Patsy and Eddie are back! Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley have an Ab Fab reunion at London Fashion Week as they sit on the front row for Burberry’s show

by

After being away from the fashion world for ten years, Patsy and Eddie returned to front-row seats at a show on Monday.

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, famous for their roles in Absolutely Fabulous, came together for the Burberry show at Kensington Gardens, bringing London Fashion Week to a close with a celebration of classic British style.

The actresses mingled with celebrities like Elton John and Naomi Campbell on the crowded front row, in a glamorous display that would have thrilled fans of fame and luxury.

Jennifer and Joanna chose to keep their characters’ style simple and elegant, wearing classic Burberry trench coats and accessories with the brand’s iconic check pattern instead of more extravagant outfits.

Paying homage to their show from the nineties, the pair were seated next to model Twiggy, who famously appeared as a guest star in two episodes.

Twiggy looked stylish in a classic black suit and tie while posing for pictures with her close friends inside the glamorous event tent. The three were later seen laughing together from their front-row seats.

It’s been nine years since viewers last saw Eddie and Patsy. Despite the 2016 movie, the show’s creator, Jennifer, had previously said she wouldn’t bring the characters back.

Last year, Gold television channel broadcast a two-hour special called Absolutely Fabulous: Inside Out. The special celebrated the popular sitcom, which originally aired for six seasons from 1992 to 2012, and featured Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley sharing stories from behind the scenes.

Absolutely Fabulous started as a sketch on French & Saunders. Jennifer Saunders played a character similar to Eddie, named Adrianna, and Dawn French played her uptight, bookish daughter.

Oh my gosh, when Dawn had her beautiful daughter and couldn’t do another series of French & Saunders, I was devastated! But then Jennifer, being the absolute genius she is, took one of their sketches and decided to build a whole sitcom around it! I was SO excited, it was like a little piece of French & Saunders living on, and I couldn’t wait to see what she’d do with it!

Jennifer had previously only written short comedy sketches with Dawn for their series, but her friend Ruby Wax helped her refine the scripts for a larger project.

Ruby was the one who recommended Joanna for Patsy Stone’s party – Patsy being a former model and fashion director who’d developed a drinking problem.

Ruby remembers first spotting the actress in a play. She went backstage and told her she’d be perfect for a comedy role. The actress was delighted, as her career had really hit rock bottom – she was happy for Ruby to admit that. Ruby then cast her in her show, and later, while discussing the show *Ab Fab* with Jennifer, she realized she had found her Patsy Stone.

Joanna had doubts. When they were filming the first episode in 1991, she grew frustrated with both the script Jennifer wrote for the character Patsy and Jennifer’s behavior during filming.

Joanna explained in a recent Weekend Magazine interview that she didn’t have a clear idea of what the character Patsy was like because the script didn’t include a description.

Jennifer wasn’t very open with her feelings back then, and she didn’t let on what was bothering her. She just seemed increasingly unhappy and irritated with everything I said.

I immediately felt like the audition had gone terribly. I couldn’t read what the director, Jennifer, was thinking, and she didn’t seem to be giving me any clear feedback. I called my agent and asked if they could help me get out of the project, suspecting Jennifer wasn’t interested in me but was being too nice to say so. My agent advised me to just go ahead with it, pointing out it was only a pilot and might not even get made. It was thanks to that advice that I ended up playing Patsy!

Jennifer admitted they hadn’t known each other well. ‘It was difficult,’ she explained, ‘and I wasn’t sure what I was looking for at the time.’

A further issue arose when a BBC comedy executive stated he didn’t think it was funny to portray women who were drunk.

In a documentary last year, the sitcom’s producer, John Plowman, shared that after filming the pilot, he asked Robin Nash, who was the head of comedy at the time, for her opinion.

He mentioned he didn’t think it was funny when women got drunk, and I immediately felt like our connection was over.

We performed the show in the evening, and the audience was fantastic. The most memorable moment for me was after the performance when comedian Ben Elton told me, ‘I’ve just seen the future of comedy, and it’s right there on stage.’

Absolutely Fabulous was a hit comedy series that aired from 1992 to 2003, spanning five seasons, and also included a feature film. It was known for attracting many famous guest stars.

Read More

2025-09-23 10:21