporting cast – the dead pan cynicism and rationality of Eddy’s long suffering daughter Saffy, played alongside her mother’s eccentric incompetence is sheer genius.
While in these days of ‘austerity’, TV is a little more Littlewoods than Lacroix; to watch the show now is certainly no less funny, and definitely worth a watch.
Brilliant writing.