Absolutely Fabulous

Ab Fab: A tired team running out of ideas

The trick to filling in 30 minutes of airtime with 15 minutes of material seemed to be, quite literally, often saying the same line twice and hoping we wouldn't notice.

Absolutely Fabulous built the last of its three specials around Eddy and Patsy's wild excitement about the Olympics. It isn't the sport they're interested in, obviously, but the imminent arrival of Michael Douglas, who has rented Eddy's house and who they see as a passport to A-list Olympic parties. "I shall be wearing my buttocks as a head-dress by the time that man arrives," announced Eddy, who plans a major make-over.

Unfortunately, she's not been paying very close attention to the calendar and doesn't realise she's left it too late, a mistake she feels is forgivable: "It's been everywhere for five bloody years! Excuse me if I missed that it's actually bloody started. It's been like tinnitus." Dames Kelly Holmes and Tanni Grey-Thompson and Stella McCartney offered themselves up as straight-women for Patsy and Eddy's faux pas and there was a brief, slightly baffling visit to the Olympic Stadium, during which both women enjoyed an unconvincing reverie of athletic glory. And then, after quite a few raucous laughs, it just stopped, as if nobody had quite worked out where the finish tape was. But I did enjoy Eddy's protest as she was bundled out of the stadium by a security guard: "You're discouraging me from taking up sport!"

Leaping on the Olympics bandwagon like a botoxed hippo on a trampoline came Absolutely Fabulous, possibly the last ever outing for Eddy and Patsy. It had its moments but it's probably best not to flog this horse too much further. I want to remember Pats at her drop-dead best, not literally dropping dead and leaking when she sneezes. The best bit: Bubble on the beam (well, the back of a settee, actually).

Ab Fab gets gold for worst Olympic Games show

This onslaught of Olympic-related programming won't last. The bad news is it'll be replaced with the real thing.

Absolutely Fabulous Olympics special grabs 5.6 million

Absolutely Fabulous triumphed in last night's (July 23) ratings for its Olympics special, according to the latest overnight data.

Charge your flutes with vodka champagne cocktail, Ab Fab fans! This could be the last-ever episode (although there are rumours of a movie). Certainly, it's the last of three specials, after two at Christmas and New Year, reuniting the bad girls of chichi Holland Park for their 20th anniversary.

Why the long wait? Well, this was always intended as an Olympics-themed edition, with the Games descending abruptly upon Patsy and Eddy's blinkered lives. Eddy could go for gold herself - if there were a category for partying and pratfalls. Sadly, Patsy looks set to be left at the starting line: she's developed, well, let's just say a little issue whenever she sneezes and is in need of a "tightening procedure".

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley are on top form with the physical comedy and waspish remarks. June Whitfield's Gran is as endearingly batty as ever and tonight gets the final funny line - if not the last laugh. Watch out for cameos by Dames Kelly Holmes and Tanni Grey-Thompson, as well as fashion designer Stella McCartney, for whom Eddy has developed something of a girl crush. It is not reciprocated.

Ab Fab's best Olympic jokes

Tonight's new episode of Absolutely Fabulous has an Olympic theme - we preview some of the funniest moments.

This is the third episode of the promised new Ab Fab trio, though whether it's really the final 'final' hurrah remains to be seen. Saffy is back from Africa - in full indigenous dress - while Eddy and Patsy are panicking before the arrival of Michael Douglas. He is supposedly renting out their home during the Olympics, but instead they find themselves entertaining Douglas's sex-addicted golf caddy and his overbearing wife. Saffy's attempts to get the pair excited about the Games fail dismally - until invitations to a party at the main arena come their way. Predictable jokes about the horror of losing both one's edge and skin tone dominate, and Bubble's bewilderingly unfunny character still grates but, as in almost every episode, there's one great visual gag. Here, it's Patsy lighting her fag with the Olympic torch.

This latest of the specials seems more pantomime-like than ever: socially conscious Saffy is now wandering about in full African dress; the script is full of Olympics references (as are Bubble's surreal, high-concept outfits); and ugly sisters Edina and Patsy (Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley) once again set themselves up for a fall thanks to their desperate desire to party. Even at its cheesiest, though, Ab Fab is always raucous fun, while there are some game appearances from some Olympic heroes past and present.

Jennifer Saunders gave herself an Olympian challenge when she agreed to build an episode of her award-winning sitcom around London 2012.

She's managed it, though, with Absolutely Fabulous: Olympics (BBC1, 9.30pm).

Amid the Bolly, the bitching and the fags, her character Edina rents out her London home to a Hollywood A-lister for the Olympics.

However, no-one has told her that she is supposed to move out, along with her family and assistant Bubble (Jane Horrocks), To make matters worse, Edina's ex-husband and girlfriend turn up to stay for the Games.

There is some sports action - if you count Eddy and the fun-loving Patsy (Joanna Lumley) running
for glory in the Olympic stadium and managing to crash a celebrity reception attended by real-life Paralympics legend Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.