Absolutely Fabulous Inside Out (2024)

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Transcript

00:00:02Oh, Alex, this is the mood board for the next edition.

00:00:05Sex, bitch, aristose.

00:00:07Oh, sex, punk, whore, bitch.

00:00:09Prozzie.

00:00:10Nezzy, punk, tar.

00:00:11Slut, slut.

00:00:12Oh, but Alex, Alex, with lovely shoes.

00:00:15Oh, yeah.

00:00:15For its millions of fans all over the world,

00:00:17Absolutely Fabulous is quite simply the greatest sitcom ever made.

00:00:21Cheers.

00:00:22For the first time in almost a decade,

00:00:24we're reuniting the cast to tell the definitive story of AbFan.

00:00:27That is so degrading to women.

00:00:28What do you mean?

00:00:29She's got the whip.

00:00:30Yeah.

00:00:31We'll hear from famous fans.

00:00:33It was a cultural phenomenon.

00:00:34It's a great family sitcom,

00:00:35and families will always go on being complicated and funny, chaotic.

00:00:40It's a la croix.

00:00:41And get all the guest star gossip.

00:00:42I remember thinking, this is a matriarchy,

00:00:44and Joan Alumni is handing out Rothmans.

00:00:47She burned me with her cigarette.

00:00:49It was definitely women behaving very badly, wasn't it?

00:00:52Bitch.

00:00:53Jennifer Saunders has opened up the AbFab archives.

00:00:57Drug-free sex rule.

00:00:58I think you need this framed in your house.

00:01:00Well, what am I supposed to do if you die?

00:01:02Get cabs!

00:01:04Jennifer and Joanna share their fondest memories of working together.

00:01:07We got her sober by about midday.

00:01:09She's just so difficult.

00:01:10We'll relive the scenes that still make the cast laugh all these years on.

00:01:14Are we keeping old corks?

00:01:16That's my favorite line.

00:01:18Yes, sir.

00:01:19Are we keeping corks?

00:01:21And reveal some outtakes that'll leave you wondering how the show ever got made at all.

00:01:25I said, what did I say?

00:01:28All the ingredients needed for a wonderfully nostalgic look back at a truly iconic sitcom,

00:01:33with a couple of delicious treats for even those who know AbFab inside out already.

00:01:37I don't know this at all.

00:01:39I still have no recollection of that episode at all.

00:01:42Was I in it?

00:01:43No, I don't know.

00:01:45I don't know what I was in it.

00:02:05I hope she's not yet.

00:02:06I don't have a picture.

00:02:09Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone first stumbled onto our screens,

00:02:12slightly the worst for wear, on the 12th of November 1992.

00:02:15It was a sitcom like no other, and AbFab immediately won a huge fan base.

00:02:21Who was thirsty for Pats and Eddie as Pats and Eddie were for Bolly?

00:02:24Comedies that make you laugh.

00:02:26There's probably, I would say, one every ten years that really makes everyone laugh.

00:02:32Forward thinking, so progressive, so inclusive, and it felt modern.

00:02:38A lot of those jokes still feel current.

00:02:40I think the fact that the whole show is from the female gaze is where its magic lies.

00:02:46Happy birthday to you.

00:02:48Happy birthday, dear Edina.

00:02:51It's 30 years ago.

00:02:53I'm going to faint with horror.

00:02:57We just had the best time.

00:02:59We had to do a bit of filming, yes, but we also just had the best time.

00:03:02Time before you go, can you help me?

00:03:04You know tomorrow I've got the PRPR person's awards dinner of the lunch month.

00:03:18But as long as you didn't need her to say PRPR person's lunch of the month, at this point,

00:03:23Jennifer's business card definitely said performer first and writer second.

00:03:26I hadn't really had much of a career before, a writing career before ABFAB.

00:03:31I'd written with Dawn, but sketches really, just sketches.

00:03:35What did the Clanky say to you?

00:03:38It's your friend, I'm a doctor.

00:03:41Jennifer and Dawn were just such inspirations for any of us.

00:03:46They produced and wrote their own stuff, and because of that, their voice was authentic.

00:03:51April 1990 was when the ABFAB story began.

00:03:54Over to French and Saunders producer and British comedy royalty, John Ploughman.

00:03:58It started with a phone call from the girl's agent, in which she told me that Dawn probably

00:04:06wasn't going to be available for the next series of French and Saunders.

00:04:09And during that time, Jennifer would be free.

00:04:13And what Jennifer was thinking of doing was writing a sitcom.

00:04:16She then said, well, it's a sitcom based on a sketch that we'd done in the previous series,

00:04:22as it were, of French and Saunders.

00:04:23That sketch was called Modern Mother and Daughter.

00:04:26Happy, it's me.

00:04:27Can I come in?

00:04:28No, Mum, I've got to do my homework.

00:04:29Oh, sweetie, honestly.

00:04:32I love the idea that ABFAB was based on a relationship that was in a sketch.

00:04:38The thing about a sitcom is it should be crystal clear what the relationship is, almost from

00:04:45the first two sentences that the characters say, and that's true of sketches as well.

00:04:50In Modern Mother and Daughter...

00:04:51I'm sorry, sweetie.

00:04:52...viewers were introduced to straight-laced Safi, played by Dawn, and her dramatic and self-involved

00:04:56mother, who at this point was named Adriana.

00:04:59Oh, Adriana needs a cuddle.

00:05:01Oh, well, hard left.

00:05:04But could this short sketch be expanded into a comedic world that would sustain five series,

00:05:09six specials, and a movie?

00:05:10Darling!

00:05:10All right!

00:05:11Spoiler alert, yes.

00:05:13Yes, it could.

00:05:14It was so unlike anything else that I wasn't sure necessarily that it would sustain, but

00:05:20I thought, if Jennifer's got faith in this, I've got faith in Jennifer, and I've got faith

00:05:25in it.

00:05:25And the sketch went on for about nine minutes, so I thought, it's only two of those, and

00:05:29you've got a sitcom.

00:05:30What am I going to do without you here?

00:05:31You're the only person who knows how to find the coffee in the morning.

00:05:34I'm hopeless at that.

00:05:35You know that, sweetie.

00:05:36Sweetie, make mum a cup of coffee.

00:05:39You're so clever, and you know where everything is, darling, don't you?

00:05:43I think it's marvellous the way you know where things are.

00:05:45And so the world of Adriana, who by now had been renamed Edina, started to take shape.

00:05:51If I think of writing Edina, I think of everything being a problem.

00:05:55Even getting up is now going to be a problem.

00:06:00And so everything is funny.

00:06:03But Edina needed someone to do all that everything with.

00:06:06Enter Patsy Stone.

00:06:08I'd seen Joanna guest hosting Terry Wogan's show when I was producing Terry Wogan's show.

00:06:17I'd also seen her in a not necessarily great play called Vanilla.

00:06:23I saw Joanna in a play called Vanilla, where she played Imelda Marcos.

00:06:27She was very good satire, and she had very short hair, and she was pretty terrible.

00:06:31But I liked doing that.

00:06:33Ruby thought it was funny and came backstage, I'd never met her, and said, you have to work with me.

00:06:36I mean, the timing was magnificent.

00:06:38I remember heaving out of the balcony, and then I went backstage like a kind of an agent.

00:06:43I was nobody, right?

00:06:44And I said, hey, you should be in a comedy.

00:06:46And she was thrilled, because her career had plummeted.

00:06:50She doesn't mind me saying that, but it was, you know, under the floorboards.

00:06:53So I put her on my show, and every year we showed her dissent.

00:06:56That was great.

00:06:59So what, do you want to do an interview or something?

00:07:00Well, just do.

00:07:01It was a sort of alternative Joanna Lumley life, where she'd gone off the rails and just rehab.

00:07:07We'd be trying to get her out and get her a job and so on.

00:07:09But I loved that.

00:07:10I just worked with her year after year, and then when Jennifer, we were talking about Ab Fab, I said,

00:07:15I have Patsy.

00:07:19This is how Patsy Stone came into my life.

00:07:21A script plopped through the door, you pick it up, you read it, it's from Jennifer Saunders, read it, thought

00:07:25it was the funniest thing in the world.

00:07:26I was invited to the BBC to meet Jennifer for the first time, and to read through a scene, so

00:07:30we could just get to know each other a little bit.

00:07:32I remember sitting to do a scene in the back of a car.

00:07:35You're going straight to the office?

00:07:36Yes.

00:07:37Past Harvey Nicks?

00:07:38No, Pats.

00:07:39But as there was no description as to who or what Patsy was like, I didn't know.

00:07:44And as Jennifer was not at her most communicative in those days, gave me no hint, except look sadder and

00:07:51crosser at almost every word I uttered, I thought, this is a dead loss.

00:07:55We didn't know each other.

00:07:56I mean, it's hard, isn't it?

00:07:57I didn't quite know what you wanted.

00:07:59And I didn't quite know what I wanted.

00:08:00Well, you didn't quite tell me.

00:08:01No, I didn't know.

00:08:02I rang my agent and I said, look, I don't think Jennifer wants me, but she's too polite to say

00:08:06anything.

00:08:07Do you think you can get me out of this?

00:08:09And my agent said, no, it's a pilot.

00:08:10Just do it.

00:08:11Might not take off.

00:08:14I nearly wasn't Patsy.

00:08:17She inhaled our kitchen.

00:08:23I just nodded off.

00:08:26Then it came to casting Safi, the straight-laced daughter, played to perfection by Dawn in the original sketch.

00:08:31We saw a lot of people.

00:08:32Jane Horrocks came in to read for the daughter.

00:08:35We had a lot of really lovely people came in.

00:08:37I did the film Life is Sweet that Mike Lee directed and Jennifer saw that and I think that's why

00:08:43I got the audition.

00:08:44But when she saw me in real life, she can't play my daughter.

00:08:48She's far too old.

00:08:49Jane wasn't right, but I thought she's just too good not to have it something.

00:08:54So I made Bubble for Jane.

00:08:57Bubble was Adina's PA, a very useless PA.

00:09:02Bubble, did all the models turn up?

00:09:04Yeah, every single one.

00:09:05Good, good.

00:09:06Except one.

00:09:09Except one.

00:09:10You're not going to tell me it's Yasmin Le Bon, darling.

00:09:13No.

00:09:13Thank God.

00:09:14Oh, no, sorry, yeah.

00:09:16Yasmin Le Bon's Hill.

00:09:17Originally, she was going to be posh, but then we met Jane.

00:09:21Bubble became just more and more eccentric.

00:09:23She will show no mercy in the defecation of your character.

00:09:28Who'd have thought Jane Horrocks was this completely brilliant airhead when she's obviously deeply intelligent and serious actress.

00:09:35I love the fact that she played so against type.

00:09:38Where's the computer?

00:09:39Computer?

00:09:40I told her to buy a laptop.

00:09:42A lap-top?

00:09:43Top?

00:09:44Top?

00:09:47But I do play a good thicket.

00:09:51Get rid of it.

00:09:52I've grown so fond and it's so cute.

00:09:55And it's not just for life.

00:09:57It's for Christmas.

00:10:00I think Bubble went through a different kind of metamorphosis.

00:10:03She started off being quite like me.

00:10:06And then she was sort of my niece, who was about five at the time.

00:10:10And then she became a snob.

00:10:12And she went, oh, oh, this beautiful thing.

00:10:15Gucci is like being down the market.

00:10:17It's a nightmare in Gucci and Prada.

00:10:20And, yeah, it was a dream role.

00:10:22With Jane Custer's Bubble, the ABFAB team was still looking for the right person to play Safi until they met

00:10:29Julia Sawala.

00:10:29I remember getting the script, which was unusual.

00:10:33Not the whole script, just my pages.

00:10:35And I thought, God, that's a lot.

00:10:38And I thought, oh, no, it's Jennifer Saunders, you know, just one of my heroines.

00:10:44I remember reading a scene with her and not being able to look at her.

00:10:47It was the speech out of the pilot, the long speech in the first episode.

00:10:52I had to do that speech.

00:10:53Why is today such a panic anyway?

00:10:55It's only a fashion show and you've had six months to prepare it.

00:10:59I mean, why is everything always so hysterical?

00:11:01I mean, all you've got to do is play a bit of music, turn on the lights,

00:11:05get some people who've thrown up everything they've ever eaten

00:11:07and send them down a cow.

00:11:08She was so serious and she just got it.

00:11:13And I thought, oh, my God, that's exactly what we need.

00:11:16And she completely had the right effect on Edina,

00:11:20which is to make her just seem silly.

00:11:23Who was it you were in a previous life?

00:11:25I suppose you were the Elizabeth Taylor of the Ming Dynasty.

00:11:28Well, close, yes.

00:11:30So how come you've ended up just a mad fat old cow?

00:11:33But Safi did have one ally in the monsoon household.

00:11:36Edina's mother, who was called, well, Mother.

00:11:39Exquisitely portrayed, of course, by the late Dane June Whitfield.

00:11:45Grandad always put his false teeth in the turkey's bottom

00:11:50to make it look as if it was smiling.

00:12:00It's Princess Anne, he used to say.

00:12:03That's absolutely insane.

00:12:07Oh, June.

00:12:08Oh, she was just fabulous.

00:12:11She gave Mother such a madness.

00:12:13Did you think of her at once when you thought of Mother?

00:12:15I think so, because of growing up with Terry and June

00:12:18and everything else that she'd done.

00:12:20I thought she'd be incredible.

00:12:22I say I remember those trousers.

00:12:24No, you don't.

00:12:26Still hang on to those.

00:12:28Mind you, I'm surprised you can still get into them.

00:12:32It was rather like trying to get toothpaste back into the tube.

00:12:36She would find pauses, and then she'd drop the line, you know,

00:12:40and I thought, I kind of got into that.

00:12:42I thought, well, that's fantastic.

00:12:44The 70s are back.

00:12:46Oh, does that mean you'll be voting Labour again?

00:12:48Yes.

00:12:49So, with the cast assembled,

00:12:50the ABFAB pilot was recorded in the autumn of 1991,

00:12:54but not everyone at the BBC was ready

00:12:56for such brazenly female-fronted fun.

00:12:58Given that the corporation back then was basically 99.8% men,

00:13:02it's perhaps unsurprising that there were one or two of them

00:13:04who didn't quite get the joke.

00:13:06So, we do the dress rehearsal for the pilot in the afternoon.

00:13:09It's going to happen in front of an audience in the evening.

00:13:13In the afternoon, we do the pilot,

00:13:15and I see Robin Nash, who was the then head of comedy,

00:13:19and I said, what do you think?

00:13:21And he said, I've never found women being drunk very funny.

00:13:28I apologise now.

00:13:30I've never, never found drunk women funny.

00:13:33That's just take the drunk away from that sentence.

00:13:39Not left.

00:13:40And I thought, well, that's it.

00:13:42It's over.

00:13:43I remember also a Times television review

00:13:47when the first episode came out,

00:13:48and it was, sorry, no, this is not going to work,

00:13:52and it's not funny, and drunk women aren't funny, goodbye.

00:13:54This is the end of that show.

00:13:55And I remember it also said, beware of the sitcom

00:13:57where the writer takes the main part.

00:14:00And I thought, oh.

00:14:04But we did it in the evening.

00:14:06The audience were wonderful,

00:14:08and my blinding memory is at the end of it,

00:14:11I saw Ben Elton, and Ben Elton said,

00:14:13well, I've seen the future comedy,

00:14:15and it's that.

00:14:18Pat!

00:14:18Oh, hello, Eddie.

00:14:20Beautiful, they're out there.

00:14:21The sun's so bright, it's almost blinding,

00:14:23like shards of glass piercing the clouds.

00:14:27Oh, every second of my journey here

00:14:29is just blazing down my memory.

00:14:30Life is fantastic.

00:14:32Champagne?

00:14:33Oh, yeah, I think so.

00:14:37Powering the engine that drives AbFab

00:14:39are the twin pistons of Adina and Patsy.

00:14:41It's ultimately their relationship

00:14:43that keeps fans coming back for more.

00:14:45I wasn't unconscious for long, was I?

00:14:47Came around really quickly,

00:14:47I was really proud of you.

00:14:49Honestly, I've never remembered

00:14:50her laughing so, so hard.

00:14:53Yeah.

00:14:53And it must have been so annoying

00:14:54for other people, too,

00:14:55because we just would find

00:14:57everything they did funny.

00:14:59It may be stretched to the limit

00:15:00at the moment, darling,

00:15:01but at any moment,

00:15:02and when he least expects it,

00:15:03it will...

00:15:04I forgot the word.

00:15:06One of the amazing things

00:15:08about AbFab

00:15:09is the size

00:15:11of the characterisations

00:15:14and yet the realism of them.

00:15:16That's one of the things

00:15:16that sitcom can do.

00:15:18You think, oh, my God,

00:15:19that's definitely a real person.

00:15:22Adina Monsoon is up there

00:15:23with Basil Fawlty and Edmund Blackadder

00:15:25as one of the most iconic

00:15:27comedy creations.

00:15:27But what inspired

00:15:28the character of Eddie?

00:15:30Who is she?

00:15:31She's a massive mixture of people

00:15:33and Rebecca Hale,

00:15:35who's a costume designer,

00:15:36used to tell us stories

00:15:37because she had quite

00:15:38an eccentric, wonderful mother,

00:15:40always off doing something,

00:15:42you know,

00:15:43suddenly coming out

00:15:44on a balcony

00:15:44when they're on a holiday,

00:15:45stark naked and going,

00:15:46darlings, look at the sunset.

00:15:47I remember me and Dawn thinking

00:15:49that's a cracker of a character.

00:15:51Then when I was an au pair

00:15:53in Italy

00:15:54for someone called

00:15:55Adriana Ivancic,

00:15:56who was eccentric,

00:15:58eccentric and wonderful

00:15:59and marvellous

00:16:00and always did wonderful,

00:16:01crazy, crazy things.

00:16:02The same woman

00:16:04had been

00:16:05Ernest Hemingway's

00:16:07muse.

00:16:08And I think I sort of

00:16:09got to love

00:16:09these eccentric,

00:16:11big characters.

00:16:12It's extraordinary

00:16:13to imagine

00:16:14that the woman

00:16:14who inspired

00:16:15Across the River

00:16:16and Into the Trees

00:16:17was the same woman

00:16:18who inspired

00:16:19Adina Monsoon

00:16:20in a successful sitcom.

00:16:23Then we met

00:16:23Lynne Franks,

00:16:24who did PR,

00:16:25and I thought,

00:16:26oh, this is a world.

00:16:27This is a world PR.

00:16:28Let me say,

00:16:28Ab Fab is not based

00:16:29on Lynne Franks,

00:16:30but there was an incident

00:16:31that kind of

00:16:32started the whole thing.

00:16:33Anyway,

00:16:34I was at the airport

00:16:35and she said,

00:16:36would I like a lift home?

00:16:37So she's in her Jaguar

00:16:38and she's yelling,

00:16:39what words can you say

00:16:40these days?

00:16:41Okay,

00:16:42fucking cunt,

00:16:43tell her she's got

00:16:44to get off that

00:16:44fucking runway

00:16:45or I'll fucking

00:16:45slit her throat.

00:16:46And then she held

00:16:47the phone and went,

00:16:47tell that bitch,

00:16:50tell that bitch

00:16:51she'll never work again.

00:16:52I'm going to tear

00:16:52her face off.

00:16:53Do you understand me?

00:16:54She's a bitch.

00:16:56So I had to call

00:16:58Jennifer right away

00:16:58and say,

00:16:59you've got to use this.

00:17:00It was a mixture

00:17:01and then Adina

00:17:02became probably

00:17:03more me

00:17:03than anything else

00:17:04and everything

00:17:05you want to moan about

00:17:06or complain about,

00:17:07everything you can't do,

00:17:08Adina can do.

00:17:09I'm going to do this.

00:17:10I love the way

00:17:11Adina kept a Buddha

00:17:12in the lavatory

00:17:12near the front door.

00:17:17I said,

00:17:18do you do that

00:17:18every day

00:17:19and you went,

00:17:19yeah,

00:17:19almost religiously

00:17:20darling,

00:17:20yeah.

00:17:24Try this.

00:17:28You're only sending them up

00:17:29to show how

00:17:30Adina would flip

00:17:31from one to the other,

00:17:32one to the other.

00:17:33She would go

00:17:34ching, ching, ching, ching,

00:17:35ching, that's my Buddhist thing,

00:17:36da, da, da, da, da,

00:17:37oh, isolation tank,

00:17:38done that.

00:17:38She would just flip

00:17:39thinking it was doing her good

00:17:40whereas in fact

00:17:41the big problem

00:17:42was never going to be solved.

00:17:43Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

00:17:46Do you want a little bit of joy?

00:17:49She's all surface

00:17:50and quite a lot of surface at that.

00:17:52Still, it doesn't really matter

00:17:53to sit down

00:17:54because, you know,

00:17:55fat or thin

00:17:56you still love me,

00:17:57don't you?

00:18:00Patsy just floated

00:18:01into her life

00:18:02and was the excuse

00:18:02for all the bad behaviour.

00:18:04The excuse

00:18:04for the bad behaviour

00:18:05was the fact

00:18:06that they were together

00:18:07and they could egg each other

00:18:08on to do anything.

00:18:09I mean, look,

00:18:09we've only been here an hour

00:18:10and already Patsy's got some stuff.

00:18:12No, actually,

00:18:12I brought these with me, Eddie.

00:18:14Oh.

00:18:15The character of Patsy

00:18:16was inspired in part

00:18:17by someone you might

00:18:18just recognise

00:18:19from other episodes

00:18:20of AppFab.

00:18:21I think initially

00:18:23she was based

00:18:24a little bit

00:18:24on my friend

00:18:25Harriet Thorpe

00:18:26who went on

00:18:27to play Fleur.

00:18:28Skin is in.

00:18:30Oh, of course,

00:18:31the usual.

00:18:32Try to look more beautiful

00:18:33if you want to have more sex.

00:18:34Harriet has a great way

00:18:36of supporting you

00:18:37even in your worst habits

00:18:38or anything.

00:18:39If anything's gone wrong,

00:18:40like if I was writing

00:18:42and hadn't written something

00:18:44and the office

00:18:45would be on to me

00:18:46going,

00:18:46oh,

00:18:46when are we going to have this

00:18:47and could we have it

00:18:48and we can't make the show

00:18:49unless we have a script?

00:18:50I mean,

00:18:51ridiculous things like that.

00:18:53I'd ring Harriet

00:18:53and she'd go,

00:18:54darling,

00:18:55darling,

00:18:55don't listen to darling,

00:18:56darling,

00:18:57you're the one,

00:18:57you're writing this,

00:18:59they know.

00:18:59Have you ever not done it,

00:19:01darling?

00:19:01No.

00:19:01Well,

00:19:02then tell them to fuck off.

00:19:03Honestly,

00:19:03tell them to fuck off.

00:19:04It'll all be fine.

00:19:05It'll all be fine.

00:19:06Just you doing it,

00:19:07darling,

00:19:07you're the talent,

00:19:08you're the one.

00:19:09Now,

00:19:09come on,

00:19:09let's go and have a drink.

00:19:10And so that was always Harriet.

00:19:12It was hilarious.

00:19:13And I thought initially

00:19:14that was quite a good role

00:19:16for Adina's friend.

00:19:17But darling,

00:19:18remember,

00:19:18it's your company,

00:19:19you're the boss,

00:19:20you can do what you want,

00:19:21don't let them pressure you.

00:19:22And also,

00:19:23I thought she'd be

00:19:24a Daily Mail journalist

00:19:25or something like that.

00:19:25I had her down as a sort of,

00:19:27what we used to describe,

00:19:28gutter press.

00:19:29Sometimes when you're

00:19:30auditioning for a sitcom,

00:19:31someone comes in

00:19:32who's not exactly

00:19:33what you've written

00:19:34and you think,

00:19:35oh,

00:19:35they're actually going to be funnier

00:19:37but I'm going to have to write it

00:19:38a little bit different

00:19:39from what I had in mind.

00:19:40Joanna came with this idea

00:19:43from friends of hers

00:19:44and her own experience of modelling.

00:19:45I thought,

00:19:46oh no,

00:19:47this has got to be a magazine.

00:19:47It says,

00:19:48hi,

00:19:48you can't have Joanna Lumley

00:19:49and not have her look extraordinary

00:19:51but she's also a lowlife.

00:19:52One snap of my fingers

00:19:53and I can raise hemlines so high

00:19:55that the world is a gynaecologist.

00:19:57What relief it must have been

00:19:58for Joanna Lumley

00:19:59who was,

00:19:59you know,

00:20:00so,

00:20:01who is so beautiful,

00:20:02had been the beautiful one

00:20:04since the 60s

00:20:05and here she got to be

00:20:06a grotesque.

00:20:08Unfortunately,

00:20:09because I'd been a model,

00:20:10I was always cast as

00:20:10pretty girlfriend

00:20:11or sort of sad victim

00:20:13or somebody just sort of

00:20:14not funny.

00:20:15Ready?

00:20:16And turn!

00:20:18So the idea that Patsy

00:20:19had probably had

00:20:20most of her organs removed

00:20:21and she smoked a lot

00:20:22and she'd drunk a lot

00:20:23and she hung out

00:20:23with the stones

00:20:24and so,

00:20:24although she speaks

00:20:25pretty much all right

00:20:26most of the time,

00:20:27sometimes she goes back

00:20:27with that

00:20:28because she remembers

00:20:29Mick once.

00:20:30Well,

00:20:30I don't think she does

00:20:31but anyway,

00:20:31she imagines

00:20:32she knew Mick.

00:20:33Eddie,

00:20:33remember that weekend

00:20:34with Mick and the boys?

00:20:35Whoa,

00:20:36eh?

00:20:38Patsy's sort of not really

00:20:39there a lot of the time.

00:20:41She's smoked

00:20:41and done so much stuff

00:20:43she doesn't got much

00:20:44going on anywhere.

00:20:44She looks fab

00:20:47and waits for Eddie

00:20:48to do things

00:20:49and she'll be there too.

00:20:50I mean,

00:20:51why not just have

00:20:52a stupidity tax?

00:20:53Just tax the stupid people!

00:20:55Die!

00:20:56Let them die!

00:20:58Let them die!

00:21:00Hear, hear!

00:21:03What I love is

00:21:04that Patsy has no idea

00:21:07why they're there

00:21:08and is she not

00:21:09what's happening at all.

00:21:11She had quite a slim grasp

00:21:12of anything going on,

00:21:13didn't she?

00:21:14But if she's around

00:21:14with you,

00:21:15you'd just let them die.

00:21:18As a bit of Patsy

00:21:20and every woman,

00:21:21you watch her

00:21:22and you go,

00:21:23I wish I had

00:21:24the ovaries to do that.

00:21:26She likes me

00:21:27because I eat all the food.

00:21:28I like her

00:21:29because she eats nothing.

00:21:30They egg each other on

00:21:31to do things

00:21:31which they wouldn't do

00:21:32on their own.

00:21:33Yeah.

00:21:34They do stuff together.

00:21:35You need some fun, darling.

00:21:36Let's do something.

00:21:37Let's go to Harvey Nicks

00:21:39and have lunch at Noble.

00:21:40Oh, yeah,

00:21:40we haven't done that for long.

00:21:41All right, darling,

00:21:42I'll clear my desk.

00:21:42Mum,

00:21:43you've got a life, haven't I?

00:21:45I mean, work

00:21:45should just be

00:21:46the little side salad.

00:21:48I have so many

00:21:50favourite moments.

00:21:51Patsy eating.

00:21:52The crisps came around

00:21:53and Patsy said,

00:21:54yeah, I'll have one of those.

00:21:55Everyone went quiet.

00:21:56I am feeling

00:21:57a little peckish.

00:22:02And we were this close

00:22:03to you

00:22:04in the shot.

00:22:05I think there was Julia

00:22:06and me

00:22:07and you

00:22:08in the middle

00:22:08eating a crisp

00:22:09and we laughed

00:22:10so hard

00:22:11that you'll notice

00:22:12by the actual take

00:22:13we are not in the shot

00:22:14at all.

00:22:27Delicious.

00:22:29The one where she goes

00:22:30you know,

00:22:32I mean,

00:22:33in rehearsals

00:22:34we couldn't get through it

00:22:35and she said

00:22:35in rehearsals,

00:22:36I'm not going to do it.

00:22:37I'm going to do it

00:22:38on the night

00:22:38and we just collapsed.

00:22:40I remember the time

00:22:41that Patsy

00:22:42had to sleep

00:22:43in my bedroom

00:22:44but you made a bed

00:22:45like a dog

00:22:46at the end of the bed.

00:22:48I had to go round and round.

00:22:49I had to go round and round.

00:22:50I can remember us

00:22:52in Val d'Isere.

00:22:54Ready?

00:22:55Ready now?

00:22:59She got stuck on a ski lift

00:23:01didn't dare get off

00:23:01so she just went round

00:23:02all night.

00:23:04Hey, I'm going round again.

00:23:05A trip to the slopes

00:23:07wasn't Patsy and Eddy's

00:23:08only effort

00:23:09to rack up the air miles.

00:23:10I hate France!

00:23:12I hate it!

00:23:13There was the

00:23:13not entirely easy

00:23:14to find chateau in France.

00:23:16Stayed in the Gite

00:23:17instead of the chateau.

00:23:18And the old man

00:23:19who had the keys

00:23:20to the chateau

00:23:21kept trying to

00:23:22knock on the door

00:23:22and give them to me.

00:23:23What are you doing here?

00:23:25The chateau

00:23:26is 400 metres.

00:23:28But he looked

00:23:29quite revolting

00:23:29and didn't have teeth

00:23:30so we just went

00:23:33What I like

00:23:34is when they

00:23:34have to adapt

00:23:35to real life.

00:23:36It's spidery walls

00:23:37and mouse droppings

00:23:38and having to go

00:23:39into the village

00:23:40for a baguette.

00:23:41I've got a croat!

00:23:42I've got a croat!

00:23:43I've got a croat!

00:23:45No, don't kill it,

00:23:46darling, I'm a Buddhist.

00:23:46I could come back

00:23:47as one of those.

00:23:48To see them doing that

00:23:49I thought was

00:23:50quite funny.

00:23:52Safi came with them

00:23:53to Morocco

00:23:53and almost didn't

00:23:54come home again.

00:23:55It's a massive square

00:23:56where you have

00:23:57all the snake charmers

00:23:58all the stalls

00:23:59selling all the trinkets

00:24:01and it leads off

00:24:02into all the souks.

00:24:03There we are

00:24:04in the market

00:24:04I'm wrongly, wrongly dressed

00:24:06in the tiniest

00:24:07skimpiest thing

00:24:08in high heels.

00:24:09It's honestly shocking.

00:24:11I wish you'd

00:24:11cover yourself up, mum.

00:24:12Darling, these people

00:24:13don't mind.

00:24:14With a Vivian Westwood

00:24:15awful, we look like

00:24:16children of the horse

00:24:17as a sex.

00:24:18We look all wrong

00:24:19for Morocco.

00:24:20Quite an odd threesome

00:24:21really.

00:24:22Oh!

00:24:23Mum, mum, mum,

00:24:24pinch me!

00:24:25Simon, don't worry

00:24:26he's obviously

00:24:27very old

00:24:27and completely blind.

00:24:29And by the end

00:24:29of it, of course,

00:24:30we haven't got Safi

00:24:31because we've sold her

00:24:32Patsy's sold her

00:24:32halfway through

00:24:33and pulled out

00:24:34a wad of money

00:24:34which is good

00:24:35because she got rid

00:24:35of Safi.

00:24:36Saf!

00:24:36What's the question

00:24:36coming up?

00:24:40Then afterwards

00:24:41we went and did

00:24:42a bit of shopping.

00:24:43It was all quite

00:24:44Idina and Patsy

00:24:45and Safi actually

00:24:46but in our normal clothes.

00:24:49But I know

00:24:49Jennifer bought

00:24:50a lot of rugs.

00:24:53And then there was

00:24:55Idina and Patsy's

00:24:56memorable reunion

00:24:56amongst the New York

00:24:58skyscrapers.

00:25:00How did we get

00:25:01to do this?

00:25:02How did I ever get

00:25:03to stand near the edge?

00:25:03That is iconic.

00:25:05That is iconic.

00:25:07No, no, that's her.

00:25:08There, there, there.

00:25:09I knew she was.

00:25:10And what's weird is

00:25:11you wouldn't know

00:25:12that's me

00:25:13because it's so far away

00:25:13but that is me.

00:25:14I can see it.

00:25:23I was so scared.

00:25:25Come on, I'll meet you

00:25:26down there.

00:25:27Don't get me from here.

00:25:27I can't find a fair.

00:25:29Look at me

00:25:29holding on

00:25:30for dear fucking life.

00:25:32Look at me.

00:25:32I'm standing on the edge

00:25:33of a 67th floor building

00:25:34and it comes right out.

00:25:36Oh my.

00:25:36The fear.

00:25:37Well, that was one

00:25:38of the fearful days

00:25:39of our lives.

00:25:40Fearful days of our lives.

00:25:41I was shitting it.

00:25:43Shitting it.

00:25:44That last shot,

00:25:45I have to say,

00:25:46is worth it

00:25:46which pulls out from you.

00:25:48It was amazing

00:25:49what we got to do

00:25:50and it's just a little comedy

00:25:52and I loved it.

00:25:53Help, Molly, darling!

00:25:56It's all right.

00:25:57It's all right, Dad.

00:25:57Just a minute.

00:25:58Just a minute.

00:26:06The misadventures

00:26:07of Pats and Eddie

00:26:07were a big part

00:26:08of why audiences

00:26:09so loved AntFab

00:26:11but at its heart

00:26:12it was a sitcom

00:26:12about a family

00:26:13albeit a slightly unique one.

00:26:15The programme, weirdly,

00:26:17was about Edina and Safi.

00:26:19That was the kind of basis

00:26:20of the whole thing.

00:26:21Safi was the proper

00:26:22inhabitant of the house

00:26:23and this succubus came in.

00:26:25She was like ivy

00:26:27or something, you know,

00:26:28or those insects

00:26:29which live off you.

00:26:30Safi, you're going to have

00:26:30to help me, darling.

00:26:32I think Rigor has set in.

00:26:34Oh, for God's sake.

00:26:47What you often need

00:26:49when you're dealing

00:26:49with characters

00:26:50who are both very funny

00:26:51but also kind of

00:26:52morally irreprehensible,

00:26:53you kind of need

00:26:54permission to laugh.

00:26:56When I heard that Ed's

00:26:57was pregnant

00:26:57I told her to abort.

00:26:58Abort, abort, abort.

00:27:00Chug it down the pan.

00:27:02Bring me...

00:27:02A knitting needle.

00:27:03A knitting needle.

00:27:04Oh!

00:27:07I can't remember

00:27:10being terrified

00:27:10of saying that line

00:27:11about knitting needle

00:27:12and everything.

00:27:12I said,

00:27:13do I have to say that?

00:27:13You said,

00:27:14yes, you do.

00:27:14Quite hard.

00:27:15But I remember

00:27:16with lines like that

00:27:18the marker was

00:27:19whether Julia

00:27:20thought it was

00:27:20or whether she thought

00:27:22Safi would find

00:27:23that offensive

00:27:23and she said,

00:27:24no, no, no,

00:27:25that's fine

00:27:25because it doesn't

00:27:27affect her at all.

00:27:28Patsy hated me

00:27:29and it's a horribly

00:27:31toxic,

00:27:32dysfunctional scenario

00:27:33that the three of them

00:27:35are in

00:27:36but yet they feed

00:27:38off each other.

00:27:39I mean,

00:27:39she's the one

00:27:39who ruined your figure

00:27:40in the first place.

00:27:40She's the one

00:27:41who turned you

00:27:41into this potato

00:27:43that we see before.

00:27:45I particularly love

00:27:46the scene

00:27:47where Safi snaps.

00:27:49She says,

00:27:50I'm not going

00:27:51to take it anymore.

00:27:52Sight reading here.

00:27:54Without my glasses.

00:27:56This is not

00:27:57how it's going

00:27:58to be anymore,

00:27:58Mum.

00:27:59I'm not going

00:27:59to be here

00:28:00just to put you

00:28:00to bed,

00:28:01to feed you,

00:28:02stub out your joints,

00:28:03clear up the sick,

00:28:04lie for you,

00:28:05disapprove of you

00:28:06and not just you,

00:28:07you as well,

00:28:08you cesspit from hell.

00:28:11Snooking bag of bones

00:28:12that hauls this house

00:28:13every day

00:28:14like a mouldering cadaver,

00:28:15leeching the lifeblood

00:28:16out of everything

00:28:17it can get

00:28:18its suckers onto.

00:28:18I'm fed up

00:28:19of being suckered.

00:28:20I will not

00:28:20take this anymore.

00:28:21This is not

00:28:22how it's going to be.

00:28:23I love that scene.

00:28:24Julia does it

00:28:25so wonderfully.

00:28:27That was really shit.

00:28:28Don't put that in.

00:28:30I think one of the things

00:28:30about sitcoms

00:28:31is that you can

00:28:32make people suffer

00:28:34because you know

00:28:35there are no consequences.

00:28:36You know,

00:28:37you know that

00:28:37Safi's, you know,

00:28:38still going to be there.

00:28:39There's no plot

00:28:40that's going to mean

00:28:41that she,

00:28:42you know,

00:28:43ends up having

00:28:44a heroin habit.

00:28:46She was so horrible

00:28:47to Patsy sometimes.

00:28:48But she did do

00:28:49a little test.

00:28:50Patsy had got some

00:28:52from the National Health

00:28:53to say you've got

00:28:53to check yourself.

00:28:54Patsy literally

00:28:55didn't know

00:28:55what she was talking about

00:28:56and had reluctantly

00:28:57to ask Safi.

00:28:58That's my favourite.

00:28:59And Safi went,

00:28:59oh God,

00:29:00how revolting,

00:29:00I've got to test you

00:29:01or check your breasts.

00:29:03Tit check.

00:29:03Tit test.

00:29:04Tit test.

00:29:06I've got to do

00:29:07a tit test.

00:29:08Do you feel anything?

00:29:10Oh, what's that?

00:29:12Oh, sorry.

00:29:15Mother,

00:29:16going past

00:29:16pilfering,

00:29:17pilfering stuff

00:29:18from around the house,

00:29:19peeped in through the door

00:29:19and saw what she thought

00:29:20was the beginning

00:29:21of something

00:29:21grotesquely girly happening.

00:29:23Well,

00:29:23I don't think

00:29:24there's any rain on the way.

00:29:30And went,

00:29:31whoop, whoop,

00:29:31tipped it away again.

00:29:33And dear Safi

00:29:34was so,

00:29:34so revolted by her,

00:29:36but sort of,

00:29:36you know,

00:29:37you've got to go.

00:29:37Because she's ultimately

00:29:38a good person.

00:29:39She was a good person.

00:29:40And the other thing,

00:29:42the smear,

00:29:43is that a doctor thing

00:29:44or?

00:29:45Doctor.

00:29:48I'm always surprised

00:29:49that people think

00:29:50that Safi is weak

00:29:51because she's

00:29:52very, very tough.

00:29:54Oh,

00:29:54what's this?

00:29:55Be careful,

00:29:56This is a new kitchen.

00:29:57Safi wasn't the only person

00:29:59in the monsoon household

00:30:00forced to endure

00:30:01a mad parent.

00:30:02Eddie's relationship

00:30:02with mother

00:30:03was only very slightly

00:30:04less dysfunctional.

00:30:05You used to have

00:30:06one of these

00:30:07when you were a girl.

00:30:08I was never allowed on it.

00:30:10You're too big for it.

00:30:11You wobbled.

00:30:12There was a sort of

00:30:13old lady that

00:30:14that I knew

00:30:15that was a sort of

00:30:16similar person

00:30:18that somebody else

00:30:19I know,

00:30:19they referred to her

00:30:20as the malevolent cabbage.

00:30:23And I think

00:30:23that that is a,

00:30:24it's a type

00:30:24that we all know.

00:30:26And that is what

00:30:27mother is.

00:30:27She's the malevolent cabbage.

00:30:28She sits there

00:30:29and she's quiet

00:30:30and she looks

00:30:30a bit sort of

00:30:31soft and frilly.

00:30:32And then she'll kill you.

00:30:34She'll just kill you.

00:30:35I mean,

00:30:35what you two

00:30:36don't seem to realise

00:30:36is that inside of me,

00:30:38inside of me,

00:30:39there is a thin person

00:30:40just screaming

00:30:41to get out.

00:30:42Just the one, dear.

00:30:47No, you see,

00:30:47that's the perfect

00:30:49she would've got

00:30:49down to one line

00:30:50a scene.

00:30:51Yeah.

00:30:52But it's the killer line.

00:30:53Just the one, dear.

00:30:54That's perfection.

00:30:55You just threw that away.

00:30:57You didn't even look at her.

00:30:58You just went,

00:30:58have it.

00:31:00Master.

00:31:01Mistress.

00:31:02A beautiful foil,

00:31:03you know what I mean?

00:31:04Yeah.

00:31:04A beautiful person

00:31:04for your kind of

00:31:05rawl-lack street.

00:31:06Yeah, my showing off-ness.

00:31:08Well, yes.

00:31:08Yeah.

00:31:09Overacting.

00:31:10Yeah.

00:31:11I shall rise like

00:31:11Phoenix from the ashes

00:31:13with Twiggy.

00:31:14Oh, dear.

00:31:15Claudia, you're here.

00:31:17Twiggy?

00:31:18A remarkable feature

00:31:19of AbFab

00:31:19was the sheer number

00:31:20of guest stars

00:31:21who queued up

00:31:22to join in

00:31:23the overacting too.

00:31:24You've done for me.

00:31:26You've done nothing for me.

00:31:27What was it?

00:31:28Fisting.

00:31:28Fist across America.

00:31:30Do you cry?

00:31:30Oh, don't stop.

00:31:32Do this, do that.

00:31:33Be good.

00:31:34Be safe.

00:31:34Don't be naughty.

00:31:37From Ziggaziga

00:31:38to House Proud,

00:31:39House Proud.

00:31:40Look at you.

00:31:41Emma was a really good sport

00:31:43because she really was

00:31:44the butt of the jog

00:31:45a lot of the time.

00:31:47And as was Twiggy,

00:31:48as was Lulu.

00:31:50Don't be shy.

00:31:51I bet you've got

00:31:52a lovely voice

00:31:53when you try.

00:31:56Wait.

00:31:57Stop, stop.

00:31:58I think it always

00:32:00becomes the mark

00:32:01of a,

00:32:01I think we've got it right

00:32:03when you've got

00:32:03superstars lining up

00:32:05for a cameo.

00:32:06Do you want

00:32:06to press the lotto button?

00:32:08Oh, no.

00:32:09Celebrity millionaire?

00:32:11No.

00:32:12Celebrity weakest link?

00:32:13No.

00:32:14Celebrity fat farm?

00:32:16Celebrity rehab?

00:32:17Celebrity junk search?

00:32:18Celebrity wannabe?

00:32:19Celebrity celebrity

00:32:19celebrity celebrity

00:32:22She's just brilliant.

00:32:24Celebrity, celebrity,

00:32:25celebrity.

00:32:25I was like,

00:32:26it's really hard as well

00:32:27to not laugh.

00:32:29Celebrity or die

00:32:30with Donna Ayr.

00:32:31No, no, no.

00:32:32Nothing with celebrity in it.

00:32:34Well, you're limiting

00:32:35yourself, frankly.

00:32:36Oh, so Emma Bunton

00:32:38came in because

00:32:39we needed Eddie

00:32:40to have another client.

00:32:42She only had Lulu.

00:32:43Do you remember

00:32:44Lulu and Queen Noor?

00:32:45Queen Noor.

00:32:46Did I ever tell you

00:32:47the Queen Noor story?

00:32:48No.

00:32:48I was in the design museum

00:32:49doing something

00:32:50that was a great tribute

00:32:51to Stanley Kubrick

00:32:51and the great and good

00:32:53were all there.

00:32:53We all sat down

00:32:54at quite narrow tables

00:32:55in that place to eat

00:32:56and I was sitting

00:32:57opposite Benedict Cumberbatch

00:32:58who was sitting next door

00:32:59to an attractive woman

00:33:00who leant forward to me

00:33:01with her beautiful hair

00:33:01and she said,

00:33:02hello, Joanna.

00:33:03And I said,

00:33:04hello?

00:33:04And she said,

00:33:05I'm Queen Noor of Jordan.

00:33:06No, she exists.

00:33:07And I said,

00:33:08hello, hello, hello.

00:33:09She said,

00:33:10the kudos I have now

00:33:12in my family

00:33:12is my children

00:33:13since your programme came out.

00:33:15Thank you very much.

00:33:16I said,

00:33:16I'll pass that on to Jennifer.

00:33:18Queen Noor.

00:33:19I do remember

00:33:20one of my lines

00:33:21which I just,

00:33:23when I saw them

00:33:25written down

00:33:25I thought,

00:33:26oh my goodness,

00:33:27but to say them out loud

00:33:28was actually,

00:33:29you know,

00:33:30quite empowering.

00:33:31If you think

00:33:32I'm going to take

00:33:33that kind of shit

00:33:35off a sweaty

00:33:36overeater

00:33:37the colour

00:33:38of an old man's

00:33:39scrotum

00:33:42then you

00:33:43have got another thing

00:33:44coming.

00:33:48And I just thought

00:33:49that was brilliant.

00:33:50Perhaps you'd become

00:33:51obsessed with one drawer.

00:33:53You know,

00:33:54the rubbish drawer

00:33:54in the kitchen.

00:33:55A pen,

00:33:56a string,

00:33:57a whole bit of food.

00:34:00champagne corks,

00:34:02champagne corks.

00:34:04That's my favourite line

00:34:05almost ever.

00:34:07Are we keeping corks?

00:34:08Are we keeping old corks?

00:34:14But Emma was

00:34:15terrific as that.

00:34:17Emma was great.

00:34:17And guest stars

00:34:18weren't limited

00:34:18to British pop icons.

00:34:20Smasher Distel!

00:34:21Smasher Distel!

00:34:22Oi!

00:34:23Just by chance,

00:34:24and this is weird,

00:34:25we were filming

00:34:25on a bridge

00:34:26in Paris

00:34:27and, um,

00:34:29Sasha Distel

00:34:30actually walked by.

00:34:31Smasher Distel!

00:34:33Oh, sorry.

00:34:34I thought you were

00:34:34someone else.

00:34:35He was an adorable man

00:34:37and a huge star.

00:34:39I love that.

00:34:40I love Sasha Distel.

00:34:41A young Tom Hollander

00:34:42popped in

00:34:43and did a turn

00:34:44as Sefi's

00:34:44really quite horrible

00:34:45fiancé,

00:34:46Paolo.

00:34:46Maybe this one

00:34:47will last,

00:34:48really, darling,

00:34:48huh?

00:34:49Maybe this will be

00:34:50the one to finally

00:34:50break the seal

00:34:51on that cat box.

00:34:52Mum!

00:34:53And I sat behind

00:34:54a paper.

00:34:55I remember they

00:34:55took the piss

00:34:56out of me a lot,

00:34:57out of my character,

00:34:58my character,

00:34:59not me.

00:34:59She was ironing

00:35:00my shirts.

00:35:01That was one

00:35:01of the jokes.

00:35:02Cuffs, cuffs.

00:35:03Collars, cuffs.

00:35:05Side sleeve.

00:35:07Collars, cuffs.

00:35:07Side sleeve.

00:35:09I do, uh,

00:35:11iron shirts

00:35:11still thinking

00:35:14collars, cuffs,

00:35:15side sleeves,

00:35:15collars, cuffs,

00:35:16side sleeves

00:35:16and just recently

00:35:17I thought

00:35:18maybe that's

00:35:19not actually true.

00:35:20Well, I don't

00:35:20want to be seen

00:35:21as some sex object.

00:35:22I don't think

00:35:23of you as a sex object.

00:35:25Don't you?

00:35:26I don't think

00:35:27it's even accurate

00:35:27because actually

00:35:28if you start

00:35:29with the sides

00:35:29and the back

00:35:30you get much

00:35:31further with the shirt

00:35:32much faster

00:35:32and you feel

00:35:33a sense of

00:35:34achievement

00:35:35and then it's

00:35:36nearly done

00:35:36immediately

00:35:37and then the collars

00:35:38and the cuffs

00:35:38you just do at the end.

00:35:39Whereas if you start

00:35:40with the collars

00:35:40and the cuffs

00:35:41you get sort of

00:35:41lost in the weeds

00:35:42of it

00:35:43as I am

00:35:43in this anecdote.

00:35:45Some guest stars

00:35:46took a rather

00:35:46more jazz approach

00:35:47to the script.

00:35:48Ruby Goldberg

00:35:49made an appearance

00:35:49when Eddie and Patsy

00:35:50went to New York.

00:36:05She was fantastic

00:36:07but she did not

00:36:09do a single line

00:36:10that's written.

00:36:11If she was just

00:36:12because she's grown up

00:36:13in comedy

00:36:14and improv

00:36:15and everything

00:36:16you present her

00:36:17with a script

00:36:18she went completely

00:36:19off it.

00:36:19Give me five minutes

00:36:20I'm a genius.

00:36:22Let me turn the beer.

00:36:24Can I get another head?

00:36:25Shut up.

00:36:28Okay.

00:36:29Push your mum.

00:36:30Honestly

00:36:30I just sat there

00:36:32aghast at her

00:36:34genius.

00:36:35It wasn't just

00:36:35movie stars

00:36:36that made an appearance

00:36:37in the Ab Fab orbit.

00:36:38Elton John

00:36:39popped in

00:36:39briefly.

00:36:41My main memory

00:36:42of Elton John

00:36:43being a guest

00:36:43on the show

00:36:44was that

00:36:44we were told

00:36:45absolutely

00:36:46he will give you

00:36:4740 minutes.

00:36:48he was coming

00:36:49in to play

00:36:49at the party.

00:36:50Oh Elton

00:36:51darling

00:36:53what is going on?

00:36:55We've got you

00:36:56the piano.

00:36:56What?

00:36:57The piano

00:36:58to play at the party.

00:36:59What is this?

00:37:00She's presumptive

00:37:01me slightly

00:37:02darling

00:37:02it's just

00:37:03I was wondering

00:37:03if you wouldn't

00:37:04mind just

00:37:05playing a little

00:37:06at the Beatles

00:37:06party

00:37:07playing?

00:37:08Well just

00:37:09play

00:37:09you know

00:37:10entertain

00:37:11if you can

00:37:11call it that.

00:37:12You've got a nerve.

00:37:14Anyway he greeted

00:37:15me as Pat

00:37:15which was very nice

00:37:16because he'd met

00:37:16me in a former

00:37:17incarnation.

00:37:18I think I knew

00:37:19you when you were

00:37:19a man.

00:37:21And I knew

00:37:22you when you

00:37:22had hair.

00:37:23I've always

00:37:24had hair

00:37:25bitch.

00:37:27He's Yoji

00:37:28get off my Yoji

00:37:29get off my Yoji

00:37:29last season's Yoji

00:37:31I mean Elton John

00:37:33it's Elton John

00:37:35Elton John

00:37:36came in.

00:37:37He came in

00:37:37he did it

00:37:3840 minutes later

00:37:39he left.

00:37:41Zandra

00:37:42Zandra came in

00:37:43Zandra Rhodes

00:37:44Oh Zandra

00:37:45hi

00:37:45it's me

00:37:46Patsy

00:37:46Patsy Stone

00:37:47I think we did

00:37:48a flashback

00:37:49of Patsy

00:37:50as a model

00:37:51it was a shoot

00:37:51against a back

00:37:52paper

00:37:52and Patsy

00:37:53was on so many

00:37:54drugs that she

00:37:55couldn't just

00:37:55stand up

00:37:56she was tripping

00:37:56Oh no

00:37:57it's just

00:37:58it's just

00:37:59it's just

00:38:03I only got her

00:38:04here because

00:38:04she's your friend

00:38:05Come on Zandra

00:38:07she's your friend

00:38:08and Zandra

00:38:09turns around

00:38:09and goes

00:38:09she's not my friend

00:38:11I hardly know her

00:38:12I just felt sorry

00:38:13for her

00:38:13I hardly know her

00:38:14and I think

00:38:15I hardly know her

00:38:16became our sort of

00:38:17catchphrase

00:38:18You became obsessed

00:38:18with that

00:38:19and then Jane

00:38:20started saying it

00:38:21and we all started

00:38:21saying it

00:38:22yeah but

00:38:22I hardly know her

00:38:23Zandra Rhodes

00:38:24said it as

00:38:25I hardly know her

00:38:27I found that

00:38:28really funny

00:38:29but AbFab

00:38:30didn't just cast

00:38:31megastars as guests

00:38:32it also set some

00:38:33young actors

00:38:34on the path

00:38:34to Hollywood

00:38:35Oh look

00:38:37there he is

00:38:38Idris

00:38:39Idris

00:38:40Idris Albert

00:38:40I like to think

00:38:41you launched him

00:38:42in AbFab

00:38:43anyway since then

00:38:43he's never mentioned

00:38:44AbFab

00:38:45he's never said

00:38:45oh no he's very sweet

00:38:46actually

00:38:46it's never been on

00:38:48anything

00:38:48I know

00:38:49but it's never on his

00:38:50list of things

00:38:51he's done

00:38:51have you done

00:38:52have you done this

00:38:52before

00:38:53first time

00:38:53oh well then

00:38:54you're very lucky

00:38:55you're in very

00:38:55experienced hands

00:38:58we did give him

00:38:59the worst joke

00:38:59has anyone ever told

00:39:00you you look like

00:39:01Sean Connery

00:39:01put the poor man

00:39:02I'm not surprised

00:39:03he doesn't advertise it

00:39:04has anyone ever told

00:39:05you you look a bit

00:39:06like Sean Connery

00:39:08Sophie Grubble

00:39:09Sophie Grubble

00:39:10yes that was for

00:39:11the killing

00:39:11when the killing

00:39:12was everywhere

00:39:19and I thought

00:39:20oh maybe

00:39:20Idina would dream

00:39:21in Danish

00:39:29can you do some

00:39:30of that Danish

00:39:31and she was going

00:39:33wake up

00:39:34and she said

00:39:34no I'm speaking Danish

00:39:35no you're not

00:39:37I'm speaking Danish

00:39:39no you're not

00:39:41Sam

00:39:42no you're not

00:39:44but you also had

00:39:45an alternative family

00:39:46in your dream

00:39:47when you went in

00:39:47to have your toenail

00:39:48clipped or something

00:39:49in hospital

00:39:50when everybody

00:39:51was replaced

00:39:52so Saffy became

00:39:53Helena Bonham Carter

00:39:55an ex-husband of yours

00:39:56of Richard E. Grant

00:39:57Mandy Rice Davis

00:39:59but you also had

00:39:59that little Lady Penelope

00:40:01on your foot

00:40:01yes I had Lady Penelope

00:40:02dancing about on my tail

00:40:03the doctors say

00:40:05there is nothing

00:40:05they can do

00:40:07it sort of became

00:40:08something that people

00:40:09yearned to be part of

00:40:10they just wanted

00:40:11to be associated with it

00:40:12they just loved it

00:40:13that's because of you

00:40:14because you're wonderful

00:40:16step out of the car

00:40:17please madam

00:40:20hey what the hell

00:40:30the world of fashion

00:40:31and PR were perfect

00:40:32for Patsy and Adina

00:40:33as there aren't

00:40:34many jobs that combine

00:40:35drinking at lunch

00:40:36with an endless stream

00:40:37of party invitations

00:40:38and couture launches

00:40:39certainly be voiceover

00:40:40workup will be done

00:40:41by two I reckon

00:40:42well PR was a big doodah

00:40:44in the 90s

00:40:45you know

00:40:45and it was full of crap

00:40:47do you remember

00:40:47just getting endless

00:40:49invitations to parties

00:40:51that were just on

00:40:52the more and more

00:40:52extreme things

00:40:53you know

00:40:54just to come to this

00:40:55come to a vodka party

00:40:56come to this party

00:40:57come to a hairball

00:41:00come to the hairball

00:41:04I'm sorry mum

00:41:05but I've never really

00:41:06seen what it is

00:41:06you actually do

00:41:09PR

00:41:11yes but

00:41:12PR

00:41:13PR

00:41:14things

00:41:15people

00:41:16places

00:41:17concepts

00:41:18Lulu

00:41:19no no

00:41:20the thing that is funny

00:41:21is that the world of PR

00:41:22is both in this show

00:41:24ridiculous

00:41:25and pointless

00:41:27and mad

00:41:27and the most important thing

00:41:28that has ever happened

00:41:29in the world

00:41:30and if Lulu

00:41:31does not come to

00:41:32the opening of

00:41:33whichever envelope

00:41:33that night

00:41:35everyone's going to die

00:41:36I make the fabulous

00:41:37I make

00:41:38I make the crap

00:41:39into credible

00:41:40I make the dull

00:41:41into delicious

00:41:42delicious

00:41:43yeah

00:41:43the reason I used it

00:41:45is because it's a way

00:41:46of getting into

00:41:47a lot of different worlds

00:41:48it was quite a useful

00:41:50job for her to have

00:41:51and getting free stuff

00:41:53getting lots of free stuff

00:41:55which is what Eddie loved

00:41:56this is the new me darling

00:41:57I'm a mover and a shaker

00:41:57and I'm moving out

00:41:59work work work work

00:42:00work for me from now on darling

00:42:01why?

00:42:04well someone gave it to me

00:42:05free and it's the latest thing

00:42:07I was always fascinated

00:42:08by Adina's office

00:42:09and what I love so much

00:42:10about it is that

00:42:11she's never there

00:42:11it's the same with Patsy

00:42:12like there's a moment

00:42:13when you find out

00:42:13Patsy has a job

00:42:14like halfway through

00:42:15you're like what?

00:42:16she's got a

00:42:16even I think Adina

00:42:17is like what do you mean

00:42:18you have a job?

00:42:19I'm going into my office

00:42:24what do you do?

00:42:26darling

00:42:27Patsy's one of the top

00:42:28fashion editors

00:42:29and a top magazine

00:42:30director

00:42:30executive fashion director

00:42:32but she's never at work

00:42:34I am always at work

00:42:35thanks to our friend

00:42:36Mr Mobile Telephone

00:42:37anyway Patsy's got that

00:42:38job for life

00:42:39you don't mean to say

00:42:40she's actually good at

00:42:40something

00:42:41no darling

00:42:42she slept with the

00:42:42publisher

00:42:44I'm pretty good at it

00:42:47it's my Chanel

00:42:55the editor of Patsy's

00:42:57high-end fashion magazine

00:42:58was played to comic

00:42:59perfection

00:43:00by Kathy Burke

00:43:01I must

00:43:06I think she was terrified

00:43:10of those things

00:43:11but she absolutely

00:43:12nailed it

00:43:12she hated those speeches

00:43:13I know

00:43:14but she did it

00:43:15with such gusto

00:43:17and of course

00:43:18if you're going to run

00:43:19a posh magazine

00:43:19you need to have

00:43:20a few posh people

00:43:21around too

00:43:21a friend of mine's

00:43:22got a shop

00:43:22with some lovely glasses

00:43:24and we had to

00:43:25yeah

00:43:25maybe we could do

00:43:26some lovely photos

00:43:27they sort of became

00:43:29a double act

00:43:29didn't they

00:43:30because they were

00:43:30always there

00:43:31together

00:43:32it's expensive

00:43:34how do you mean

00:43:34oh well

00:43:36does it cost a lot

00:43:38Fleur

00:43:38just literally

00:43:40almost nothing inside

00:43:42I mean

00:43:43many sandwiches

00:43:43short for a picnic

00:43:44faces

00:43:45eyes

00:43:46lips

00:43:46nostrils

00:43:47it's all off the top

00:43:48of my head

00:43:48and then

00:43:49cannier

00:43:49Katrina

00:43:50who had the

00:43:51and with

00:43:52vast

00:43:53blue eyes

00:43:53and always quite

00:43:55willing to be there

00:43:55and she didn't know

00:43:56what she was doing

00:43:57chairs

00:43:57I thought might be

00:43:58quite interesting

00:43:59I've got a friend

00:44:00who's got a shop

00:44:01with some lovely

00:44:01chairs in it

00:44:02we could have some

00:44:03lovely chairs or something

00:44:04I mean I say that

00:44:05I mean much too much

00:44:06given how little

00:44:07I talk about chairs

00:44:08I mean it doesn't matter

00:44:09somehow they operated

00:44:10very well together

00:44:12you employed them

00:44:13Patsy employed them

00:44:14Patsy only knew

00:44:15two people

00:44:16other than Eddie

00:44:16and that was them

00:44:17oh and Magda

00:44:18who ran the magazine

00:44:19Patsy couldn't remember

00:44:20anybody

00:44:20but Magda

00:44:21she was quite frightened

00:44:22of Magda

00:44:22quite scared of Magda

00:44:24always scared of Magda

00:44:24anybody would be scared

00:44:25of Magda

00:44:25where's Magda?

00:44:27oh

00:44:28is there a meeting

00:44:30or something?

00:44:30it was just one scene

00:44:32with a couple of lines

00:44:33but Ab Fab

00:44:33was the iconic

00:44:36female comedy show

00:44:37just the iconic

00:44:38comedy show

00:44:39frankly

00:44:39for me

00:44:41so I was absolutely

00:44:42thrilled to be asked

00:44:43and I thought

00:44:44I'm going to be on set

00:44:45with Jennifer Saunders

00:44:46and Joanna Lumley

00:44:47it was really exciting

00:44:48darling how do I look?

00:44:49how do I look?

00:44:50how do I look Eddie?

00:44:51I think I can see a panty line

00:44:52oh but Eddie

00:44:53what?

00:44:54I'm not wearing any pants

00:44:55oh

00:44:56fashion was important

00:44:57because of the extraordinary

00:44:59nature of what Eddie

00:45:00wanted to look like

00:45:01and the fact that

00:45:02everything she had

00:45:03was far too small

00:45:05because she only wore

00:45:06sample size

00:45:07because that's all

00:45:07she could get

00:45:08because she had to be

00:45:08the first to get it

00:45:09so it was always

00:45:10sample size

00:45:11so she was never

00:45:12a sample size

00:45:13oh

00:45:14oh

00:45:16that's it

00:45:16that's as far as I'll go

00:45:17push me up

00:45:18push push

00:45:19yeah

00:45:20leggings?

00:45:21no

00:45:22slacks

00:45:22oh god

00:45:24Jennifer looks amazing

00:45:25Joanna looks amazing

00:45:26what normal person

00:45:27would wear that

00:45:28and immediately

00:45:29tells you

00:45:30all about the shallowness

00:45:32of

00:45:32and pretentiousness

00:45:33of that entire world

00:45:35and it was impossible

00:45:36to judge if something

00:45:37was nice or not

00:45:37unless you knew the name

00:45:38yeah

00:45:39so when

00:45:40I think it might have

00:45:41even been in the very

00:45:42first episode

00:45:42when you go

00:45:43what are you wearing

00:45:44Ed and you go

00:45:45La Croix sweetie

00:45:45La Croix

00:45:47La Croix

00:45:48sweetie

00:45:50it's alright isn't it

00:45:51it's a bit tight maybe

00:45:52it's alright isn't it

00:45:53you know people will think

00:45:54wow it's a La Croix

00:45:56okay

00:45:57I just can't find anything

00:45:58to go with it

00:45:58that's all

00:45:59maybe I could throw up

00:46:00on something for you

00:46:02oh I see someone already has

00:46:03Jean Muir

00:46:04I didn't know who La Croix was

00:46:06and I didn't know

00:46:07whether she'd made him up

00:46:08I think you're in for a bit

00:46:09of a treat my dear

00:46:10you know I never say darling

00:46:11I'm fine

00:46:12you tell him what you want

00:46:13you tell him what you want

00:46:15he was in fact real

00:46:16he was a very nice guy

00:46:18he liked the show

00:46:19he was very nice to us

00:46:21I'm sorry we can't

00:46:23I do remember once

00:46:25going to McQueen

00:46:26probably with Rebecca Hale

00:46:28us trying something on

00:46:29and the girl

00:46:30going I'll get you

00:46:31a bigger size

00:46:32and Bex going

00:46:32no that'll do

00:46:34and it was like

00:46:35oh straight

00:46:35and these were the most

00:46:36beautiful clothes

00:46:37but they were

00:46:39so awful on Eddie

00:46:40I've got to clear out

00:46:41my wardrobe

00:46:42with all these horrible

00:46:43revolting unfashionable clothes

00:46:44that I simply would not wear darling

00:46:45but they are not fashion

00:46:47and I put them in a pile

00:46:48on the floor

00:46:49I'll throw out

00:46:49I thought you'd put them on dear

00:46:52in a show that so inhabited

00:46:53the world of fashion

00:46:54someone had to keep a record

00:46:55of every cast member's

00:46:57costume, hair and make-up

00:46:58however outlandish

00:46:59to make sure they didn't change

00:47:01from one scene to the next

00:47:02that someone was

00:47:03ABFAB makeup designer

00:47:04Jan Sewell

00:47:05and these continuity Polaroids

00:47:06are that record

00:47:07she took so many

00:47:10that it's

00:47:10a sort of unique record

00:47:12of ABFAB

00:47:14oh

00:47:14oh I love that one

00:47:16Pattern Ed

00:47:16Pattern Ed in Morocco

00:47:18look at that

00:47:19we're standing in the toilets

00:47:20because this is

00:47:21Jan Polaroid

00:47:22so she obviously caught it

00:47:23near the toilets

00:47:24yeah

00:47:25and went

00:47:25did you come into the toilets

00:47:26I need a Polaroid

00:47:27and there we are

00:47:28oh look

00:47:29we were so hippie-ish

00:47:30very good

00:47:31is that

00:47:32this

00:47:32it's a good look

00:47:33it's a very good look

00:47:34it's a very good look

00:47:35she was quite a successful boy

00:47:36mmm

00:47:39let's do that

00:47:40sunny and showing on

00:47:42this is the Patsy

00:47:44I think a lot of people remember

00:47:45I know

00:47:46I think

00:47:46a very short leather skirt

00:47:49yeah

00:47:49I think this is the Patsy

00:47:50that

00:47:51fishnet

00:47:51high heels

00:47:52imitate

00:47:53when they do Patsy

00:47:54they don't imitate

00:47:54this very sophisticated look

00:47:56no

00:47:57Bubble had a way of appearing

00:47:58in a complete

00:48:00she had

00:48:00she brought a world of her own

00:48:01to when she arrived

00:48:03an entire kind of

00:48:04I love that

00:48:05some extraordinary scenario

00:48:07which is this

00:48:07she's some sort of revolutionary

00:48:09during the French Revolution

00:48:10but that's

00:48:10I love that

00:48:11now you see

00:48:12this is the same

00:48:13this is Bex

00:48:14just going mad

00:48:15why does she have such a big bottom

00:48:17because she's in a little puffball

00:48:18it's like a little outfit

00:48:19oh my god

00:48:20like a sort of thing

00:48:21look at that

00:48:22look at that

00:48:22Teletubbies

00:48:24Teletubbies

00:48:24she came dressed as a Teletubbie

00:48:26she came as a Teletubbie

00:48:27oh stinky

00:48:28I think he needs a drink

00:48:31his nose is very dry

00:48:32leave him alone

00:48:35this is my fave look

00:48:36that's very early on

00:48:38that's France

00:48:41look at that little earnest face

00:48:43you had some spiteful line

00:48:45you said you dressed like a Christian

00:48:46what kind of friend are you?

00:48:48what kind of daughter are you?

00:48:49at least she has fun with me

00:48:50I care about her

00:48:51care about her?

00:48:52you may dress like a Christian

00:48:53but the similarity ends there

00:48:55I think you do it on purpose

00:48:57how long does it take

00:48:58you to get the crease

00:48:59so crisp down the front

00:49:00of your jeans

00:49:00you torturer

00:49:01get out

00:49:03I had actually said

00:49:04to the costume designer

00:49:06when you iron my jeans

00:49:09can you put a crease

00:49:10right down the middle?

00:49:12Julia always wanted that

00:49:13I said you could

00:49:14move up to Benetton

00:49:16she just said

00:49:17no

00:49:18it's got to be the worst

00:49:19it's got to be

00:49:20Eddie's nightmare

00:49:21what are you wearing?

00:49:23look at this

00:49:23look at that shirt

00:49:25so I strangle you

00:49:26why does everything you wear

00:49:27look like it's bearing a grudge

00:49:28darling?

00:49:29hmm?

00:49:30hmm?

00:49:32you've got a wardrobe

00:49:33full of little murderers

00:49:34look at them

00:49:35look at them

00:49:35the AbFab costumes

00:49:37poor Safi and her

00:49:38starched jeans aside

00:49:39ranged from the chic

00:49:41to the

00:49:41well certifiable

00:49:42oh this is boot camp

00:49:45what's that mean?

00:49:46this is boot camp

00:49:47this when

00:49:48Adina

00:49:48I know I'm trying to remember it

00:49:50but this is boot camp

00:49:52and

00:49:53I

00:49:53was being trained

00:49:55really quick

00:49:56arms

00:49:56upper arms

00:49:57upper arms

00:49:58upper arms

00:49:58punch

00:49:59punch

00:49:59to me

00:50:00punch

00:50:00great

00:50:01great

00:50:01that is fantastic

00:50:02this is rather gorgeous

00:50:04because it's actually

00:50:04army surplus

00:50:05you can see from this

00:50:06this really is army surplus

00:50:07and then

00:50:08beck sort of

00:50:09pimped it

00:50:10hate that word

00:50:11but that's what she did

00:50:11with some autumn leaves

00:50:12to give it a little bit of zazz

00:50:14where is this next one?

00:50:15this one

00:50:15I could think this is very very expensive

00:50:17I think it's Bottega Veneta

00:50:19it is

00:50:20can you remember when you wore it?

00:50:22I can remember how small

00:50:23it was when I wore it

00:50:25yeah

00:50:25I went up the Eiffel Tower

00:50:27oh my god

00:50:28with Safi

00:50:30and wore this

00:50:31I think we can just go to the second floor

00:50:33because

00:50:33I'd never take you right up anymore

00:50:35this is good

00:50:36this is my

00:50:36this is good

00:50:37this is favourite jacket

00:50:38of all time

00:50:39because

00:50:40it has Patsy

00:50:41oh

00:50:41it's got Eddie

00:50:42it's got Eddie

00:50:44and it's got Patsy

00:50:45on it

00:50:46and I remember standing

00:50:47and we had a photograph

00:50:48we had a photograph

00:50:48and he said

00:50:49it was with Peru

00:50:50and he just said

00:50:51and I got some cigarettes like that

00:50:53it says mega death

00:50:54on the back

00:50:55space scout

00:50:56girl scout

00:50:57celebration independence

00:50:58a bit bizarre

00:50:59it's got a little kitten

00:51:00oh that's quite nice

00:51:01I might nick that

00:51:02it didn't nick

00:51:03that might nick that

00:51:04but

00:51:05she won't nick it

00:51:07she'd leave it on

00:51:07because it's

00:51:08Beck's made this

00:51:09did she?

00:51:10yeah

00:51:10I love New York

00:51:11it's really

00:51:12this is honestly

00:51:13a lovely thing

00:51:15and you've got butterflies

00:51:16on your hood

00:51:17and I've got a feeling

00:51:18that she wore this

00:51:20Eddie wore it

00:51:21when she was washing the car

00:51:22and Twiggy bought mother home

00:51:23hi

00:51:26is this your mother?

00:51:27well let me see

00:51:28one white paw

00:51:29yes that looks like her

00:51:30oh no the tea's fallen off

00:51:32there wasn't

00:51:32it's not there

00:51:33no it was a tea

00:51:35there was a tea

00:51:35I can't bear it

00:51:36it's gone

00:51:37I've turned into Pacey

00:51:39oh I love that

00:51:40I should have that

00:51:42shouldn't I?

00:51:43shouldn't that be mine?

00:51:44bloody con run

00:51:45hello cab cab

00:51:48cons

00:52:05we've been mining

00:52:06the ABFAB archives

00:52:08and have managed

00:52:09to unearth

00:52:09some gems

00:52:10that had

00:52:10until now

00:52:11been feared loss

00:52:12to the BBC's

00:52:13local tip

00:52:13remember Patsy's

00:52:15brush with the tabloids

00:52:16flash flash

00:52:17click flash flash

00:52:18click click click

00:52:19flash flash flash

00:52:20guys guys guys

00:52:21just give me a break

00:52:22darlings

00:52:22just give me a break

00:52:23sweetie I have a life

00:52:24to lead

00:52:24click click

00:52:24this way Patsy

00:52:25I remember writing that

00:52:27flash flash flash

00:52:28I thought just keep it going

00:52:30just keep it going

00:52:30for as long as you can

00:52:31sweetie darling

00:52:32can you just leave me alone

00:52:36Patsy Patsy Patsy

00:52:40did we overact

00:52:41the whole way through?

00:52:42yes

00:52:42it's terrible overacting

00:52:44are these todays

00:52:46yes really

00:52:46anything in them?

00:52:47not much darling

00:52:49no

00:52:49MP in drug craze

00:52:51sex romp

00:52:52shock with

00:52:52fash mag

00:52:53slag

00:52:56drug craze

00:52:57sex romp

00:52:58I think you need

00:52:59this framed

00:52:59in your house

00:53:01actually hilarious

00:53:02the Daily Star

00:53:04four letter

00:53:05Patsy

00:53:05in MP's

00:53:06sex row

00:53:06shock's wife

00:53:07of MP

00:53:07keeps silent

00:53:08bitch

00:53:11one of these

00:53:11though set her age

00:53:12and that just

00:53:13depressed her

00:53:14thing that she didn't

00:53:14like was the age

00:53:15everything else

00:53:16she was quite pleased

00:53:16with

00:53:17bastard

00:53:17no no no

00:53:19watch

00:53:20watch

00:53:21watch

00:53:21close

00:53:22sources

00:53:22no no further

00:53:23further

00:53:23no Patsy

00:53:24still

00:53:2747

00:53:30I'll

00:53:31I'll

00:53:31something I've got

00:53:33at home

00:53:33because I kept

00:53:34them

00:53:34where all

00:53:35the old

00:53:36videos

00:53:36of Patsy

00:53:37that she did

00:53:38as films

00:53:38in the old

00:53:39days

00:53:39I've got those

00:53:40what do you mean

00:53:41what?

00:53:42you know

00:53:43cheeky old

00:53:43sex films

00:53:44no

00:53:44well no

00:53:44darling

00:53:45they're

00:53:45more

00:53:45cult

00:53:46classics

00:53:46she had

00:53:47enormous

00:53:48sort of

00:53:49bubarella

00:53:56occasionally people have taken screen grabs of it and send it to me to sign

00:54:00that was my fear that they honestly thought it was my tits so the truth is i say look it's

00:54:06not me

00:54:07i turn to a very kind old grandmother i say this was good fun and so i can sign it

00:54:11patsy stone

00:54:12which is what i do oh well done pats would have liked that it's hard to beat bubarella but whilst

00:54:16leafing through her ab fab memory box jennifer found these incredible handwritten notes that

00:54:21became the basis for so many of ab fab's most famous moments what i normally do is like as

00:54:27with french and saunders you just gather loads of ideas and just write down right right right and

00:54:32eventually think what could this one be about oh let's call it shoes it'll be about shoes there

00:54:38are some tantalizing morsels here too snippets of projects that might have been take this single

00:54:43page idea for instance simply entitled ab fab movie 2000 futuristic house where they live

00:54:49only savvy grows old which is very funny and very fat with a moustache i think this might be her

00:54:56eddie's dream everyone's living and wearing silver foil this this is the pr pr conference it says here

00:55:05claudia bing we feel we have worked out the importance of brand identity more keenly than

00:55:10many of our rivals as we showed recently just a speech i've written so obviously i didn't write it

00:55:16for the actual scripts but i'd written it in longhand on the script and it didn't actually end up like

00:55:22this because i think it must have got better because i've got lots of red lines through it

00:55:26go take this out um hello hi i was hereby going hereby going to launch my global integrated network

00:55:34network system bloody system system but you know that's what the world's coming to i don't want to be in

00:55:40it

00:55:40no i don't want that whereas i like a bird on the wire like a bird on the wire

00:55:48like a drunk in a midnight quiet i have tried here in my way to be free i know it's

00:55:57not all great

00:55:57and fabulous but it ain't that bad bad you know so come on we'll cheer up it may never bloody

00:56:02happen

00:56:03come on darling i think you just did it yeah come on goes out comes back two fingers

00:56:12bubble is gay it says here bubble is gay i never knew

00:56:17that what's her girlfriend like because she was always a mystery we never went too much into bubble

00:56:23because it's quite nice just to have a slightly surreal character

00:56:30you have to turn it on not just make the noise

00:56:37hello this is my daughter this is the weirdest thing in that there so obviously i'm writing and

00:56:42that says hello my name is beaty it's also my daughter which was very small just finding it

00:56:48and trying to write on it i just i just think it's all about little little ideas really and little

00:56:53sketches and that went on for the first i think most the first series i wrote like that and then

00:56:59the

00:56:59second series i didn't and then then it became harder when things did become harder jen would reach

00:57:07out to her dear friend and ab fab script editor ruby wax ruby was incredibly useful she'll go better

00:57:13lying here you need something here and then she'd come up with them generally or write six

00:57:16alternatives her skirt was so short the world was her gynecologist or you know when she did yoga she

00:57:22could give herself a gynecological examination from the back a man who can look her in the vagina

00:57:26but never in the eye i used to do a lot of faxing because that's how we sent things jennifer

00:57:33would

00:57:33sometimes say fix this line bump this up i don't know what i'm talking about so then i'd know to

00:57:37get to it so this is she said dear rube sorry i didn't call on saturday but got involved at

00:57:43a

00:57:43horse show she's the horn um however script not very good as a result blaming the horse show already

00:57:50um need help urgent subject matters are hunting shoot and fishing i remember thinking i must do

00:57:58something about hunt and shoot and fishing because madonna madonna had married guy richie i think and

00:58:03gone done a lot of hunt and shoot and fishing madonna has opened up this world for us now sweetheart

00:58:08she's

00:58:08made it stylish she invented it so you're going to kill things because of madonna this is my favorite

00:58:15bit after an aborted day of clay pigeon shooting where eddie manages to shoot a real pigeon

00:58:28i'm obviously well behind for the scripts and a bit desperate i will fax you the vague plot of a

00:58:34script that went out this morning but don't be too downhearted for me it is improving by the second

00:58:39and any help much appreciated realize you are very busy so no panic i'm gonna cry

00:58:46yeah i think um i was a bit desperate at this point i'm gonna keep this vex and sell it

00:58:52as a matter of

00:58:53fact i'm gonna sell all my scripts to be clear ruby is not selling any of those precious ab fab

00:58:58faxes

00:58:58although she has given me an idea for a show desert island faxes

00:59:27she's very upset you know

00:59:31there are so many famous pictures of pats and eddie through the years but here are some very special

00:59:36photographs that have never been seen before i was intrigued when we started doing this to come

00:59:42across this which is a book of photographs given to me by jennifer uh jennifer thought that history

00:59:49should record what we were doing while we were rehearsing and she hired a very nice lady called

00:59:55sally soames to take some pictures oh look this is this is quite good to illustrate the rehearsal room

01:00:03because this is what a rehearsal room looks like i think we'd have four days in the rehearsal room

01:00:08and this was i remember us asking sally to come in because you know just to take some

01:00:12yeah photos as we went i couldn't have done it without you nobody else would have left me

01:00:21with lots of love jennifer lovely i wouldn't have cared if we never filmed it never and never went

01:00:29out we aren't even paid just i just just to be in rehearsal was just the most fun thing of

01:00:35just

01:00:35thinking how can we be the funniest we can be and how can i make everyone in this room laugh

01:00:39if you

01:00:39laugh between yourselves in the rehearsal room of the sitcom you're pretty nearly always right

01:00:45why are these remedy bottles all up no that's not it and that's john plowman's fault

01:00:54the first time she's ever had to say that line i think she deserves some applause

01:01:01i went to rehearse and i remember thinking this is a matriarchy this is quite nice

01:01:06everything is being done by these brilliant ladies and joanna lumley is handing out rothman's

01:01:13we liked all the smoking jennifer didn't smoke i made her and i do remember there not really being

01:01:19much formal rehearsal there was just a lot of people being very very funny that thing that happens in

01:01:24comedy circles where there's a sort of intimidating i always find it intimidating level of people being

01:01:29brilliant and topping each other so i was thinking this is all fabulous and they're all

01:01:35kind of rock star level famous because of this show but as jennifer came on and as joanna came on

01:01:41and julia one after another it was like the audience going wow no keith mick ronnie out they came

01:01:48and tom hollander is power oh still no tongue

01:01:56you can't make a great sitcom with such a great director and ab fab had the best in the business

01:02:00in bob spears bob was insanely brilliant he'd done the whole of the second series of faulty towers

01:02:09he'd done dad's army we'd have a read-through and then we'd just start blocking it and bob would

01:02:14just let us work it out and what he was great at was not interfering with the jokes with the

01:02:21act anything he wanted to do he was just a genius at knowing how to put cameras

01:02:38even though the ab fab scripts were complete perfection by the time they were delivered on

01:02:42camera to put it politely jennifer occasionally didn't have every line worked out by the time

01:02:46the cast went into rehearsal to put it less politely it was mayhem but for good reason

01:02:51i do enjoy the fact that it wasn't complete by rehearsal because then rehearsal sort of made it

01:02:57but there was a couple of times when i just hadn't thought of it i just hadn't thought of it

01:03:02the relationship that jennifer and i had about scripts was interesting at the very least and it

01:03:08consisted usually of me ringing and saying okay how's it going when do you think we'll get there

01:03:14jennifer um two or three weeks we got very good at playing a game where she knew she was lying

01:03:23to me

01:03:23i knew she was lying to me but but we were in a world where that was okay okay so

01:03:29what happens is

01:03:29there's nothing nothing nothing and then sort of two days before they're going to film it i think the god

01:03:34of comedy comes and strikes her brain with lightning and then just genius genius it waves out and you

01:03:39go where where did this come from i think a good comedy rehearsal is a little bit like jazz actually

01:03:44you kind of you need to have the bones you need to know the tune and then you should be

01:03:49allowed to

01:03:49riff because actually sometimes the magic is in that playing i totally get why jennifer liked to

01:03:55keep it loose probably incredibly frustrating for everybody else the script editor and people trying

01:04:01to plan the shots but you know it's lightning in a bottle did it frustrate you joanna that sometimes

01:04:08the script wasn't entirely ready on day one no be honest no never i never minded at all worried

01:04:16i mean i do think that the chaos of eddie's mind uh was maybe usefully served by the apparent chaos

01:04:28of

01:04:28um jennifer's writing method in the first series the scripts were there the plots were there but not

01:04:37the scenes weren't finished and i started to get really nervous about that i had a conversation with

01:04:43jane at one point because i just thought i thought i was flailing i well i was flailing

01:04:49um and i said to jane i'm struggling so much and jane said oh i'm exactly the same i feel

01:04:55exactly the

01:04:56same julia and joanna used to get given a lot of lines at the last minute which wouldn't have

01:05:02kept me happy at all but they had a great capacity to learn very quickly jennifer once gave a script

01:05:07and

01:05:08said one scene was something funny happens we once did a bathroom scene where we were smoking a joint

01:05:13and had hidden in your bathroom upstairs mother was outside wrap tapping on the door and we were

01:05:18both stoned out of our minds on the floor we made that scene up it wasn't written down anywhere but

01:05:22you'd said um patsy and i'll do something here so we did what what what no what what no i've

01:05:31forgotten

01:05:31the wind no what what what is that what what on your grave marker the words on your grave on

01:05:36the

01:05:36what what is that um on your your epitome your epitome yeah what is that what you want on your

01:05:43on

01:05:43your on your epitome i want she was fantastic patsy was here

01:05:51it wasn't just the cast and crew of abfab who were responsible for making the show sparkle on our

01:05:56screens the studio audience played a big part too i think there was some shock value in having

01:06:01the audience and the immediate reaction to jokes and things so you knew what worked i love working

01:06:06with an audience i feel like you get the feedback straight away the audience is a glorious editing

01:06:12tool it's always a surprise when you do the show what turned out to actually have been

01:06:18the funny bits and what bits you can cast aside with joy it seemed to me that it encouraged

01:06:25the actors to to go for it if in doubt take three fall over

01:06:33because you're an adrenaline rush really just just the nerves of going out in front of a live

01:06:38audience and knowing you had to do it for the cameras

01:06:44the second the audience start to laugh it's you absolutely panto every day is just like a

01:06:51like a pick and mix and all you can eat for 50 cents of forbidden fruit isn't it darling

01:07:19the difficulty part of studio audience is that we are actually servants to the cameras because

01:07:24that's where it's going out to the wider audience but they're in front of you are 300 people and you

01:07:28drop blood to get them to laugh and love it yeah so you've but they're behind so the temptation is

01:07:34particularly my temperature not yours you're subtle is to be huge and subtle but but but to remember

01:07:40that the you're doing it for the cameras as well so there was this thing where you the people who

01:07:44knew what they were doing i.e not me were playing the audience as well as playing the scene of

01:07:49this

01:07:49sort of dual split thing that you do when you're recording you're acting for the camera but you're

01:07:54also acting for the live audience look at this beautiful face when i first saw this face i thought

01:08:00my god why is she hiding all that so that old-fashioned sitcom thing i'd not done before um so

01:08:09that was

01:08:10very anxious making so i went to a doctor and i said um could i have some beta blockers please

01:08:17because i'd heard that beta blockers stop you getting hysterical and the doctor went no i can't

01:08:23just hand out beta blockers they're for people with heart conditions and you know and um i said

01:08:29no no i'm on absolutely fabulous later today and he went really i'll open his drawer here

01:08:36improvement on the last one isn't it the one he picked up in covent garden piazza old clown face

01:08:41bad breath and sandals hey i think when you're filming without an audience you're trying to nail down

01:08:46what you had whereas when you're doing it in front of an audience you're trying to expand into what

01:08:53might be the most sort of perfect and exuberant version the lights switched off at sort of 9 30

01:08:58or was it 10 i can't remember 10 but we had to be out at the end we'd gone and

01:09:03taken our makeup off

01:09:04grabbed our bags we'd go up to the bar bar at the top hostility hospitality suite at the top where

01:09:10june's husband tim would always be saying it was a marvelous show and he'd always got an absolute

01:09:16round of drinks well done well that was marvelously funny yes and and we'd all have drinks already

01:09:22there and he was saying and and june and he was like june's um sort of protect and way of

01:09:28getting

01:09:28out of anything that june might not be happy with and so he was always again june now do remember

01:09:35we've got a little thing and she'd be going oh tim don't worry and june would stay for all the

01:09:40drinks

01:09:40then you know so but he was just always in case she wanted a getaway do remember june we've got

01:09:45a

01:09:45thing that we might need no no tim no tim and i remember i was always the last one out

01:09:50of the

01:09:50hostility suite always almost carried out come on eddie i need a slap set i think the reason that

01:09:57people get ab fab in my eyes wrong is the fact that they imagine that they crave the wealth and

01:10:04the

01:10:04the fancy hotels and the cars and the richness and everything they hate it they have such disdain

01:10:10for it which is why they treat it so badly i think they would be completely in awe of if

01:10:16they suddenly

01:10:17came across a bohemian based smoky basement with serge gansborg and jane birkin and bardo this wealth

01:10:25these cars it's all to them it's shit it's this there's nothing because it's not absolutely cool it's

01:10:30not the cool that they would really crave

01:10:36in 2016 edina patsy and co became fully fledged movie stars in their own right in ab fab the movie

01:10:43a project that like lots of the best ideas began life as a drunken wager i think it was a

01:10:50bet with dawn

01:10:50that i wouldn't and then i said i would a movie probably does go from a to f whereas the

01:10:59sitcom

01:10:59goes from a to b to a to b to a to b you know i mean it's a very

01:11:02different cup of tea i miss the

01:11:03audience but i missed the rehearsal room i think i think the rehearsal we never had we were never

01:11:08together there was no sense of us as a gang creating it i loved the film so much and i

01:11:13went to

01:11:13see it the night it came out and every that was a cinema packed full of women it was all

01:11:19women

01:11:19everyone had bolly or vodka and everyone was with their friends and it and that's exactly what it is

01:11:27it's like an ode to friendship and i thought the film was so wonderful it really talked about the

01:11:31fact that they are kind of they're the love of each other's lives so the question i have to ask

01:11:37is

01:11:37is there any chance that absolutely fabulous war return no no absolutely none

01:11:46jennifer saunders thank you my pleasure i mean jennifer also said all those ab fab scripts would

01:11:52be delivered on time too we all know how that went the ab fab movie was the last time that

01:11:57jennifer

01:11:57joanna jane and julia were all together on screen until now oh oh oh oh is it those divine feet

01:12:04it's

01:12:05the divinities surprise surprise yay oh oh god look at the street darling darling darling

01:12:14oh when was the last time ages ago after june's memorial yes oh my gosh oh look look here

01:12:26have you seen these please these are these are the old polaroids bubble that's bubbled

01:12:32oh i remember i actually remember that one that's so bubble that was the first series wasn't it was

01:12:37it

01:12:44adorable face but i was a bit sickly there that was in france was in france yeah yeah i i

01:12:49had a really

01:12:50poorly time such a pale little person oh and now we're on to junie junie junie and the pilot and

01:12:58that we filmed that before we'd done anything in the studio and that's when eddie came back from

01:13:03some frightful rave yes the rolling who is it the stones was it was it eel pie island

01:13:10yeah is that the cider i smell the stones the rolling

01:13:20oh wow look that's so gorgeous don't you oh junie do you have a worse moment can't talk about

01:13:28other people um no my worst moments were always always arriving at the rehearsal do you remember

01:13:35the one we were rehearsing a hunt and shoot and fishing and i had nothing i was virtually turning

01:13:41up in the oh yes and i remember thinking what's the excuse and the excuse was my my computer wouldn't

01:13:48work on the train so i couldn't write it and um i came in with virtually nothing i had nothing

01:13:53but by

01:13:54the end of it we had a show yeah but it was always like that wasn't it i mean you

01:13:58know invariably by

01:13:59the wednesday we're thinking and then we'd get new scenes come flying in and um it would all happen

01:14:04and come together yeah i mean the paper was actually hot when off the printer it would come in warm

01:14:11on wednesday on the wednesday after the tech run thank god for you honestly i i got off lightly but

01:14:18you

01:14:19two of used to get reams of dialogue at the last minute and we're brilliant friday night to

01:14:24remember it oh you know you know you know that you know when patsy says yeah well can you say

01:14:31this

01:14:32and then be like five lines i mean like oh i know oh god i'm so sorry it's making me

01:14:38feel

01:14:38you must have come into that room and just seen a sea of faces waiting looking at you i was

01:14:42saying i had to

01:14:43stop outside and get the energy and think here's the energy and that energy had to carry to the end

01:14:47of the

01:14:47day because on that first day you had to be the one that kept everything going because otherwise

01:14:52it was paul yeah or john who sometimes i remember having to throw out of rehearsals because he

01:14:59couldn't make his face smile but saying john you're gonna have to go because he sometimes had and it

01:15:05was his thinking face it wasn't yeah he wasn't being awful i see i can't we can't rehearse with that

01:15:09face and you'll have to leave but oh my god the pressure i mean that is how you work isn't

01:15:14it which

01:15:15is is brilliant and some people you know have it all prepared and whatever and that's how you

01:15:20flourish on the hoof yes yeah so sort of improvising really weren't we yeah absolutely

01:15:27which is lovely and i wish we just called it the improvised show so there won't be a script it'll

01:15:32all happen that week because that would be great wouldn't it and you want to make sure that that

01:15:36pelvic floor is kept in shape oh yeah darling you want to take care of down there trim and tighten

01:15:41yeah men like it neat and tight yeah not swinging saloon doors

01:15:52you two are terribly good at not ever laughing but you you laughed once when you

01:15:58are talking about the same people you you got bad at one point you just got bad

01:16:03when when she was doing when she was doing that oh what what were you she was spraying i can't

01:16:10remember she was like a cat spraying like a cat

01:16:38i don't know

01:16:43but we couldn't we can hold it together at all all the way through rehearsals as well

01:16:48me and jennifer we were awful together we had to do our scenes looking like that not at each other

01:16:54which made it absolutely terrible because if i started telling her off

01:17:00and she'd she'd do that face like i just what her bubble face her bubble face

01:17:06you come back here now i've fed up of this attitude of yours

01:17:15much loved the world over for her portrayal of edina's mother dame june whitfield died in 2018

01:17:21at the grand old age of 93. june is a very very sad loss she was a wonderful comic actress

01:17:28she absolutely knew how comedy works and do you know darling the real problem started sweetie

01:17:34because i wasn't even breastfed oh don't be ridiculous dear it wasn't done in those days

01:17:40imagine me having that clamped to my breast

01:17:44and i always knew junie always chose clothes for mother that she might just take home in her suitcase

01:17:49at the end of the day she always did always i know i just put some champagne on the table

01:17:55and why not she's very brave june yeah i'm very out there do you remember her saying

01:18:00buggery bollocks and you're going my gosh yeah yeah and you nothing ever faced it

01:18:05we'd raise a glass to june max is to junie to junie to junie and to junie and if i

01:18:11may say so

01:18:11to absolutely fabulous oh cheers my loves

01:18:23snappy

01:18:24it's how's it it's changing darling darling it's us now

01:18:29it's us now

01:18:31oh that's us in our underclothes look at that i i since since this picture was taken this is now

01:18:37my

01:18:37actual body it's just completely what i look like now isn't that weird was it was so funny we'd

01:18:44already walked around the bbc going hello like this on the doors nobody laughed at us which made us

01:18:48laugh even more anyway we've got in this uh coach i remember sitting at the front but dressed like

01:18:53this with teeth in and i looked out of the window one of the traffic lights and i looked down

01:18:58there

01:18:58was a cup family in a car and a man he looked up like this and i would oh no

01:19:01and he said oh look

01:19:03it's joanna lumley

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