Original subtitles

(audience laughs)

- Hello, Alex, this is the mood board for the next edition.

Sex, bitch, aristo, sex, punk, whore, bitch.

- Prozzie!

(audience laughs)

- Punk, tar-

- Slut!

- Slut!

Oh, but, Alex, Alex, with lovely shoes.

- Oh yes.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] For its millions of fans all over the world,

"Absolutely Fabulous" is quite simply

the greatest sitcom ever made.

- Cheers. - Cheers.

- [Narrator] For the first time in almost a decade,

we are reuniting the cast to tell the definitive story

of "Ab Fab."

- That is so degrading to women!

- What do you mean?

She's got the whip.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] We'll hear from famous fans.

- It was a cultural phenomenon.

- It's a great family sitcom.

And families will always go

on being complicated, funny, chaotic.

- It's a Lacroix.

- [Narrator] And get all the guest star gossips.

- I remember thinking this is a matriarchy,

and Joanna Lumley is handing out Rothmans.

- She burnt me with her cigarette!

- It was definitely women behaving very badly, wasn't it?

- Bitch!

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] Jennifer Saunders

has opened up the "Ab Fab" archives.

- "Drug crazed sex romp."

I think you need this framed in your house.

- Well, what am I supposed to do if you die?

- Get cabs!

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] Jennifer and Joanna

share their fondest memories of working together.

- We got her sober by about midday.

- She's just so difficult.

- [Narrator] We'll relive the scenes

that still make the cast laugh all these years on.

- Are we keeping old corks?

(audience laughs)

- That's my favourite line.

"Are we keeping corks?"

(everyone laughs)

- [Narrator] And reveal some outtakes

that'll leave you wondering

how the show ever got made at all.

- I said...

What did I say?

(everyone laughs)

- [Narrator] All the ingredients needed

for a wonderfully nostalgic look back

at a truly iconic sitcom with a couple of delicious treats

for even those who know "Ab Fab" inside out already.

- [Jennifer] I don't know this at all.

- I never saw that.

- I have no recollection of that episode at all.

- Was I in it?

- No, I don't think you were.

- No, I don't think I was in it.

(bright music)

♪ Bum, bum, bum, bum ♪

♪ Bum, bum, bum, bum ♪

♪ Bum, bum, bum, bum, ba ♪

- Here, darling.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone

first stumbled onto our screens slightly the worst for wear

on the 12th of November, 1992.

It was a sitcom like no other.

And "Ab Fab" immediately won a huge fan base

who were as thirsty for Pats and Eddie

as Pats and Eddie were for Bolly.

- Comedies that make you laugh,

there's probably I would say one every 10 years

that really makes everyone laugh.

- Forward thinking, so progressive, so inclusive.

And it felt modern.

- A lot of those jokes still feel current.

- I think the fact that the whole show

is from the female gaze is where its magic lies.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday dear ♪

- It's 30 years ago?

I'm gonna faint with horror.

(audience laughs)

- We just had the best time.

We had to do a bit of filming, yes.

But we also just had the best time.

- Oh, darling, before you go, can you help me?

You know, tomorrow I've got the PR PR Person's Awards

dinner of the lunch month.

(audience laughs)

- I'm going upstairs.

I've got some work to do.

- Darling, before you go, listen, can you help me?

You know, tomorrow I've got the PR PR Person's Awards

dinner of the lunch month.

Oh.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] But as long as you didn't need her

to say "PR PR Person's Lunch of the Month,"

at this point, Jennifer's business card

definitely said performer first and writer second.

- I hadn't really had that much of a career

before (laughs) writing career before "Ab Fab."

I'd written with Dawn, but sketches, really, just sketches.

- What did the Krankies say to you?

(audience laughs)

- They said “Fan-dabi-dosi”.

(audience laughs)

- Jennifer and Dawn were just such inspirations

for any of us.

They produced and wrote their own stuff.

And because of that, their voice was authentic.

- [Narrator] April, 1990 was when the "Ab Fab" story began.

Over to "French and Saunders" producer

and British comedy royalty, Jon Ploughman.

- It started with a phone call from the girls' agent,

in which she told me

that Dawn probably wasn't gonna be available

for the next series of "French and Saunders."

And during that time, Jennifer would be free.

And what Jennifer was thinking of doing

was writing a sitcom.

She then said, "Well, it's a sitcom based on a sketch

"that we'd done in the previous series,

"as it were in 'French and Saunders.'"

That sketch was called "Modern Mother and Daughter."

- [Adriana] It's me.

Can I come in?

- No, Mum, I've got to do my homework.

- Oh, sweetie, honestly.

- And I love the idea

that "Ab Fab" was based on a relationship

that was in a sketch.

The thing about a sitcom is it should be crystal clear

what the relationship is almost from the first two sentences

that the characters say.

And that's true of sketches as well.

- [Narrator] In "Modern Mother and Daughter"...

- Sorry, sweetie.

- [Narrator] Viewers were introduced to straight-laced Saffy,

played by Dawn,

and her dramatic and self-involved mother,

who at this point was named Adriana.

- Oh, Adriana needs a cuddle.

(audience laughs)

- Well, hard luck.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] But could this short sketch be expanded

into a comedic world that would sustain five series,

six specials, and a movie?

- Darling.

- All right!

- [Narrator] Spoiler alert.

Yes. Yes, it could.

- It was so unlike anything else

that I wasn't sure necessarily that it would sustain.

But I thought if Jennifer's got faith in this,

I've got faith in Jennifer and I've got faith in it.

- And the sketch went on for about nine minutes.

So I thought it's only two of those

and you've got a sitcom. (laughs)

- What am I gonna do without you here?

You're the only person who knows how to find the coffee

in the morning!

I'm hopeless at that!

You know that, sweetie.

Would you make mum a cup of coffee?

(audience laughs)

It's just you're so clever

and you know where everything is, darling, don't you?

I think it's marvellous the way you know

where things are, darling.

- [Narrator] And so the world of Adriana,

who by now had been renamed Edina, started to take shape.

- If I think of writing Edina,

I think of everything being a problem.

Even getting up is now gonna be a problem.

(audience laughs)

And so everything is funny.

- [Narrator] But Edina needed someone

to do all that everything with.

Enter Patsy Stone.

- I'd seen Joanna guest hosting Terry Wogan's show

when I was producing Terry Wogan's show.

(audience applauds)

I'd also seen her in a not necessarily great play

called "Vanilla."

- I saw Joanna in a play called "Vanilla"

where she played Imelda Marcos

- It was a very good satire.

And she had very short hair and she was pretty terrible.

But I liked doing that.

And Ruby thought it was funny and came backstage,

I'd never met her, and said, "You have to work with me."

- I mean, the timing was magnificent.

I remember heaving out of the balcony

and then I went backstage like a kind of an agent.

I was nobody, right?

And I said, "Hey, you should be in a comedy."

And she was thrilled 'cause her career had plummeted.

She doesn't mind me saying that.

But it was, you know, under the floorboards.

So I put her on my show,

and every year we showed her descent.

- That was great.

So what you wanna do an interview or something?

(audience laughs)

- It was sort a parallel,

sort of alternative Joanna Lumley life

where she'd gone off the rails and was rehab.

- Yeah.

- Ruby trying to get her out and get her job and so on.

But I loved that.

- I just worked with her year after year,

and then when Jennifer, we were talking about "Ab Fab,"

I said, "I have Patsy."

(audience laughs)

- This is how Patsy Stone came into my life.

A script plopped through the door, you pick it up,

you read it, it's from Jennifer Saunders.

Read it, thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

Was invited to the BBC to meet Jennifer for the first time

and to read through a scene,

so we could just get to know each other a little bit.

I remember sitting to do a scene in the back of a car.

- You going straight to the office?

- Yes.

- Past Harvey Nicks?

- No, Pats.

- But as there was no description as to who

or what Patsy was like, I didn't know.

And as Jennifer was not at her most communicative

in those days, gave me no hint except looked sadder

and crosser to almost every word I uttered.

I thought, "This is a dead loss."

- We didn't know each other.

I mean, it's hard,

isn't it, if you don't- - We didn't know each other.

I didn't quite know what you wanted.

- And I didn't quite know what I wanted.

- Well you didn't quite tell me.

- No, I didn't know.

- I rang my agent and I said,

"Look, I don't think Jennifer wants me,

"but she's too polite to say anything.

"Do you think you can get me out of this?"

And my agent said, "No, it's a pilot.

"Just do it.

"Might not take off." (laughs)

I nearly wasn't Patsy.

(audience laughs)

- She inhaled our kitchen.

(audience laughs)

- I just nodded off.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] Then it came to casting Saffy,

the straight-laced daughter played to perfection by Dawn

in the original sketch.

- We saw a lot of people.

Jane Horrocks came in to read for the daughter.

We had a lot of really lovely people came in.

- I did the film "Life is Sweet" that Mike Leigh directed

and Jennifer saw that,

and I think that's why I got the audition.

But when she saw me in real life,

"She can't play my daughter!

"She's far too old!"

- Jane wasn't right, but I thought,

"She's just too good not to have as something."

So I made Bubble for Jane.

- Bubble was Edina's PA, a very useless PA.

- Bubble, did all the models turn up?

- Yeah, every single one.

- Good, good. Thanks.

- Except one.

- Except one.

You're not gonna tell me it's Yasmin Labon, darling.

- No.

- Thank God.

- Oh no, sorry, yeah.

(audience laughs)

Yasmin Labon's ill.

- Originally she was going to be posh, but then we met Jane,

and Bubble became just more and more eccentric.

- She will show no mercy

in the defecation of your character!

(audience laughs)

- Who'd have thought Jane Horrocks

was this completely brilliant airhead

when she's obviously a deeply intelligent

and serious actress?

I love the fact that she played so against type.

- Where's the computer?

- Computer?

- Yeah. I told you to buy a laptop.

- A laptop?

Top?

(audience laughs)

- But I do play a good thicky. (laughs)

- Get rid of it.

(audience laughs)

- But I've grown so fond, and it's so cute.

And it's not just for life, it's for Christmas.

(audience laughs)

- I think Bubble went through

different kind of metamorphosis.

She started off being quite like me,

and then she was sort of my niece

who was about five at the time.

And then she became a snob.

- And she'd, "Oh, these people."

- Oh, riff-raff.

- "Gucci, it's like being down the market."

- Nightmare in Gucci and Prada.

(audience laughs)

- And yeah, it was a dream role

- [Narrator] With Jane cast as Bubble,

the "Ab Fab" team was still looking for the right person

to play Saffy, until they met Julia Sawalha.

- I remember getting the script, which was unusual.

Not the whole script, just my pages.

And I thought, "God, that's a lot."

And I thought, "Oh no, it's Jennifer Saunders,"

you know, just one of my heroines.

- I remember reading a scene with her

and not being able to look at her. (laughs)

- It was the speech out of the pilot,

the long speech in the first episode.

I had to do that speech.

- But why is today such a panic anyway?

It's only a fashion show,

and you've had six months to prepare it.

I mean, why is everything always so hysterical?

I mean, all you've gotta do is play a bit of music,

turn on the lights, get some people

who've thrown up everything they've ever eaten

and send them down a catwalk.

(audience laughs)

- She was so serious.

And she just got it.

And I thought, "Oh my god, that's exactly what we need."

And she completely had the right effect on Edina,

which is to make her just seem silly.

- And who was it you were in a previous life?

I suppose you were the Elizabeth Taylor of the Ming Dynasty.

- Well close. Yes.

- So how come you've ended up just a mad fat old cow?

- Oh!

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] But Saffy did have one ally

in the Monsoon household, Edina's mother,

who was called, well, Mother,

exquisitely portrayed, of course,

by the late Dame June Whitfield.

- Granddad...

(audience laughs)

Always put his false teeth in the turkey's bottom...

(audience laughs)

To make it look as if it was smiling.

(audience laughs)

(Mother laughs)

(audience laughs)

"It's Princess Honey," he used to say. (laughs)

- (laughs) It's absolutely insane!

Oh, June.

- Oh, Junie-June.

- Oh, she was just fabulous.

She gave Mother such a madness.

- Did you think of her at once when you thought of Mother?

- I think so, because of growing up with "Terry and June"

and everything else that she'd done.

I thought she'd be incredible.

- I say, I remember those trousers.

- No, you don't.

- Still hung onto to those.

Mind you, I'm surprised you can still get into them.

(audience laughs)

It was rather like trying to get toothpaste

back into the tube, even then!

(audience laughs)

- She would find pauses and then she'd drop the line,

you know?

And I thought, I kind of got into that,

I thought, "Well, that's fantastic."

- The '70s are back.

- Oh, does that mean you'll be voting labour again, dear?

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] So with the cast assembled,

the "Ab Fab" pilot was recorded in the autumn of 1991.

But not everyone at the BBC was ready

for such brazenly female-fronted fun.

Given that the corporation back then

was basically 99.8% men,

it's perhaps unsurprising that there were one or two of them

who didn't quite get the joke.

- So we do the dress rehearsal

for the pilot in the afternoon.

It's going to happen in front of an audience in the evening.

In the afternoon, we do the pilot.

And I see Robin Nash, who was the then head of comedy,

and I said, "What do you think?"

And he said,

"I've never found women being drunk very funny."

(Jennifer laughs)

I apologise now.

- "I've never."

- Never found drunk women funny.

Just take the "drunk" away from that sentence.

- He's not lived.

- And I thought, "Well, that's it. (laughs)

"It's over." (laughs)

- I remember also a Times television review

when the first episode came out and it was,

"Sorry, no, this is not gonna work, and it's not funny.

"And drunk women aren't funny, goodbye.

"This is the end of that show."

- I know, and I remember it also said,

"Beware of the sitcom where the writer takes the main part."

(Jennifer laughs)

I thought, "Oh."

(audience applauds)

- But we did it in the evening.

The audience were wonderful.

And my abiding memory is at the end of it I saw Ben Elton,

and Ben Elton said,

"Well, I've seen the future of comedy, and it's that."

- [Edina] Pats?

- Oh, hello Eddie!

(audience laughs)

It's such a beautiful day out there,

you know, sun's so bright.

It's almost blinding.

Like shards of glass just piercing the clouds.

Oh, every second of my journey here

is just blazoned on my memory.

I feel fantastic.

- Champagne?

- Oh yeah, I think so.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] Powering the engine that drives "Ab Fab"

are the twin pistons of Edina and Patsy.

It's ultimately their relationship

that keeps fans coming back for more.

- I mean, I wasn't unconscious for long, was I?

- Came around really quickly.

I was really proud of you, Eddie.

(audience laughs)

- Honestly, I never remember laughing so, so hard.

- Yeah.

- And it must have been so annoying

for other people too (laughs)

because we just would find everything they did funny.

- It may be stretched to the limit at the moment, darling,

but at any moment when he least expects it, it will...

I've forgotten the word.

(audience laughs)

- One of the amazing things about "Ab Fab"

is the size of the characterisations

and yet the realism of them,

that's one of the things that sitcom can do.

You think, "Oh my god, that's definitely a real person."

- [Narrator] Edina Monsoon is up there

with Basil Fawlty and Edmund Blackadder

as one of the most iconic comedy creations.

But what inspired the character of Eddie?

Who is she?

- She's a massive mixture of people.

And Rebecca Hale, who's a costume designer,

used to tell us stories

'cause she had quite an eccentric, wonderful mother,

always off doing something.

You know, suddenly coming out on a balcony

when they were on a holiday stark naked and going,

"Darlings, look at the sunset."

I remember me and Dawn thinking,

"That's a cracker of a character."

Then when I was an au pair in Italy

for someone called Adriana Ivancich, who was eccentric,

eccentric and wonderful and marvellous,

and always did wonderful, crazy, crazy things.

- The same woman had been Ernest Hemingway's muse.

- And I think I sort of got

to love these eccentric, big characters.

- It's extraordinary to imagine that the woman

who inspired "Across the River and into the Trees"

was the same woman who inspired Edina Monsoon

in a successful sitcom.

- Then we met Lynn Franks, who did PR,

and I thought, "Oh, this is a world.

"This is a world, PR."

- Let me say "Ab Fab" is not based on Lynn Franks,

but there was incident that kind of started the whole thing.

Anyway, I was at the airport,

and she said would I like a lift home.

So she's in her Jaguar and she's yelling at...

What words can you say these days?

Okay.

"Fucking cunt.

"Tell her she's gotta get off that fucking runway

"or I'll fucking slit her throat."

And then she held the phone and went, (recites mantra)

"Tell that bitch, tell that bitch she'll never work again.

"I'm gonna tear her face off.

"Do you understand me?

"She's a bitch." (recites mantra)

So I had to call Jennifer right away and say,

"You gotta use this."

- It was a mixture.

And then Edina became probably more me than anything else.

And everything you wanna moan about or complain about,

everything you can't do, Edina can do.

- Do this. Do this.

- I love the way Edina kept a Buddha

in the lavatory near the front door.

(Edina chanting)

(audience laughs)

- I said, "Do you do that every day?"

And you went, "Yeah."

- Almost religiously, darling.

(audience laughs)

(everyone laughs)

- Try this.

(audience laughs)

- Really setting them up to show how Edina would flit

from one to the other, one to the other.

She would go, "Ching, ching, ching, ching, ching.

"That's my Buddhist thing done.

"Da-da-da-da-da.

"Oh, isolation tank, done that."

She would just flit, thinking it was doing her good,

whereas in fact the big problem

was never going to be solved.

- Be alright with a bit of jewellery.

(audience laughs)

- She was all surface.

And quite a lot of surface at that.

- Still, it doesn't really matter to sit, darling.

'Cause, you know, fat or thin, you still love me, don't you?

(audience laughs)

- Patsy just floated into her life

and was the excuse for all the bad behaviour.

The excuse for the bad behaviour

was the fact that they were together

and they could egg each other on to do anything.

- I mean, we've only been there an hour

and already Patsy's got some stuff.

- No, actually I brought these with me, Eddie.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] The character of Pats was inspired in part

by someone you might just recognise

from other episodes of "Ab Fab."

- I think initially she was based a little bit

on my friend Harriet Thorpe, who went on to play Fleur.

- Skin is in.

Oh, of course the usual,

try to look more beautiful if you want to have more sex.

- Harriet has a great way of supporting you,

even in your worst habits or anything.

If anything's gone wrong,

like if I was writing and hadn't written something

and the office would be on to me going,

"Oh, when are we gonna have this?"

And, "Could we have it?"

And, "We can't make the show unless we have a script."

I mean, ridiculous things like that.

I'd ring Harriet and she'd go,

"Darling, darling, don't listen, darling.

"Darling, darling, you're the one.

"You're writing this.

"They know.

"Have you ever not done it, darling? No.

"Well then, tell them to fuck off.

"Honestly, tell them to fuck off.

"It'll all be all fine. It'll all be fine.

"Just, you're doing it, darling.

"You're the talent.

"You're the one.

"Now, come on, let's go and have a drink."

And (laughs) so that was always Harriet.

It was hilarious.

And I thought initially that was quite a good role

for Edina's friend.

- But, darling, remember it's your company.

You're the boss.

You can do what you want.

Don't let them pressure you.

- And also I thought she'd be a Daily Mail journalist

or something like that.

I had her down as a sort of,

what we used to describe gutter press.

- Sometimes when you're auditioning for a sitcom,

someone comes in who's not exactly what you've written

and you think, "Oh, they're actually gonna be funnier,

"but I'm gonna have to write it a little bit different

"to what I had in mind."

- Joanna came with this idea.

and from friends of hers and her own experience of modelling.

I thought, "Oh no, this has gotta be a magazine.

"This is high.

"You can't have Joanna Lumley

"and not have her look extraordinary."

But she's also a lowlife.

- One snap of my fingers and I can raise a hemlines so high

that the world is your gynaecologist.

(audience laughs)

- What a relief it must have been for Joanna Lumley

who was, you know, so...

Who is so beautiful,

had been the beautiful one since the '60s.

And here she got to be a grotesque.

- Unfortunately, because I'd been a model,

I was always cast as pretty girlfriend or sort of sad victim

or somebody just sort of not funny.

- Ready and turn.

(audience laughs)

- So the idea that Patsy had probably

had most of her organs removed

and she smoked a lot and she drunk a lot

and she hung out with the Stones.

And so, although she speaks pretty much all right

most of the time, sometimes she goes back with that

because she remembers Mick once,

well, I don't think she does,

but anyway, she imagines she knew Mick.

- Eddie, remember that weekend with Mick and the boys?

(audience laughs)

- Patsy is sort of, not really...

Not really there a lot of the time.

She's smoked and done so much stuff

that she hasn't got much going on anywhere.

She looks fab.

Waits for Eddie to do things, and she'll be there too.

- I mean, why not just have a stupidity tax?

Just tax the stupid people!

(audience laughs)

- Let them die!

- Let them die! (laughs)

Let them die. (laughs)

- Here, here.

(audience laughs)

- I love that Patsy has no idea why they're there.

- I know, she-

- Or what's happening at all.

- She had quite a slim grasp of anything going on really.

But if she's around with you-

- Just another court case.

- Exactly. Just, exactly.

- "Let them die."

- There's a bit of Patsy in every woman.

You watch her and you go,

"I wish I had the ovaries to do that."

- She likes me because I eat all the food.

I like her 'cause she eats nothing.

- And they egg each other on

to do things which they wouldn't do on their own.

- Yeah.

- They do stuff together.

- You need some fun, darling?

Let's do something.

Let's go to Harvey Nicks and have lunch at Noble.

- Oh yeah, we haven't done that for a long time.

- All right, darling, I'll clear my desk.

- Mum.

- I've got a life, haven't I?

I mean, work should just be the little side salad, shouldn't it sweetheart?

(audience laughs)

- I have so many favourite moments.

Patsy eating.

And the crisps came around and Patsy said,

"I'll have one of those."

Everyone went quiet.

- I am feeling a little peckish.

(audience laughs)

- And we were this close to you in the shot.

I think there was Julia and me and you

in the middle eating a crisp.

And we laughed so hard that you'll notice

by the actual take we are not in the shot at all.

(audience laughs)

- Delicious.

- The one where she goes, (gags) you know, that.

I mean, in rehearsals, we couldn't get through it.

And she said in rehearsals, "I'm not gonna do it.

"I'm gonna do it on the night."

And we just collapsed.

- (laughs) I remember the time

that Patsy had to sleep in my bedroom.

But you made a bed like a dog at the end of the bed.

- [Joanna] I had to round and round and make it.

- [Jennifer] You had to go round and round.

(audience laughs)

- I can remember us in Val D'Isere.

- Ready? Ready now.

(audience laughs)

- Patsy got stuck on a ski lift, didn't dare get off,

so she just went round all night.

(audience laughs)

- Eddie, I'm going round again.

- [Narrator] A trip to the slopes wasn't Pats and Eddie's

only effort to rack up the air miles.

- I hate France. I hate it!

- [Narrator] There was the not-entirely-easy-to-find chateau

in France.

- We stayed in the gite instead of the chateau.

- And the old man who had the keys to the chateau

kept trying to knock on the door and give them to me.

(man speaking French)

- But he looked quite revolting and didn't have teeth.

So we just went, "Pf-pf-pf-pf."

(audience laughs)

- What I like is when they have to adapt to real life.

It's spidery walls and mouse droppings

and having to go into the village for a baguette.

- Cockroach! Cockroach!

(Edina and Patsy screaming)

No, don't kill it, darling.

I'm a Buddhist.

I could come back as one of those.

(audience laughs)

- To see them doing that I thought was quite funny.

- [Narrator] Saffy came with them to Morocco

and almost didn't come home again.

- It's a massive square

where you have all the snake charmers,

all the stalls selling all the trinkets,

and it leads off into all the souks.

- There we are in the market,

wrongly, wrongly dressed. - I'm literally

in the tiniest skimpiest thing in high heels.

It's honestly shocking.

(audience laughs)

- I wish you'd cover yourself up, Mum.

- Darling, these people don't mind.

- With a Vivienne Westwood,

we looked like two of the whores of Babylon.

- Necklace that says "sex."

- We look all wrong for Morocco.

- Quite an odd threesome really.

- Whoa!

That man pinched me!

- Darling, don't worry.

He's obviously very old and completely blind.

(audience laughs)

- And by the end of it,

of course we haven't got Saffy because we've sold her.

Patsy sold her halfway through

and pulled out a wad of money,

which was good 'cause she got rid of Saffy.

- Saf?

Saf?

- Eddie.

- Then afterwards we went and did a bit of shopping.

It was all quite Edina and Patsy and Saffy actually (laughs)

but in our normal clothes.

But I know Jennifer bought a lot of rugs. (laughs)

- [Narrator] And then there was Edina

and Patsy's memorable reunion

amongst the New York skyscrapers.

(audience laughs)

- [Jennifer] How did we get to do this?

- [Joanna] How did I ever get to stand near the edge?

- That is iconic. That is iconic.

(helicopter whirring)

- They look better there, there, there.

I knew she was.

(audience laughs)

- And what's weird is you wouldn't know that's me

'cause it's so far away, but that is me.

- I can see it.

- Eddie?

Champagne!

(audience laughs)

- Christ almighty. I was so scared.

- Come on, I'll meet you down there.

- Get me from here.

I can't find the stairs.

- Look at me holding on for dear fucking life.

- Look at me.

I'm standing on the edge of a 67-floor building.

- I know. Look, and it comes right out.

Oh my god.

- [Joanna] The fear.

Well, we both...

That was one of the fearful days of our lives.

- Fearful days of our lives.

I was shitting it.

Shitting it.

That last shot, I have to say, is worth it,

which it pulls out from you.

It was amazing what we got to do.

And it's just a little comedy, and I loved it.

- Help, Mummy, darling.

(audience laughs)

- It's all right. It's all right.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] The misadventures of Pats and Eddie

were a big part of why audiences so loved "Ab Fab."

But at its heart, it was a sitcom about a family,

albeit a slightly unique one.

- The programme weirdly was about Edina and Saffy.

That was the kind of basis of the whole thing.

Saffy was the proper inhabitant of the house.

And this succubus came in.

She was like ivy or something, you know,

or those insects which live off you.

- Saffy, you're gonna have to help me, darling.

I think rigor has set in.

- Oh, for God's sake.

(Patsy screams)

(audience laughs)

(everyone laughs)

(crashing sounds)

- The dummy at the end.

(Joanna laughs)

- What you often need when you are dealing

with characters who are both very funny

but also kind of morally reprehensible,

you kind of need permission to laugh.

- When I heard that Eds was pregnant,

I told her to abort!

Abort, abort, abort!

I said, chuck it down the pan!

Bring me-

- A knitting needle?

- A knitting needle!

Oh!

(audience laughs)

- Do you know, I can remember being terrified

of saying that line about knitting needle and everything.

I said, "Do I have to say that?"

And you said, "Yes, you do."

Quite hard.

- But I remember with lines like that,

the marker was whether Julia thought it was,

or whether she thought Saffy would find that offensive,

which, and she said, "No, no, no, that's fine."

Because it doesn't affect her at all.

- Patsy hated me.

And it's a horribly toxic, dysfunctional scenario

that the three of them are in.

But yet they feed off each other.

- I mean, she's the one who ruined your figure

in the first place.

She's the one who turned you into this potato

that we see before.

(audience laughs)

- I particularly love the scene where Saffy snaps.

She says, "I'm not gonna take it anymore."

- Sight reading here without my glasses.

"This is not how it's gonna be anymore, Mum!"

- I'm not going to be here just to put you to bed,

to feed you, stub out your joints,

clear up the sick, lie for you.

- Disapprove of you and not just you, you as well.

- [Saffy] You cesspit from hell.

(audience laughs)

Stinking bag of bones that haunts this house every day

like a mouldering cadaver.

- Leeching the lifeblood out of everything

it can get it suckers onto.

- I'm fed up of being suckered!

I will not take this anymore!

This is not how it's going to be!

- I loved that scene.

Julia does it so wonderfully.

- (laughs) That was really shit, don't put that in!

- I think one of the things about sitcoms

is that you can make people suffer

because you know there are no consequences.

You know, you know that Saffy's, you know,

still gonna be there.

There's no plot that's gonna mean

that she, you know, ends up having a heroin habit.

- She was so horrible to Patsy sometimes.

- But she did do a little test.

Patsy had got some-

- (laughs) Oh, the breast test.

- Something from the National Health

to say you've got to check yourself.

Patsy literally didn't know what she was talking about

and had reluctantly to ask Saffy.

- (laughs) That's my favourite bit.

- And Saffy went, "Oh God, how revolting.

"I've got to test your,

"to check your breast and everything."

- Tit, tit check.

- Tit, tit, tit test. (laughs)

- Tit test. (laughs)

"I've gotta do a tit test."

- Do you feel anything?

- Oh, what's that?

(audience laughs)

- [Joanna] Mother going past.

- Pilfering.

- Pilfering stuff from around the house,

peeped in through the door

and saw what she thought was the beginning

of something grotesquely girly happening.

- Well, I don't think there's any rain on the way.

(audience laughs)

- And went, "ooh, ooh," tiptoed away again.

And dear Saffy was so, so revolted by her,

but sort of went, you know, you've got to go and do-

- Because she's ultimately a good person, Saffy.

- She was a good person.

- And the other thing,

the smear, is that a doctor thing or-

- Doctor.

(audience laughs)

- I'm always surprised that people think that Saffy is weak

because she's very, very tough.

- Oh, what's this?

- Be careful, Gran.

- Be careful. This is a new kitchen.

- [Narrator] Saffy wasn't the only person

in the monsoon household forced to endure a mad parent.

Eddie's relationship with Mother

was only very slightly less dysfunctional.

- You used to have one of these when you were a girl.

- Yeah, but I was never allowed on it.

- No, you were too big for it.

You wobbled.

(audience laughs)

- There was a sort of old lady that I knew

that was a sort of similar person that somebody else I know,

they referred to her as the malevolent cabbage.

And I think that that is a,

it's a type that we all know and that is what Mother is.

She's the malevolent cabbage.

She sits there and she's quiet

and she looks a bit sort of soft and frilly.

And then she'll kill you.

She'll just kill you.

- I mean, what you two don't seem to realise

is that inside of me, inside of me,

there's a thin person just screaming to get out.

- Just the one dear?

(audience laughs)

- Oh, you see, that's the perfect,

she got it down to one line a scene,

but it's the killer line.

- "Just the one, dear?" (laughs)

That's perfection.

You just threw that away.

You didn't even look at her, you just went, "Have it."

Master. Mistress.

- A beautiful foil.

You know what I mean?

A beautiful person for your kind of blah, blah extreme.

- Yeah, my showing off-ness.

- Well, yes.

- Yeah, overacting.

- Yeah.

- It shall rise like phoenix from the ashes with Twiggy.

- Oh dear.

- Claudia, you're here.

- Twiggy!

- [Narrator] A remarkable feature of "Ab Fab"

was the sheer number of guest stars

who queued up to join in the overacting too.

- What have you done for me?

You've done nothing for me.

- Oh, what was it?

Fisting. Fists across America. Gay Pride!

(audience laughs)

- Oh, don't start.

- Do this. Do that.

Be good. Be safe.

Don't be naughty.

From "zigazig-ah" to house-proud Hausfrau,

Look at you.

- Emma was a really good sport

because she really was the butt of the joke

a lot of the time.

And as was Twiggy, as was Lulu.

- Don't be shy.

I bet you've got a lovely voice when you try.

(audience laughs)

♪ Well ♪

- Stop! Stop!

(audience laughs)

- I think it always becomes the mark of,

"I think we've got it right,"

when you've got superstars lining up for a cameo. (laughs)

- Do you want to press the lotto button?

- No.

- Celebrity Millionaire.

- No.

- Celebrity Weakest Link.

- Yes. - No.

- Celebrity farm.

Celebrity rehab.

Celebrity junk search.

Celebrity wannabe.

Celebrity celebrity celebrity celebrities.

(audience laughs)

- (laughs) She's just brilliant.

"Celebrity, celebrity, celebrity."

I was like, it's really hard as well to not laugh.

- Celebrity.

Oh, I die with Donna Air.

- No, no, no.

Nothing with celebrity in it.

- Well, you're limiting yourself frankly.

(audience laughs)

- So Emma Bunton came in

because we needed Eddie to have another client.

She only had Lulu.

Do you remember?

Lulu and Queen Noor.

- And Queen Noor.

Did I ever tell you the Queen Noor story?

- No.

- I was the design museum doing something,

it was a great tribute to Stanley Kubrick.

The great and good were all there.

Then we were all sat down,

quite narrow tables in that place, to eat.

And I was sitting opposite Benedict Cumberbatch,

who was sitting next door to an attractive woman

who lent forward to me with her beautiful hair,

and she said, "Hello, Joanna."

And I said, "Hello?"

And she said, "I'm Queen Noor of Jordan."

- No! (laughs)

She exists.

- And I said, "Ah! Ah! Hello, hello."

She said, "The kudos I have now in my family

"with my children since your programme came out.

"Thank you very much."

I said, "I'll pass that on to Jennifer."

(everyone laughs)

- Queen Noor.

- I do remember one of my lines, which I just,

when I saw them written down, I thought, "Oh my goodness,"

but to say them out loud

was actually, you know, quite empowering.

- If you think I'm gonna take

that kind of shit off a sweaty overeater

the colour of an old man's scrotum...

(audience laughs)

Then you have got another thing coming.

- (laughs) And I just thought that was brilliant.

- Patsy had become obsessed with one drawer.

You know, the rubbish drawer in the kitchen.

- Bits of string in there.

- [Jennifer] Pens and string, old bits of food.

(everyone laughs)

And corks, champagne corks.

It's my favourite line almost ever is,

"Are we keeping corks?"

- Are we keeping old corks?

(audience laughs)

- But Emma was terrific as that.

- Emma was great.

- [Narrator] And guest stars weren't limited

to British pop icons.

- Oh, Sacha Distel.

- How's the film?

- Oi!

- Just by chance, and this is weird,

we were filming on a bridge in Paris

and Sacha Distel actually walked by.

- Oh sorry. I thought you were someone else.

- He was an adorable man and a huge star. (laughs)

- [Jennifer] I love that.

- I love Sacha Distel.

- [Narrator] A young Tom Hollander popped in and did a turn

as Saffy's really quite horrible fiance, Paolo.

- Maybe this one will last for you, darling.

Maybe this will be the one

to finally break the seal on that cat box.

- Mum!

(audience laughs)

- And I sat behind a paper,

I remember they took the piss out of me a lot,

out of my character.

My character, my character. Not me.

She was ironing my shirts.

That was one of the jokes.

- Cuffs. Cuffs.

Collar. Cuffs.

(audience laughs)

Side, sleeve, cuff, side, sleeve.

- I do iron shirts still thinking,

"Collars, cuffs, sides, sleeves,

"collars, cuffs, sides, sleeves,"

and just recently I thought,

"Maybe that's not actually true."

- Well I don't want to be seen as some sex object.

- I don't think of you as a sex object.

(audience laughs)

- Don't you?

- I don't think it's even accurate

'cause actually if you start with the sides and the back,

you get much further with the shirt much faster

and you feel a sense of achievement.

And then it's nearly done immediately.

And then the collars and the cuffs you just do at the end.

Whereas if you start with the collars and the cuffs,

you get sort of lost in the weeds a bit,

as I am in this anecdote.

- [Narrator] Some guest stars

took a rather more jazz approach to the script.

Whoopi Goldberg made an appearance

when Eddie and Patsy went to New York.

- Who's been smoking?

I can smell it.

Is it you?

Come here. Come here, girl.

Come here. Let me smell you.

(audience laughs)

Oh God.

One more time.

- She was fantastic,

but she did not do a single line as written.

You know, she was just extraordinary.

Because she's grown up in comedy and improv and everything,

you present her with a script, she went completely off it.

- Give me five minutes.

I'm a genius.

We'll meet you on the pier.

Can I get another hit?

- Sure.

(audience laughs)

- Honestly, I just sat there aghast at her genius.

- [Narrator] It wasn't just movie stars

that made an appearance in the "Ab Fab" orbit.

Elton John popped in briefly.

- My main memory of Elton John being a guest on the show

was that we were told absolutely,

"He will give you 40 minutes."

- He was coming in to play at the party.

- Oh, Elton, darling.

- What is going on?

- Darling.

- We've got you the piano.

- What?

- To play at the party.

- What is this?

- She's presumpted me slightly, darling.

It's just, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind

just playing a little at the Beatles party, darling?

- Playing?

- Well just playing, you know, entertain.

- If you can call it that.

- You've got nerve.

- Anyway, he greeted me as Pat, which was very nice

'cause he'd met me in a former incarnation.

- I think I knew you when you were a man.

(audience laughs)

- And I knew you when you had hair.

- I've always had hair, bitch.

(audience laughs)

Get off me.

- Last season's Yohji!

(audience laughs)

- I mean, Elton John.

It's Elton John.

Elton John came in.

- He came in, he did it, 40 minutes later he left. (laughs)

- Zandra.

- Zandra came in.

- Zandra Rhodes.

- Oh, Zandra.

Hi. It's me.

Patsy. Patsy Stone.

- I think we did a,

is it a flashback of Patsy as a model?

It was a shoot, it was a shoot.

- [Joanna] It was a shoot against back paper, which goes to-

- [Jennifer] And Patsy was on so many drugs

that she couldn't just stand up.

She was tripping.

- Oh no, my, it's just...

(audience laughs)

- I only got her here because she's your friend.

- "Come on, Zandra.

"She's your friend."

And Zandra turns around and goes, "She's not my friend.

"I hardly know her."

- I just felt sorry for her.

I hardly know her.

- And I think, "I hardly know her,"

became our sort of catchphrase.

- You became obsessed with that.

- And then Jane started saying it

and we all started saying that.

"Yeah, but I hardly know her."

- Zandra Rhodes said it as, "I hardly know her." (laughs)

I find that really funny.

- [Narrator] But "Ab Fab" didn't just cast mega stars

as guests.

It also set some young actors on the path to Hollywood.

- Oh look!

- Oh my god. Oh.

- [Jennifer] (gasps) There he is. Idris.

- [Joanna] Idris Elba.

- [Jennifer] Idris Elba.

- I like to think you launched him in "Ab Fab."

Anyway, since then he's never mentioned "Ab Fab."

He's never said it was-

- Oh no, he's very sweet actually.

I've met him,

and he's absolutely lovely. - Is he?

Well, he's, it's never been on anything.

I know, but it's never on his list of things he's done.

- Well...

- Have you done this before?

- First time.

- Oh, well then you're very lucky.

You're in very experienced hands.

(audience laughs)

- [Jennifer] We did give him the worst joke.

- "Has anyone ever told you you look like Sean Connery?"

- The poor man.

I'm not surprised

he doesn't advertise it. - Exactly.

- Has anyone ever told you you look a bit like Sean Connery?

(audience laughs)

- Sofie Grabol.

- Sofie Grabol, yes.

That was for "The Killing"

when "The Killing" was everywhere.

(Edina speaking Danish)

- And I thought, "Oh, maybe Edina would dream in Danish."

(Edina speaking Danish)

- Leave the necklace.

The necklace doesn't mean anything here.

- Can you do some of that Danish now?

(Jennifer speaking Danish)

- And she was going, "Wake up,"

and she said, "No, I'm speaking Danish."

I said, "No, you're not."

- "No, you're not."

(everyone laughs)

- I'm speaking Danish.

- No, you're not.

- I am.

- No, you're not.

- I am.

- But you also had an alternative family in your dream

when you went in to have your toenail clipped

or something in hospital.

- [Jennifer] Oh yes! (laughs)

- [Joanna] You had this fancy dream

when everybody was replaced,

so Saffy became Helena Bonham Carter.

- [Jennifer] Yeah.

- [Joanna] And an ex-husband of yours was Richard E. Grant.

- [Jennifer] Yeah. Mandy Rice-Davies was Patsy.

- [Joanna] Mandy Rice-Davies.

But you also had that little Lady Penelope on your foot.

- [Jennifer] Yes, I had Lady Penelope dancing about

on my toe.

- The doctors say there is nothing they can do.

(audience laughs)

- It sort of became something

that people yearn to be part of.

They just wanted to be associated with it.

They just loved it.

- Oh, stop.

- That's because of you 'cause you're wonderful.

- Step out of the car, please.

(car honks)

(audience laughs)

- What the hell?

(audience laughs)

- What do you want?

What are you doing to her?

(car honks)

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] The world of fashion and PR

were perfect for Patsy and Edina

as there aren't many jobs that combine drinking at lunch

with an endless stream of party invitations

and couture launches.

Except maybe voiceover work.

I'll probably be done by two, I reckon.

- Well, PR was a big doodah in the '90s, you know,

and it was full of crap.

- I do remember just getting endless invitations to parties

that were just on the more and more extreme things,

you know, just to,

"Come to this, come to a vodka party,

"come to this party, come to hair ball." (laughs)

And they (laughs)

"Come to the hair ball."

- I'm sorry, Mum, but I've never really seen

what it is you actually do.

- PR!

- Yes, but-

- PR!

I PR things, people, places, concepts.

- Lulu.

- Lulu!

- The thing that is funny is that the world of PR

is both in this show ridiculous and pointless and mad

and the most important thing

that has ever happened in the world,

and if Lulu does not come to the opening

of whichever envelope that night, everyone's going to die.

- I make the fabulous.

I make the crap into credible.

I make the dull into delicious.

- Delicious.

(audience laughs)

- PR, the reason I used it is 'cause it's a way

of getting into a lot of different worlds.

It was quite a useful job for her to have.

And getting free stuff, getting lots of free stuff,

which is what Eddie loves.

- This is the new me, darling.

I'm a mover and a shaker, and I'm moving out.

It's work, work, work, work, work for me

from now on, darling.

- Why?

(audience laughs)

- Well, someone gave it to me free

and it's the latest thing.

(audience laughs)

- But I was always fascinated by Edina's office,

and what I loved so much about it is that she's never there.

It's the same with Patsy.

Like, there's a moment when you find out Patsy has a job,

like halfway through.

You're like, "What? She's got a..."

Even I think Edina is like,

"What do you mean you have a job?"

- I'm going into my office.

(audience laughs)

- What do you do?

- Darling, Pats is one of the top fashion editors

in a top magazine.

- Director.

- Director. - Executive fashion director.

- But she's never at work.

- I am always at work.

- Thanks to our friend Mr. Mobile Telephone.

Anyway, Pats has got that job for life.

- You don't mean to say she's actually good at something.

- No, darling. She slept with the publisher.

(audience laughs)

- Bloody good at it. - Bloody good at it.

(audience laughs)

- Is my Chanel still in there?

- This one?

- Yeah. My little baby.

I'll wear it to the meeting.

Frightens the editors.

I'm the only one with Chanel couture.

Let 'em kiss my buttons.

- [Narrator] The editor of Patsy's high-end fashion magazine

was played to comic perfection...

- Look, are you coming to this meeting?

- [Narrator] By Kathy Burke.

- If I must.

- Yeah. Good.

We need to drum up some more advertising revenue.

We've lost Swiss watches, Lance and Nivea,

two lingeries, one shower gel,

and all my tampons have dropped out.

(audience laughs)

- I think she was terrified of the thing,

but she absolutely nailed it.

- She hated those speeches.

- I know.

- But she did it with such gusto.

- [Narrator] And of course

if you're going to run a posh magazine,

you need to have a few posh people around too.

- A friend of mine's got a shop with some lovely glasses.

- Henrietta?

- Yeah, maybe we could do some lovely photos.

- They sort of became a double act, didn't they?

- Yeah.

- 'Cause they were always there together.

(audience laughs)

- Is this expensive?

- How do you mean?

- Oh well, does it cost a lot?

(audience laughs)

- Fleur just literally, almost nothing inside.

I mean, many sandwiches short for picnic

- Faces, eyes, lips, nostrils,

this is all off the top of my head.

- And then Cannia, Catriona who had the,

and with vast blue eyes.

(Jennifer chuckles)

And always quite willing to be there,

and she didn't know what she was doing.

- Chairs I thought might be quite interesting.

I've got a friend who's got a shop

with some lovely chairs in it.

- "We could have some lovely chairs or something."

I mean, I say that, I mean, much too much

given how little I talk about chairs.

- I mean, it doesn't matter.

- Somehow they operated very well together.

- (laughs) They operated very, you employed them.

Patsy employed them.

- I employed them.

Patsy only knew two people other than Eddie

and that was them.

Oh, and Magda who ran the magazine.

Patsy couldn't remember anybody who she'd met.

- But Mag, she was quite frightened of Magda, I think-

- Quite scared of Magda.

- Quite scared of Magda. - Always scared of Magda.

Anybody would be scared of Magda.

- Where's Magda?

- Oh. Uh...

Is there a meeting or something?

- It was just one scene with a couple of lines,

but "Ab Fab" was the iconic female comedy show.

Just the iconic comedy show, frankly, for me.

So I was absolutely thrilled to be asked.

And I thought, "I'm gonna be on set with Jennifer Saunders

"and Joanna Lumley."

It was really exciting.

- Darling, how do I look?

How do I look?

How do I look, Eddie?

- I think I can see a panty line.

- Oh, but Eddie.

- What?

- I'm not wearing any pants.

(audience laughs)

- Fashion was important because of the extraordinary nature

of what Eddie wanted to look like

and the fact that everything she had was far too small

'cause she only wore sample size

'cause that's all she could get

'cause she had to be the first to get it,

so it was always sample size. (laughs)

And she was never a sample size.

- Pull.

Okay, that's it.

That's as far as it'll go.

Push me up.

Push, push me up.

- Leggings?

- No. Slacks.

(audience laughs)

- Jennifer looks amazing.

Joanna looks amazing.

What normal person would wear that?

And immediately tells you all about the shallowness of

and pretentiousness of that entire world.

- And it was impossible to judge

if something was nice or not unless you knew the name.

So when,

I think it might've even been in the very first episode,

when you go, "What are you wearing, Ed?"

And you go, "Lacroix, sweetie, Lacroix."

(audience laughs)

- Lacroix, sweetie.

(audience laughs)

It's all right, isn't it?

It's a bit tight, maybe.

It's all right, isn't it?

(audience laughs)

You know, people will think, wow, it's a Lacroix.

Okay? I just can't find anything to go with it.

That's all.

- Maybe I could throw up on something for you.

(audience laughs)

Oh, I see someone already has.

(audience laughs)

- I didn't know who Lacroix was,

and I didn't know whether she'd made him up.

- I think you're in for a bit of a treat, my dear.

- You're not nervous, are you, darling?

- I'm fine.

- You tell him what you want. - You tell him what you want.

- He was in fact real.

He was a very nice guy.

He liked the show.

He was very nice to us.

- I'm sorry. We can't-

(audience laughs)

- I do remember once going to McQueen,

probably with Rebecca Hale, us trying something on (laughs)

and the girl going, "I'll get you a bigger size,"

and Becks going, "No, that'll do."

And it was like (groans) straining,

and it was the most beautiful clothes,

but they were so awful on Eddie.

- I had to clear out my wardrobe.

Horrible, revolting, unfashionable clothes

that I simply would not wear, darling.

They are not fashion.

And I put 'em in a pile on the floor I'll throw out.

- I thought you'd put them on, dear.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] In a show that so inhabited the world

of fashion, someone had to keep a record

of every cast member's costume, hair, and makeup,

however outlandish,

to make sure they didn't change from one scene to the next.

That someone was "Ab Fab" makeup designer Jan Sewell.

And these continuity polaroids are that record.

- She took so many that it's a sort of unique record

of "Ab Fab."

- Oh.

- Oh, I love that one.

- Pat and Ed.

- Pat and Ed in Morocco.

- Look at that.

Are we standing in the toilets?

Oh, 'cause this is a Jan polaroid,

so she obviously caught us near the toilets.

- Yeah.

- And went, "Can you come into the toilets?

"I need a polaroid."

And there we are.

- [Joanna] Oh look, we were so hippie-ish.

- [Jennifer] We're very good as that with-

- It's a good look, isn't it? - It's a very good look.

It's a very good look.

- She was quite a successful boy.

- Mm.

(audience laughs)

- Let's do that Sonny and Cher number.

(audience laughs)

- This is the Patsy I think a lot of people remember.

- I know. A very short miniskirt.

- I mean, a very short leather skirt.

Yeah, I think this is the Patsy that people-

- [Joanna] Fishnet tights, high heels, yeah.

- Imitate when they do Patsy.

They don't imitate this very sophisticated look.

- No.

Bubble had a way of appearing in a complete,

she brought a world of her own to, when she arrived.

An entire kind of- - I love that.

- Some extraordinary scenario, which is this,

she's some sort of revolutionary

during the French Revolution.

- But that's, I love that.

Oh, you see this is the same.

This is Becks just going mad.

- Why did she have such a big bottom?

- [Jennifer] 'Cause she's in a little puffball.

It's like a little outfit, like a sort of thing.

- Look at that.

- Look at that. Teletubbies.

- Teletubbies. She came dressed as a Teletubby.

- She came as a Teletubby.

- Eh-oh Stinky-Winky.

(audience laughs)

I think he needs a drink.

His nose is very dry.

- Leave him alone.

(audience laughs)

- (gasps) This is my fave look.

- Oh, that's a look.

- That's very early on, and that's France.

Look at that little earnest face.

- You had some spiteful line.

You said, "You dress like a Christian."

- What kind of friend are you?

- What kind of daughter are you?

At least she has fun with me.

- I care about her.

- Care about her?

You may dress like a Christian,

but the similarity ends there.

(audience laughs)

You know, I think you do it on purpose.

How long does it take you to get the crease so crisp

on the front of your jeans, you torturer?

- Get out.

(audience laughs)

- I had actually said to the costume designer,

"When you iron my jeans,

"can you put a crease right down the middle?"

- Julia always wanted that.

I said, "You could move up to Benetton."

She just said, "No. No.

"It's got to be the worst.

"It's got to be Eddie's nightmare."

- What are you wearing?

Look at this.

Look at that shirt.

It's gonna strangle you.

Why does everything you wear

look like it's bearing a grudge, darling?

(audience laughs)

You've got a wardrobe full of little murderers.

Look at them. Look at them.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] The "Ab Fab" costumes,

poor Saffy and her starch jeans aside,

ranged from the chic to the, well, certifiable.

- Oh, this is Bootcamp.

- What does that mean?

- This is bootcamp.

That's where Edina- - Yes, you keep saying that.

- I know, I'm trying to remember it.

But this is Bootcamp and I was being trained.

- Get your arms.

Upper arms. Upper arms.

(audience laughs)

Punch, punch, punch.

To me, punch.

Great, great.

That is fantastic.

- This is rather gorgeous

because it's actually army surplus.

You can see from this- - Yeah, I think it is.

- This really is army surplus and then-

- Pimped it.

- Becks sort of pimped it.

I hate that word, but that's what she did

with some autumn leaves.

- Yeah.

- To give it a little bit of zazz.

- Whereas this next one-

- This one?

- Let's look at this one.

I've got a feeling this is very, very expensive.

I think it's Bottega Veneta.

It is. - It is.

- And-

- Can you remember when you wore it?

- I can remember how small it was when I wore it.

- Yeah.

- I went up the Eiffel Tower.

- Oh my god.

- With Saffy and wore this.

- And we can just go to the second floor

because don't know if they take you right up anymore.

- This is good. This is good.

- This is my favourite jacket.

- Of all time.

- Because it has Patsy, oh.

- It's got Eddie.

- It's got Eddie and it's got Patsy on it.

(Joanna gasps)

And I remember standing and we had a photograph-

- We had a photograph.

- And he said, it was with Peru,

and he just said, "Do that."

- And I had to smoke the cigarette like that.

It says "Mega Death" on the back.

"Girl Scouts Celebrate Independence."

Bit bizarre.

- It's got a little kitten.

Ooh, that's quite nice.

I might nick that.

- No, don't nick, don't, don't-

- I might nick that, but-

- Don't nick that, take it later.

- Becks made this.

- She wouldn't nick it.

She'd leave it on 'cause it's-

- Beck made this. Becks made this.

- Did she?

- Yeah. "I love New York."

- It's really chic.

- This is honestly a lovely thing.

- And you've got butterflies on your hood.

- And I've got a feeling that she wore this,

Eddie wore it when she was washing the car

and Twiggy bought Mother home.

- Oi!

Is this your mother?

- Well, let me see.

One white poor.

Yes. That looks like her.

- Oh no, the T's fallen off.

- [Joanna] There wasn't, it's not there.

- No, there was a T.

There was a T.

- Oh no, I can't bear it, it's gone.

I've turned into Pasy.

- (laughs) Oh, I love that.

I should have that, shouldn't I?

Shouldn't that be mine?

- Bloody Conran.

Hello, hello. Cab, cab.

Haven't got much time.

- Oh God. - That's all right.

- I guess the traffic's not too bad, is it?

We should be okay.

When we get in there, we're just gonna point and load.

Point and load. Point and load

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] We've been mining the "Ab Fab" archives

and have managed to unearth some gems

that had until now been feared lost to the BBC's local tip.

Remember Patsy's brush with the tabloids?

- Kick, flash, flash.

Kick, flash, flash, flash, kick, kick, flash.

(audience laughs)

Guys, guys, guys, just give me a break, darling.

Just give me a break.

I have a life to lead.

This way.

- I remember writing that,

"Flash, flash, flash, flash, flash." (laughs)

And I thought, "Just keep it going.

"Just keep it going for as long as you can."

- Sweetie.

Darling, can you just leave me alone?

(audience laughs)

Flash, flash, flash.

Click, click, click.

Patsy, Patsy, Patsy.

- (laughs) Did we overact the whole way through?

- (laughs) Yes. It's terrible overacting.

- Are these today's?

- Yes, sweetie.

- Anything in them?

- Not much, darling. No.

- MP in drug crazed sex romp shock with fash mag slag.

(audience laughs)

- "Drug crazed sex romp."

I think you need this framed in your house.

(Joanna laughs)

Actually hilarious.

- The Daily Star, "Four letter Patsy in MP sex row."

- Shocks wife of MP keeps silent.

- Bitch!

(audience laughs)

- One of these, though, said her age

and that just depressed her.

- The only thing that she didn't like was the age.

- [Joanna] The age.

- [Jennifer] Everything else she was quite pleased with.

- Bastard!

No, no, no!

- What? What? What?

Show, show, show, show.

Closed horses-

- No, further, further.

- Patsy Stone.

47.

(Patsy screams)

(audience laughs)

- I'll sue!

- Something I've got at home, 'cause I kept them,

were all the old videos of Patsy

that she did as films in the old days.

I've got those.

- What do you mean?

- What?

- You know, cheeky little sex films.

- No. Well no, darling.

They're more cult classics.

- She had enormous sort of-

- Booberella?

- Booberella.

(audience laughs)

Occasionally people have taken screen grabs of it

and sent it to me to sign.

- That was my fear.

- That they honestly thought it was my tits.

So the truth is I say, "Look, it's not me."

I turn into a very kind old grandmother.

I say- - Booberella.

- "This was good fun and so I can sign it Patsy Stone,"

which is what I do.

- Oh, well done.

- Pats would've liked that.

- [Narrator] It's hard to beat Booberella,

but whilst leafing through her "Ab Fab" memory box,

Jennifer found these incredible handwritten notes

that became the basis

for so many of "Ab Fab's" most famous moments.

- What I normally do is,

like, as with "French and Saunders,"

you just gather loads of ideas and just write down,

write, write, write, and eventually think,

"What could this one be about?

"Oh, let's call it shoes.

"It'll be about shoes."

- [Narrator] There are some tantalising morsels here too,

snippets of projects that might have been.

Take this single-page idea for instance,

simply entitled "Ab Fab Movie 2000."

- Futuristic House where they live, only Saffy grows old,

which is very funny, and very fat with a moustache. (laughs)

I think this might be Eddie's dream.

Everyone's living in, wearing silver foil.

This is the PRPR conference, it says here.

Claudia Bing.

- We feel we have worked out the importance

of brand identity more keenly than many of our rivals

as we showed recently.

- Testing.

- Here's a speech I've written,

so obviously I didn't write it for the actual script,

but I'd written it in longhand on the script.

And it didn't actually end up like this

because I think it must have got better

'cause I've got lots of red lines through it.

"Go, take this out.

"Hello.

"Hi, I was hereby going

"to launch my global integrated network-"

- Network system.

Bloody system system.

But, you know, that's what the world's coming to,

I don't wanna be in it.

No, I don't want that.

- "Whereas, I like a bird," (laughs) "on the wire."

- Like a bird on the wire.

(audience laughs)

Like a drunk in a midnight choir.

(audience laughs)

I have tried in my way to be free.

- "I know it's not all great and fabulous,

"but it ain't that bad."

- Bad, you know, so come on, world, cheer up.

It may never bloody happen.

Come on, darling.

- I think you just did it.

- Come on.

- Goes out, comes back, two fingers. (blows raspberry)

(audience laughs)

"Bubble is gay," it says here.

Bubble is gay?

I never knew that.

What's her girlfriend like?

'Cause she was always a mystery.

We never went too much into Bubble

because it's quite nice

just to have a slightly surreal character.

- Hoover.

Hoover.

Hoover.

- You have to turn it on, not just make the noise.

(audience laughs)

- "Hello."

This is my daughter, this is the weirdest thing in that,

there, so obviously I'm writing and that says,

"Hello. My name is Beatie."

It's obviously my daughter when she was very small. (laughs)

Just finding it and trying to write on it.

I just think it's all about little, little ideas really

and little sketches.

And that went on for the first,

I think most of the first series I wrote like that.

And then the second series I didn't.

And then it became harder.

- [Narrator] When things did become harder,

Jen would reach out to her dear friend

and "Ab Fab" script editor Ruby Wax.

- Ruby was incredibly useful.

She'll go, "Better line here.

"You need something here."

And then she'd come up with them generally

or write six alternatives.

- Her skirt was so short, the world was her gynaecologist.

Or, you know, when she did yoga,

she could give herself a gynaecological examination

from the back.

- A man can look you in the vagina, but never in the eye.

(audience laughs)

- I used to do a lot of faxing

because that's how we sent things.

- Jennifer would sometimes say,

"Fix this line, bump this up.

"I don't know what I'm talking about."

So then I'd know to get to it.

So this is, she said,

"Dear Rube, sorry I didn't call on Saturday,

"but got involved at a horse show."

She's a hor-

"However, script not very good as a result."

- Oh, blaming the horse show already.

"Need help."

- "Urgent. Subject matters are huntin'."

- "Shootin', fishin'."

And I remember thinking,

"I must do something about huntin', shootin', fishin',"

because Madonna (laughs) Madonna had married Guy Richie,

I think, and done a lot of huntin', shootin', fishin'.

- Madonna has opened up this world for us now, sweetheart.

She's made it stylish, reinvented it.

- So you are going to kill things because of Madonna?

(audience laughs)

- This is my favourite bit.

"After an aborted day of clay pigeon shooting

"where Eddie manages to shoot a real pigeon." (laughs)

- Pull!

(gunshot blasts)

(audience laughs)

- I'm obviously well behind with a script

and a bit desperate.

- "I will fax you the vague plot of a script

"that went out this morning, but-"

- "Don't be too downhearted for me.

"It is improving by the second." (laughs)

"And any help much appreciated."

- "Realise you are very busy, so no panic."

I'm gonna cry.

- Yeah, I think I was a bit desperate at this point.

- I'm gonna keep this fax and sell it.

As a matter of fact, I'm gonna sell all my scripts.

- [Narrator] To be clear,

Ruby is not selling any of those precious "Ab Fab" faxes,

although she has given me an idea for a show.

"Desert Island Faxes."

(audience laughs)

- We should change our vile body,

that it may be likened to his glorious body,

according to the mighty working,

whereby he is able to...

(audience laughs)

- She's very upset, you know.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] There are so many famous pictures

of Pats and Eddie through the years,

but here are some very special photographs

that have never been seen before.

- I was intrigued when we started doing this

to come across this,

which is a book of photographs given to me by Jennifer.

Jennifer thought that history should record

what we were doing while we were rehearsing,

and she hired a very nice lady called Sally Soames

to take some pictures.

- Oh, look! - Oh, look!

This is quite good to illustrate the rehearsal room

'cause this is what a rehearsal room looks like.

I think we'd have four days in the rehearsal room.

And this was, I remember us asking Sally to come in

because, you know, just to take some photos as we went.

- "I couldn't have done it without you.

"Nobody else would've let me." (laughs)

"With lots of love, Jennifer."

Lovely.

- I wouldn't have cared if we never filmed it.

- Never, ever.

- And never went out on the telly.

- I wouldn't have cared if we weren't even paid,

just to do rehearsals.

- Just to be in rehearsal was just the most fun thing

of just thinking, "How can we be the funniest we can be

"and how can I make everyone in this room laugh?"

- If you laughed between yourselves

in the rehearsal room of a sitcom,

you're pretty nearly always right.

- Why are these remedy bottles all over?

No, that's not it.

And that's Jon Plowman's fault.

(audience laughs)

- The first time she's ever had to say that line.

I think she deserves some applause.

(audience applauds)

- I went to rehearse,

and I remember thinking, "This is a matriarchy.

"This is quite nice."

Everything is being done by these brilliant ladies.

And Joanna Lumley is handing out Rothmans.

- We liked all the smoking.

Jennifer didn't smoke. I made her.

- And I do remember

there not really being much formal rehearsal.

There was just a lot of people being very, very funny.

That thing that happens in comedy circles

where there's a sort of intimidating,

I always find it intimidating,

level of people being brilliant and topping each other.

So I was thinking, "This is all fabulous

"and they're all kind of rockstar level famous

"'cause of this show."

But as Jennifer came on and as Joanna came on and Julia,

one after another, it was like the audience going (cheers)

You know, Keith, Mick, Ronnie, out they came.

And Tom Hollander as Paolo.

- Oh, still no tongue.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] You can't make a great sitcom

without a great director.

And "Ab Fab" had the best in the business in Bob Spiers.

- Bob was insanely brilliant.

- He'd done the whole of the second series

of "Fawlty Towers."

He'd done "Dad's Army."

- We'd have a read through,

and then we'd just start blocking it,

and Bob would just let us work it out.

And what he was great at was not interfering with the jokes,

with the act, anything you wanted to do.

He was just a genius at knowing how to put cameras.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] Even though the "Ab Fab" scripts

were complete perfection

by the time they were delivered on camera,

to put it politely,

Jennifer occasionally didn't have every line worked out

by the time the cast went into rehearsal.

To put it less politely, it was mayhem, but for good reason.

- I do enjoy the fact that it wasn't complete by rehearsal

because then rehearsal sort of made it.

But there was a couple of times

when I just hadn't thought of it.

I just hadn't thought of it.

- The relationship that Jennifer and I had about scripts

was interesting at the very least.

And it consisted usually of me ringing and saying,

"Okay, how's it going?

"When do you think we'll get there, Jennifer?"

"Um, two or three weeks."

We got very good at playing a game

where she knew she was lying to me,

I knew she was lying to me,

but we were in a world where that was okay.

- Okay, so what happens

is there's nothing, nothing, nothing.

And then sort of two days before they're gonna film it,

I think the god of comedy comes and strikes her brain

with lightning.

And then just genius, genius waves out,

and you go, "Where the, where did this come from?"

- I think a good comedy rehearsal

is a little bit like jazz actually.

You kind of, you need to have the bones,

you need to know the tune,

and then you should be allowed to riff,

'cause actually, sometimes the magic is in that playing.

I totally get why Jennifer liked to keep it loose.

Probably incredibly frustrating for everybody else. (laughs)

The script editor and people trying to plan the shots.

But, you know, it's lightning in a bottle.

- [Jon] Did it frustrate you, Joanna,

that sometimes the script wasn't entirely ready on day one?

- No, it didn't.

- [Jennifer] Be honest.

- No, never.

(Jon laughs)

I never minded at all.

- You never worried?

(Joanna laughs)

- I mean, I do think that the chaos of Eddie's mind

was maybe usefully served

by the apparent chaos of Jennifer's writing method.

- In the first series,

the scripts were there, the plots were there,

but the scenes weren't finished.

And I started to get really nervous about that.

I had a conversation with Jane at one point,

'cause I just thought, I thought I was flailing.

Well, I was flailing.

And I said to Jane, "I'm struggling so much."

And Jane said, "Oh, I'm exactly the same.

"I feel exactly the same."

- Julia and Joanna used to get given a lot of lines

at the last minute,

which wouldn't have kept me happy at all.

But they had a great capacity to learn very quickly.

- Jennifer once gave a script and said,

"One scene where something funny happens."

- We once did a bathroom scene where we were smoking a joint

and had hidden in your bathroom upstairs.

Mother was outside rap-tapping on the door,

and we were both stoned out of our minds on the floor.

We made that scene up.

- Mm.

- It wasn't written down anywhere, but you'd said,

"Patsy and I will do something here."

(everyone laughs)

So we did.

- What?

What? What?

No, what, what, what, what?

- No, I've forgotten the word now.

- No. What?

- What is that word?

- What?

- On your grave marker.

The words on your grave.

What is that?

- On your epitome.

- Your epitome.

(audience laughs)

What is that what you want on your,

on your, on your epitome?

- I want "she was fantastic."

Patsy was here.

(audience laughs)

- [Narrator] It wasn't just the cast and crew of "Ab Fab"

who were responsible for making the show sparkle

on our screens.

The studio audience played a big part too.

- I think there was some shock value in having the audience,

and the immediate reaction to jokes and things,

so you knew what worked.

- I love working with an audience.

I feel like you get the feedback straight away.

- The audience is a glorious editing tool.

And it's always a surprise when you do the show

what turn out to actually have been the funny bits

and what bits you can cast aside with joy.

- It seemed to me that it encouraged the actors

to go for it.

- If in doubt, take three, fall over.

(audience laughs)

It gives you an adrenaline rush, really,

just the nerves of going out in front of a live audience

and knowing you had to do it for the cameras.

But the second the audience start to laugh,

it's you absolutely panto.

- Every day is just like a pick and mix

and all you can eat for 50 cents of forbidden fruit,

isn't it, darling?

(audience laughs)

Darling.

Stop it. That was you.

(audience applauds)

Naughty audience.

You're not allowed to put off the actors.

(audience laughs)

- The difficulty about a studio audience

is that we are actually servants to the cameras

because that's where it's going out to the wider audience.

But there in front of you are 300 people

and you drop blood to get them to laugh and love it.

- Yeah.

- But they're behind.

So the temptation is, particularly my temptation,

not yours, you're subtle, is to be huge.

- So subtle. (laughs)

- But to remember that you're doing it

for the cameras as well.

- So there was this thing where the people

who knew what they were doing, i.e. not me,

were playing the audience as well

as playing the scene of this sort of dual split thing

that you do when you are recording.

You're acting for the camera,

but you're also acting for the live audience.

- Look at this beautiful face.

(audience laughs)

When I first saw this face, I thought,

"My god, why is she hiding all that?"

(audience laughs)

- So that old-fashioned sitcom thing I'd not done before.

So that was very anxious making.

So I went to a doctor and I said,

"Could I have some beta blockers please?"

Because I'd heard that beta blockers

stop you getting hysterical.

And the doctor went,

"No, I can't just hand out beta blockers.

"They're for people with heart conditions and, you know."

And I said,

"No, no, I'm on 'Absolutely Fabulous' later today."

And he went, "Really?"

Pulled open his drawer. "Here."

- Big improvement on the last one, isn't it?

The one he picked up in Covent Garden Piazza.

Old clown face, bad breath and sandals. Hey.

(audience laughs)

- I think when you're filming without an audience,

you're trying to nail down what you had,

whereas when you're doing it in front of an audience,

you're trying to expand

into what might be the most sort of perfect

and exuberant version.

- The lights switched off at sort of 9:30, or was it 10?

I can't remember. 10.

But we had to be out.

- At the end, we'd gone and taken our makeup off,

grabbed our bags, we'd go up to-

- The bar.

- The bar at the top, hostility,

hospitality suite at the top

where June's husband Tim would always be saying,

"That was a marvellous show."

- "What a marvellous, well done, Junie."

- And he'd always got an absolute round of drinks.

"Well done. Well done.

"That was marvellously funny."

- Yes.

- And we'd all have drinks already there.

- And he'd always say, "And June,"

and he was like, June's sort of protector

and way of getting out of anything

that June might not be happy with.

And so he was always there going,

"June, now do remember we've got a little thing."

And she would go, "Oh, Tim, don't worry."

And June would stay for all the drinks then, you know.

(Joanna laughs)

But he was just always, in case she wanted a quick getaway.

- Yeah.

- "Do remember, June, we've got a thing that we might need."

She'd be going, "No, no, Tim. No, Tim."

And I remember I was always the last one out

of the hostility suite.

Always, always carried out.

- Come on Eddie, I need a slash.

(audience laughs)

- I think the reason that people get "Ab Fab"

in my eyes wrong is the fact that they imagine

that they crave the wealth and the fancy hotels and the cars

and the richness and everything.

They hate it.

They have such disdain for it,

which is why they treat it so badly, I think.

They would be completely in awe of,

if they suddenly came across a bohemian base,

smoky basement with Serge Gainsbourg

and Jane Birkin and Bardot.

This wealth, these cars, it's all, to them it's shit.

This is nothing, because it's not absolutely cool.

It's not the cool that they would really crave.

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] In 2016, Edina and Patsy and co

became fully fledged movie stars in their own right

in "Ab Fab: The Movie,"

a project that like lots of the best ideas

began life as a drunken wager.

- I think it was a bet with Dawn that I wouldn't,

and then I said I would. (laughs)

- The movie probably does go from A to F,

whereas the sitcom goes from A to B, to A, to B, to A, to B.

You know, I mean it's a very different cup of tea.

- I missed the audience, but-

- I miss the rehearsal room.

- I think the rehearsal room is the thing I miss.

- We were never together.

There was no sense of us as a gang.

- [Jennifer] Creating it.

- I loved the film so much,

and I went to see it, I think, the night it came out

and every, it was a cinema packed full of women.

It was all women.

Everyone had Bolly or vodka,

and everyone was with their friends,

and that's exactly what it is.

It's like an ode to friendship.

And I thought the film was so wonderful.

It really talked about the fact that they are kind of,

they're the love of each other's lives.

- [Jon] So the question I have to ask is,

is there any chance that "Absolutely Fabulous" will return?

- No, no, no.

Absolutely none.

- [Jon] (laughs) Jennifer Saunders, thank you.

- My pleasure.

- [Narrator] I mean,

Jennifer also said all those "Ab Fab" scripts

would be delivered on time too,

and we all know how that went.

The "Ab Fab" movie was the last time

that Jennifer, Joanna, Jane, and Julia were all together

on screen until now.

- Oh, oh, oh, oh!

- Is it those divine feet?

- It's the divinities.

- Surprise, surprise. (laughs)

- Yay!

Oh God, what a treat, darling.

Darling, darling

- Oh sweetheart.

- Oh darling girl.

- Oh.

- When was the last time?

Ages ago, after June's memorial.

- Yes.

- Oh gosh.

- Look, look, look here.

Have you've seen these?

- Please.

- These are the old polaroids.

Bubble. That's Bubble's polaroids.

- [Julia] Oh, I remember, I actually remember that one.

- [Jennifer] That's so Bubble.

- [Jane] That was the first series, wasn't it?

- [Joanna] Was it?

- Have you seen this pot?

- Where? What?

(audience laughs)

- [Jennifer] Adorable face.

- [Julia] But I was a bit sickly there.

That was in France, wasn't it?

- That was in France. Definitely, yeah.

- I had a really poorly tummy.

- Oh, aw, such a pale little person.

- Oh, Junie.

- And now we're onto Junie.

Junie and the pilot.

And we filmed that before we'd done anything in the studio.

- And that's when Eddie came back

from some frightful rave on-

- Yes. "The Rolling who?"

- "The Rolling who?" - "Was it the Stones?

"Who was it, darling, was it Eel Pie Island?

"Is it the Beatles?"

- The Stones?

The Rolling who?

(audience laughs)

- [All] Rolling who?

(everyone laughs)

- Oh, look.

- [Jane] She looks so gorgeous, doesn't she?

- [Jennifer] Oh, Junie.

- Do you have a worse moment? Can't talk about-

- [Jennifer] No, other people.

(Julia laughs)

No, my worst moments were always, always arriving

at the rehearsal rooms. (laughs)

Do you remember the one where we're rehearsing huntin',

shootin', fishin' and I had nothing?

I was literally turning up with nothing.

- Oh yes, I do remember that.

- And I remember thinking, "What's the excuse?

"What's the excuse?"

And the excuse was my computer wouldn't work on the train,

so I couldn't write it.

And I came in with virtually nothing.

I had nothing.

- But by the end of it, we had a show.

- [Julia] Yeah.

- But it was like, it was invariably like that, wasn't it?

I mean, you know, invariably by the Wednesday

we're thinking, "Bloody hell, what we gonna do?"

- [Joanna] And then we'd get new scenes come flying in.

- Then suddenly it would all happen and come together.

- Yeah, but I mean, the paper was actually hot when,

off the printer.

It would come in warm. (laughs)

(Jennifer laughs)

- On the Wednesday.

- On the Wednesday after the tech run.

- Thank God for you, honestly.

I don't think

anyone else could've- - I got off lightly.

But you two used to get reams of dialogue

at the last minute. - In the makeup,

in makeup on the Friday night. - And were brilliant

at remembering it.

- Oh, you know, you know, you know that,

you know when Patsy says,

"Bla-de-bla-de-bla-de-bla, duh-duh-duh-duh."

Yeah, well can you say this?

And it'd be like five lines.

I'd be like (laughs)

- [Joanna] I know.

- [Jennifer] Oh God, I'm so sorry.

- [Julia] No-

- It's making me feel, argh!

- You must have come into that room

and just seen a sea of faces waiting, looking at you.

- I was saying, I had to stop outside

and get the energy and think, "Here's the energy."

And that energy had to carry to the end of the day.

Because on that first day,

you had to be the one that kept everything going

'cause otherwise it was Bob. (laughs)

- Yeah.

- Or Jon, who sometimes I remember

having to throw out of rehearsals

'cause he couldn't make his face smile.

(Julia laughs)

And we were saying, "Jon, you're gonna have to go."

'Cause he sometimes had,

and it was his thinking face, it wasn't,

he wasn't being awful.

But I'd say, "I can't.

"We can't rehearse with that face.

"You'll have to leave." (laughs)

But oh my god, the pressure.

- I mean, that is how you work, isn't it?

Which is brilliant.

And some people, you know,

have it all prepared and whatever,

and that's how you flourish.

- On the hoof. On the hoof.

- Yes.

- [Jennifer] On the hoof.

- [Julia] So sort of improvising really, weren't we?

Which was-

- Yeah, absolutely, which is lovely.

And I wish we'd just called it the improvised show,

so there won't be a script, it'll all happen that week.

'Cause that would be great, wouldn't it?

- And you wanna make sure that that pelvic floor

is kept in shape.

Oh yeah, darling, you wanna take care of down there.

- Yeah.

- Trim and tighten.

- Yeah, men like it neat and tight.

- Yeah, not swinging saloon doors.

(audience laughs)

- You two are terribly good at not ever laughing,

but you laughed once when...

(Jennifer laughs)

- Talking about the same people?

- You got bad at one point, you just got bad.

- No, when she was doing, (hisses)

- When she was doing that, oh yeah.

- Well, what were you doing?

- She was spraying.

I can't remember.

- She was like a cat spraying.

- Like a tom cat.

(audience laughs)

- You! It was her.

(audience laughs)

- I don't know. (laughs)

- But we couldn't hold it together at all.

All the way through rehearsals as well.

- [Jennifer] Oh God.

- Me and Jennifer were, we were awful together.

We had to do our scenes looking like that,

not at each other.

Which made it even worse.

- [Julia] Did you really?

- We couldn't look at each other.

- Absolutely terrible.

'Cause if I started telling her off

then she'd do that face. (laughs)

And I'd just-

- [Julia] What? Her Bubble face?

- [Jennifer] Her Bubble face.

- In fact, no, you come back here now.

I'm fed up with this attitude of yours.

(everyone laughs)

- [Narrator] Much loved the world over

for her portrayal of Edina's mother,

Dame June Whitfield died in 2018 at the grand old age of 93.

- June is a very, very sad loss.

She was a wonderful comic actress.

She absolutely knew how comedy worked.

- And do you know, darling, the real problem started,

sweetie, because I wasn't even breastfed.

- Oh, don't be ridiculous, dear.

It wasn't done in those days.

Imagine me having that clamped to my breast.

(audience laughs)

- And I always knew Junie always chose clothes for Mother

that she might just take home in her suitcase

at the end of the day.

She always did.

- Oh, do you think she did?

- Always. I know. I know that.

- I just put some champagne on the table because-

- Why not?

She was very brave, June, and very out there.

- Nothing fazed her.

Do you remember her saying, "Buggery bollocks,"

and you can, my gosh. (laughs)

- Yeah.

- June Whitfield saying that.

- Nothing ever fazed her.

Shall we raise a glass to June?

- This is to Junie.

- June. June. - To Junie.

- To June. - To Junie.

- Still with us.

- And if I may say so, to "Absolutely Fabulous."

- Yeah. (laughs)

- Oh, cheers, my loves.

(bright music)

- Saffy! Saffy!

Patsy needs changing, darling!

Darling!

- It's us now.

- [Patsy] Patsy needs changing!

(audience laughs)

- [Joanna] Oh, that's us in our underclothes.

- Look at that.

I sense, since this picture was taken,

this is now my actual body. (laughs)

That is completely what I look like now.

Isn't that weird?

- It was so funny.

We'd already walked round the BBC going, "Hello?"

Like this on the doors.

Nobody laughed at us, which made us laugh even more.

Anyway, we got in this, a coach.

I remember sitting at the front,

but dressed like this with teeth in.

And I looked out of the window while at the traffic lights,

and I looked down, there was a car,

family in a car and a man looked up like this,

and I went, "Hello."

And he said, "Oh look, it's Joanna Lumley."

(everyone laughs)

(bright music)

♪ Bum, bum, bum, bum ♪

♪ Bum, bum, bum, bum ♪

♪ Bum, bum, bum, bum, ba ♪