Ab Fab's Patsy & Edina :: 'We're Back, Sweetie Darlings!'

If you were conscious during the '90s-rather unlike our two misanthropic heroines-you had to be aware of the British phenome "Absolutely Fabulous," the long-running series featuring PR mavin Edina Monsoon and fashion tastemaker Patsy Stone.

Oozing glitz and glamour and living the high life as they drink (Bollinger, of course -- or, as they call it, "Bolly"), clubbing and drinking (and God knows what else) some more, as they flit merrily around London's trendiest hotspots.

Jennifer Saunders (Patsy) and Joanna Lumley (Edina) seemingly never tire of their two boozy, yet amazingly resilient characters and have been at it since the early '90s (though the plot origins began earlier, sans Lumley, who was, at the time, busy with a successful modeling career). Saunders and her then-comedy partner, Dawn French, successfully wrote and performed in their hit TV show, "French and Saunders," during which they came up with a sketch about a mad, "modern" mother, an ex-hippy called Adriana-as played by Saunders-and her sad, straight-laced daughter, as played by French.

Just as they were about to film the fourth season, French and her then-husband, Lenny Henry, got a long-awaited call announcing that a baby girl was ready for adoption. A new life began, another chapter at an end, with another hilarious story just on its way.

Saunder's agent Maureen Vincent approached her and asked her to consider other options for their timeslot... It was at that point she returned to the idea
of the mother Adriana, renaming her Edina "Eddy" Monsoon. "I had enjoyed writing and playing the character," she said. "I could speak her easily, which made the writing easier, indeed possible." The pilot began with the soon-to- become-typical Eddy waking with another hangover and another crisis, on the day of her big fashion show, and another guilt trip from her ever-burdened daughter, Saffy. Miraculously, she -- along with her misanthropic, ever-present and freakishly well-preserved sidekick, Patsy -- manage to turn the show into a rousing success.

From those beginnings, "Absolutely Fabulous," or "Ab Fab," was a smash success because it had something for everyone: A dysfunctional family, a die-hard friendship and a wicked, outrageous sense of fun.

"The characters in 'Ab Fab' are a cartoon version of all of us," says Saunders. "And I think, at the end of the day, people like to laugh at themselves and not take life too seriously. If I had to say why the show was a success, I would say that it was because it was a license not to have to behave." Like we needed permission...

Fast forward to 2016, after Ab Fab's three successful series from 1992 to 1995, a two-part television film in 1996 entitled "The Last Shout" (a supposed finale), two further series, three one-off specials between 2001 and 2004, then, seven years later, two further hour-long specials on Christmas Day 2011 and New Year's Day 2012, and the once again, supposedly final, "finale," which aired in 2012, coinciding with the 2012 London Summer
Olympics. Got all that?

Now, after much prodding from Lumley (who reportedly said, "You must write it, darling. Otherwise we will all be dead and we won't have made the film"), "Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie" hits theaters this July.

Saunders and Lumley sat down for a chat from their London studio, to talk about their character's final swan songs. (Though it all bears an uncanny ring to Cher's promised, yet endless, "Final Tours...")

Let's start with a really basic question, because there are some of, as Patsy and Edina might say, "The poor, silly buggers" out there who don't know about "Ab Fab." Let's start with who they both are...

Jennifer: Well, these are people who have been friends since they began. Edina, as we say, is a fashion guru, but I think it is not going to stick. Eddy instead is in PR. She thinks she's a fashion PR guru. Patsy works as an editor on a fashion magazine. They're utterly useless. They're inseparable
friends, and they walk in chaos.

Joanna: A chaos of drink and cigarettes and champagne.

Jennifer: And a few illegal substances, lots of Champagne, Bolly, of course and generally in very bad shoes.

How did you update the characters from the end of the series to the movie?

Jennifer: Well, we just get older. (Laughs) It so happens, Edina gets older and fatter, and actually Patsy doesn't change at all. She's just sort of embalmed and remains exactly the same. (Laughs)

Jennifer: Remember back in 1990, we never imagined in our wildest dreams we would still be sitting here having done a film of that show. It's quite extraordinary and we feel very, very lucky.

All the drugs, drinking and partying was really in step with the 1990s gay world. I wonder whether you were concerned at all that it wouldn't resonate with today's crowd.

Jennifer: Do you know, when I write it, I write it to amuse Joanna, really. (Laughs) I think if you wrote it with too many people, too many audiences in mind, you'd die of the pressure. I just basically write what I think will be funny, and what I wanted is if people could see this film, and not have known the series and still enjoy it, but that it would also satisfy people who knew the series extremely well.

How did this current move toward political correctness in pop culture affect your writing?

Jennifer: Quite a bit, to be honest, only because people are much more ready to be offended these days. Also, if you write a movie, you have a raft of lawyers telling you who you can offend and who you can't offend, and who's going to sue you and who won't. So, it was quite an issue, I have to say.

Can you talk about the difficulty of doing your own stunts in those fabulous frocks?

Joanna: We insisted on doing our own stunts. (Laughs) Obviously, it's a reach, from a car traveling at almost three miles an hour, to take a cigarette off a completely supine man. It was a bit challenging, but I managed it. Jennifer darling, would you like to add something about how you managed to get the scooter to go?

Jennifer: I'd never been on a scooter before and they wouldn't let me wear a helmet. I was very, very brave. It's the most exercise I've ever done. (Laughs) How about those fabulous costumes?

Jennifer: Patsy, she looks fabulous... Cool as ever. Edina, well...