Absolutely Fabulous to return?

Tuesday 9th November 2010 @ 12:30pm

Absolutely Fabulous. Image shows from L to R: Edina (Jennifer Saunders), Patsy (Joanna Lumley). Image credit: Saunders And French Productions. Joanna Lumley has said she and Jennifer Saunders are considering making another series of hit 90s comedy Absolutely Fabulous after having been approached by the BBC.

Ab Fab, a BBC sitcom about two immature, chain-smoking, alcoholic fashion-obsessed Londoners, made its debut in November 1992. It ran for three series up to 1995, and then returned for another series in 2001, a fifth series in 2004, followed by two final Christmas specials. In July 2005, Saunders announced she would not write another series of the comedy, saying: "The 6am calls to go to make-up and all the promotional work wear you down." However, it seems she may now have changed her mind:

Lumley - who is currently starring in a Broadway adaptation of La Bête - told Playbill magazine that she'd heard the rumours about the show returning, adding: "Jon Plowman, who's the Executive Producer, wrote to Jennifer, and Jen wrote to me and said, 'Let's talk through it. What do you think?' And I said, 'Bring it on.' Because we're all still here. Mother's still alive - the wonderful June Whitfield. Julia Sawalha, Jane Horrocks - the basic five J's - all our names began with J. We're all still alive and available - ish - to do it."

She added: "I think we just have to do it. And the great thing is that because in our show, we fast-forwarded to where they're very old and nearly dead and practically plugged into vodka machines and things. It doesn't matter how beyond [the original series] we do it because we know they've been that, that they still were Patsy and Edina at the time. So this makes it heaven!"

Here's a clip from the show: