Bring back Absolutely Fabulous

Jennifer Saunders wrote every word and she says it's over. The movie was the end of it, and it ended well with good reviews and a decent performance at the box office for an independent feature.

We have youtube.

Yeah Jennifer Saunders said the movie was the last outing with these characters and I think that's the right call. I also think June Withfield's death, closed any possibility of Saunders being interested in doing another one.

It absolutely hasn't aged well.

Are there any gay character in Absolutely Fabulous?

I would rephrase R4 and say while the originals are a hysterical relic of their era, things have changed and putting those characters in a current context doesn't pack as much of a punch.

Partly because this kind of humor was a shock initially but is now commonplace, partly because two women in their 40s trying to be hip and trendy was funny but at 60-70 it's just sad.

Well, Edina Monsoon's son. Serge.

Her son is gay.

And let’s not forget her first husband, Sapphy’s father.

They brought it back several times. Not 'just the one, dear?'.

the first three series were good but with the exception of the christmas special "gay" and the movie, everything that came after the 90s was crap.

Jennifer's writing ability has greatly diminished. Season 4 was pretty good, 5 & 6 terrible.

"The Last Shout" was terrific, it was meant to be the last outing, way back in 1996!

Jennifer Saunders is very underrated, she's quite a brilliant comedy writer. Joanna Lumley is also underrated, she's brilliant at comedic delivery.

[quote] Jennifer's writing ability has greatly diminished.

More that she became one of the people she parodied

'The last mosquito that bit me had to book into the Betty Ford Clinic'

'These gloves don't have fingers in them dear' (holding up hands in condoms)

The movie was excruciating.

I think there's still life in the show. There will always be new trends and pretentious people to take the piss out of. Perhaps they could start at mothers funeral. Patsy could be embroiled in a scandal as one of Boris Johnson's ex lovers, Edina is trying to wing Meaghan Markle to manage her PR, Bo and Marshall have decamped from the states because of Trump and are now GOOP representatives in the UK, Saffy's daughter is a lesbian and Edina is over the moon. Serge comes home,

The movie was bad, What works in a half hour format doesn't always translate well to a film. They also tried to put in too many celebrities.

Edina and Patsy could discover Instagram. Edina can finally be thin with the use of filters, but then can't appear in reality.

The actress who played Saffy's daughter died recently.

[quote]The actress who played Saffy's daughter died recently.

OF NATURAL CAUSES! That’s how old the show and the actors are...

suicide at 16 actually r21

The show ended for good so many times, but Jennifer was pushed to revive it again and again. I think she resents it that this is the only thing people want from her. Dawn French seems in a better situation where she can do stuff without having to do a Vicar of Dibley revival (but then she only played the lead and didn't write it iirc).

But I would like to see a Vicar of Dibley update!

r24 now most of the cast of Vicar of Dibley are dead

a current Vicar of Diblry would be too sad with Emma Chambers missing from it.

The series was uneven, but there were clever moments in the first years. Some bits were recycled unsuccessfully. It feels disloyal to admit that some of the later content was embarrassingly unfunny and at times desperate. Saunders at her early best was able to channel Edina in a few scenes where she seems almost possessed by that character. The episode “Birth” when Edina snaps at Saffy for opposing Patsy’s filthy, active menacing (“She’s just tryin’ to be NICE!”) and some seriously mean jabs at June Whitfield’s character (“‘Any Old Junk Taken’? Why don’t you trade yourself in? Go on..Get outta here!”) were pretty transgressive at the time. The first seasons were a pleasure to watch (Fashion, Poor, Death, Morocco,Best Friend) on Comedy Central. Years later I saw the film on an airplane and winced at some of the recycled gags. It was almost as bad as the film version of Strangers With Candy, if that’s even possible. Revisiting the character Magda was punishing to watch, and also the return of the Jamaican nurse who was so funny in her earliest appearances.

As long as there is a Lulu, there will be an Absolutely Fabulous!

Unless fresh ideas have surfaced, AbFab does not deserve continuation. The entire final season was boring, predictable, and not particularly funny.

Brand and image-obsessed hangers in PR are hard to make funny now that they're the mainstream. There are thousands of Patsys and Eddies

Absolutely Fabulous ran its course and hasn't aged well. Bringing it back would be as bad a move as the revamped Alan Partridge, which was hilarious the first time around but isn't funny anymore.

[quote]Absolutely Fabulous ran its course and hasn't aged well. Bringing it back would be as bad a move

I'm not seeing how it's a bad move. It's for the "fans" of course!

A sequel series focusing on a grown up Lola and her gay brother and boring sister (from the final scene in the Last Shout) would be better.

Enjoy it for what it was, and don't cheapen it with a bad sequel/remake.

Showing Serge was the first big mistake. Then Saffy turned into a bitch, Titty ka ka went nuts. It just became too un pleasant to watch.

Yes, Saffy turned into an annoying bitch.

The other bad thing is they used an American laugh track which is ALWAYS louder than necessary.

English humour is often gentle; American laughter is always raucous.

Yes it has gotten bad but it's worth it just to see Joanna Lumley's characterisation. She inhabits Patsy as if she were a real person. It worked until Saffy got old enough to leave home. The premise of the whole series was the long suffering square daughter and the mother with loose morals, but it makes no sense now Saffy is an adult. Why would she stay and put up with the abuse now she's an adult? Stockholm syndrome? Also in the politically correct modern world they can't get away with much. The rampant drug use of the earlier series they couldn't do now. Before Diana died Edina had a joke that bulimia was in vogue, even royalty were doing it. You couldn't get away with that now, if perhaps lets say Meghan or Kate had bulimia.

Still have AB Fab boxed set, every now and then will pop one into VCR for laffs. Agree the show is now so dated and doesn't age well.

Edina is horribly aggressive and cruel towards Saffy, almost bordering upon abuse. Saffy in turn often is a pill you want to whack with a croquet mallet. While understanding premise of show, one never understood why Saff didn't leg it out of that house like Serge. Justin and his partner seemed to have a good life with more than enough money to spare, likely would loved to have Saffy.

The level of self absorption practiced by Eds and Pats was all very well in 1990's; but seems so out of place today. No one would put up with either of them for a moment.

You want to bring back Ab Fab? Do it with Serge having inherited his mother's house moving back to London and surround him with an interesting cast of characters. Christopher Malcolm ( Justin Monsoon) is no longer with us; so maybe Serge could have inherited the antique business of his step-father .

Out gay actors James Dreyfus (Christopher the hair colorist/pimp) and Ian Gelder (Christopher's bf who does drag) so there could be some continuity in casting.

Just checked about June Whitfield's death and found this little article.

I think it made perfect sense that Eddie's and Patsy's toxic attitude rubbed off on those around them later in the series.

Oh, June Whitfield was so wonderful.

June Whitfield was used as 'a straight men' for Edina and Patsy's crazy behaviour.

June had flawless coming timing. No one can really be taught that, either you have it or you don't.

no, don't bring anything back. find the right formula that works in this context. No fucking revivals. Find something new, or at least "new," using the same elements in a new way.

also too, largely agree with r37. Saffy at 16 is justified in being outraged by her damn mother fucking everything up constantly. Saffy at 27 is "move out of the house, bitch, if you're that unhappy." It just doesn't work after a certain age.

R24 R25 R26 It would be easy to do an update/sequel of the Vicar of Dibley, without the former supporting characters. Simply make her a Bishop with a whole new set of wacky people. Any remaining members of the original cast can make a guest appearance.

I think the obese woman who played Vicar of Dibley so repellant that I refused to watch the show.

R42

If only to give poor Saffron a break.

Jennifer should write a show where she and Joanna are divorced lesbians. Sort of very Sontag/Leibowitz. Julia can play a filmmaker or biographer who's trying to do their story.

Here's a question: this same type of humor works in "Shameless". Both the UK and the US have had healthy runs with that show. Why is it considered outdated humor?

I honestly don't think it is, r50. I still watch some old AbFabs and they still work fine. Outrageous and crazy still works, especially with a British accent.

Jennifer Saunders stopped being funny decades ago. All the Ab Fab done after the Millennium was embarrassing and now that June Whitfield’s dead, it’s over for sure. Even Julia Sawahla is in her 50s.

[quote] The other bad thing is they used an American laugh track which is ALWAYS louder than necessary.

Every episode was filmed in front of a live audience. No canned laughter was ever used. My friend was on production. The audience was packed with celebs and sycophants who would roar with laughter. It was annoying at tapings.

it's not a question of whether jennifer saunders stopped being funny (really? Just stoppped? completely?). It's whether a new kind of crazy show could work. I think a new show could. Not the exact same show of decades ago, but the world is always ready for mocking the rich and desperately fashionable.

Bring back Murder Most Horrid. Dawn French was wonderful in that. I hated The Vicar of Dibley. Overall English comedy is dreadful. That’s the reason they watch so many imports. Everything must be so politically correct in Britain.

And now all of English comedy is dreadful and must be stopped. is this a parody thread?

I agree that Saffy still living with Edina as an adult doesn't make any sense.

Would it be possible to cast two younger actresses and do a prequel? Edina and Patsy in the 1960s?

R55, the only imported comedy series that's been shown on any of the main UK networks since 2004 was the revival of Will and Grace, which lasted one season.

[quote]Bring back Murder Most Horrid. Dawn French was wonderful in that. I hated The Vicar of Dibley. Overall English comedy is dreadful.

I liked Murder Most Horrid, but it showed that Dawn French was not a very versatile actress. She has two or three stock characters and all her facial expressions were always the same.

Have you seen the new(ish) drama she's in where she owns a restaurant? It's called "Delicious". Total drama, Dawn doesn't even crack a smile.

She's probably trying to show versatility, R60.

She was in one of those period dramas a while back (before Downton - damn if I can remember the name but something about a woman at a post office) and she was the town buffoon. So she probably wants to play NOT that.

R61 Lark Rise To Candleford. The woman at the post office was Saffy from AbFab, and Mr. Bates from Downton, was her young assistant's father.

[quote] damn if I can remember the name but something about a woman at a post office) and she was the town buffoon

Larkrise to Candleford. And the woman at the post office was played by Julia Sawhala, who for some strange reason whispered all her lines.

[quote]And now all of English comedy is dreadful and must be stopped. is this a parody thread?

Who said that? English comedy is absolutely horrible. They've had a handful of good shows over many decades, but most of it is rubbish. Even English people will tell you this.

Ah yes. But Julia played the adult, the story kind of focused on a younger woman who she was training.

It also had Bates from Downtown and Nurse Phyllis from Call The Midwife.

It was OK but I sort of lost interest after a few episodes.

IMHO comedy of manners is what Britain seems to do best

Mapp and Lucia, Love in a Cold Climate/Pursuit of Love, Jeeves and Wooster, and Importance of Being Earnest.

You also have television series like Are You Being Served?, Keeping Up Appearances, Dad's Army, You Rang M'Lord? Yes, Minister, which are from same genre.

Ab Fab had some elements of a comedy of manners, but not exactly that per se.

Americans try and often fail at doing versions of British comedy of manners. The Office managed rather well, but US version of Coupling was horrible.

OTOH British television (or film) often cannot replicate American comedy. Someone tried to do "Golden Girls" in UK and it stunk.

R65 It was very clearly trying to be the English Little House on The Prairie, just look at the title card.

R64 Gross generalisation or simple ignorance.

The UK and US both churn out a miscellany of various stuff— from the genius to the grotesque.

Does Roseanne still own (or did she ever) the rights to Ab Fab?

R69

No, think someone else holds those rights now.

Roseanne Barr did own rights for American version of Ab Fab initially, but the thing never got past pilot stage.

[quote] She's probably trying to show versatility, [R60].

[quote] She was in one of those period dramas a while back (before Downton - damn if I can remember the name but something about a woman at a post office) and she was the town buffoon. So she probably wants to play NOT that.

If you are referring to Dawn French you might have mixed up two shows. Larkrise to Candleford is a period drama featuring Julia Sawalha (and her character's running gag that several things throughout the show's run are her only weakness!).

There was also another show where Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, and Dawn French were involved called Jam & Jerusalem (or also known as Clatterford in some areas of the world) where Dawn played some kind of the village idiot with some mental problem. The lead of that show was Sue Johnston better known as Miss Denker from Downton Abbey.

R11 One of the reason the later seasons suck is due to Saunders chronic procrastination. She's talked about this in numerous interviews that basically she would agree to do more and realize she had to write it and had no ideas. She and the cast have said the would walk in Monday morning for the first table read and Jennifer would have nothing and it was only by Wednesday that they finally saw something close to a full script and there would be constant rewrites until filming on Fridays.

[quote]If you are referring to Dawn French you might have mixed up two shows. Larkrise to Candleford is a period drama featuring Julia Sawalha (and her character's running gag that several things throughout the show's run are her only weakness!).

Dawn French was in a few episodes of Larkrise. She played the mother to several children, including Alf who features prominently in the show. I think she may have been alcoholic or something, but she wasn't a good mother and left the children to fend for themselves. Finally, Queenie (Linda Basset) took them in. She only appeared in three or four episodes.

[quote] Roseanne Barr did own rights for American version of Ab Fab initially, but the thing never got past pilot stage.

Possibly because there were one or two Ab Fab ripoffs that were disaster. The one with Jean Smart playing the Patsy role comes to mind.

But Edina and Patsy did appear on an episode in the final season of Roseanne.

Both the US and the UK have had their hits and misses with comedy. And yes, the UK can do comedy of manners very well.

I was always impressed that the UK was successful in comedy of manners crossed with slapstick in "Keeping Up Appearances." I understand how the British would think that a woman trying to rise above her class was funny, but that show also played very well in the US because we all know someone who is a bit of a snob. And the creator of the show also tapped into the humor of repetition. In every episode, Hyacinth passes the car, the dog barks and she falls into the shrubs. We know it's coming and yet the sight gag of this hefty woman falling into a bush is funny every time. KUA is a show that the US has not been able to replicate.

What is Britishe? x

R72 I think Ruby Wax was kept at hand to punch up the scripts with jokes. Some of the early writing is pretty sharp and incisive, and the actors’ timing was really good in the first seasons. Over time, they lost that pace and precision (you can see Saunders struggling to remember and deliver some of the longer phrases, and that’s why there are so many blooper reels and outtakes). The set must have felt like a maternity ward with the writers in labor while everyone stood around. There was an outtake where Lumley stands around on set waiting for Saunders, and jokingly touches her nose implying cocaine was involved (obviously a joke and no real indication of substance issues with Saunders). It looks like there was a really fragile alchemy that led to some of the funniest scripts and scenes in the first years of the project, and then they struggled to reproduce these conditions over time, with higher salaries, more expensive production values, etc. it worked in seasons 3 and less so in 4. I stopped watching after that time.

AbFab didn’t necessarily pioneer the off camera “reveal” (where a character is unnoticed and not seen by the audience, then “revealed” to the other characters and the audience for comic effect), but they executed the trick pretty masterfully. This worked worked so well with June Whitfied’s character. In the episode titled “Poor” Whitfield jumps into scene after Edina grouses about throwing away her revolting and unfashionable clothing (“I’d thought you put them on, Dear”). Over time they ramped up the subversiveness, widening the camera angle to show Whitfield using female condoms as dishwashing gloves, and then again literally climbing through a window to observe and embarrass Edina. It was clever. You see this done later on with the character Buster in Arrested Development. It’s a handy comic device.

Whitfield’s timing was amazing, but so was the editing and staging of these stealth/reveal scenes. It’s one of the interesting techniques AbFab experimented with at its creative high points. I think these first seasons of AbFab have aged better than the later material. Particularly season 2, where Edina is her homeliest and meanest, shown up close and in profile and purring lines like “you only work in a shop, you know, so you can drop the attitude”. That episode, Poor, has a lot of clever touches in it, particularly when Edina threatens Lulu. Someone added “and then try very hard to turn it on myself” to Edina’s threat menacing gun threat, a nod to that character’s ego. Little extensions like these were as funny as the broadly farcical scenes and plots.

The first couple of series were very good and have stood the test of time. After that they just became too self-referential and relied too much on celebrity cameos. Ruby Wax was heavily involved in the best series but suffered hugely with bouts of depression and her lack of input in later scripts is very evident. The movie is such a pale comparison to the early series it serves as a reminder they should never try to resurrect those characters again.

R79 I agree.

Watch Ricky Gervais’ Extras. It made fun of how dreadful British comedy - one catchphrase repeated ten million times.

Ab Fab needed an American comedian acting as script doctor to make it funny.

While Americans have churned out their own amount of crap, they have more hits than any other country in the world and pioneered the art of television comedy. Americans are also more brutal in their humor than Brits who do “light comedy”. The fact that “Miranda” and “Mrs Brown’s Boys” are thought of as the best comedies by Brits tells you all you need to know about their humor. Tracey Ullman was the only one who made anything worth watching for the BBC in recent years and that was after working in American comedy for decades.

R81 For someone who thinks so little of British comedy, you seem to have watched a lot of it.

R81 No-one in the UK considers Miranda or Mrs Brown's Boys to be the best of anything. Where the fuck are you getting this from?

[quote] Ab Fab needed an American comedian acting as script doctor to make it funny.

That's exactly what it DIDN'T need.

The Brits have it right with making their series only 6-8 episodes and finishing them off after 3 years. Americans will run an idea so long that it ceases to be funny or tastes change but the show doesn't change with culture tastes.

I think Ab Fab fell victim to the US model of corporate greed. It was funny in its first few seasons but got tired as it went on. They should have ended it by Season 4.

Mrs. Brown's Boys is just fun, not good. Personally I would love to see a movie with Mrs. Brown and Tyler Perry's Madea together.

Miranda Hart is godawful. She shouldn't even be called a comedian.

[quote]No-one in the UK considers Miranda or Mrs Brown's Boys to be the best of anything.

I think Miranda is noteworthy because she perfected the technique of including the audience by looking at the camera, which Phoebe Waller-Bridge now gets high praise for in Fleabag.

Miranda is also good because here you have this unconventional woman as the star of the show. She doesn't take herself seriously and she allows you as audience not to take her too seriously.

Both Miranda and Mrs Brown's Boys are examples of something that was/is popular in the UK but at the same time ridiculed. Neither programme is taken "seriously".

R88 Exactly, similar to how Two and a Half Men was popular in the US, but no one considered it great and ridiculed it.

OP didn't ask for analytical essays people

R2 Mo Gaffney was so goofy and fearless as Bo Chrysalus. I think she ad libbed a lot of Bo’s lines. That clip above is a few seconds too long, but the sirens and law enforcement at the end are pretty fun.

[quote]While Americans have churned out their own amount of crap, they have more hits than any other country in the world and pioneered the art of television comedy

Maybe to a point, but All in the Family, Three's Company and Sanford and Son all were remakes of British TV shows.

Monty Python hit it big before there was an SNL.

And long before E/R and Grey's Anatomy, there was Casualty.

Wow R78. You impress me.

To me Miranda and Mrs. Brown's Boys are farce comedies. Low-brow humor. Shows with low-brow humor are produced and aired all over the world.

R94 And there is nothing wrong with that. Sometimes is great to just sit back and have some mindless entertainment for a half-hour or hour.

r95, the point I was trying to make is that local low-brow humor isn't better than low-brow humor from a different region. It's just there's a greater chance that you prefer your local low-brow humor over foreign low-brow humor and vice versa.

R96 thank you for telling us all about this startling revelation.

R96 I get that, though I think low brow humor is actually more universal than other forms. I can watch a low brow show, from another country, without knowing the language, and still find it funny. The same can't be said for many other forms of comedy.

Mrs Brown's Boys is teenage boy toilet humour.

Well R47, if there should ever be Dibley re-make, that won't keep you from tuning in, as she's lost so much weight you wouldn't recognise her. I believe a lift and tuck as well.

”Yah...But is it Art Eddy?” Patsy Stone - S2E2 Death

I would completely watch the R17 treatment above. The latter series were not as strong as the originals, but carried it forth well. The routine about the Kardashians when Saffy is released from prison is hilarious.

The series after the original three Seasons are a fact that Saunders was trying to write Mirrorball which was new material for the same company of actors, but they all wanted to lean back into Abfab. I can still watch Small Opening and laugh my ass off even though it is derivative homage to the original..

r17 here. Opening scene is at mothers funeral. 'The old woman is dead!' Saffy is inconsolable, Edina is oblivious as it's revealed mother went to Switzerland and euthanised herself. Edina doesn't know what euthanised means. Patsy, dressed in mourning garb; black skirt suit, enormous black hat and sunglasses, walks up to the coffin: 'Bye Mrs M'. Finally mothers' Christian name is revealed to the shock of all, including Edina.

Edina has become an influencer (with filters to make her appear thin. Bubble operates the Instagram account and the filtering as Edina can't operate a computer) in order to attract Meghan Markle to manage her PR. Adopting various guises online (she now cares for the causes Meghan does: trying to lesson her ecological footprint- until she realises she can't use private jets.) Edina eventually gets a phone call from Markle's people wanting to arrange a meeting in person. Edina, trying many a way to conceal her fat, sends Bubble instead and when Markle is about to sign up, Edina's cover is blown. We only see the back of Markle's head.

It is revealed Patsy was once a lover of Boris Johnson and the paps are in pursuit of her to get a story. Patsy casually reveals she and Boris are still in contact as they go to the same hairdresser, and that she advises him on Brexit. Patsy is snapped leaving No. 10 naked under a leather trench coat and boots.

Bo and Marshall have moved to the UK out of their disgust for Trump and are now representatives for GOOP (They both wear red caps that say Make America GOOP again) although they've never met Paltrow, they're illegally expanding the business pyramid-scheme like. They are sprouting the weird and wonderful concepts of GOOP which Edina readily laps up.

Serge appears at mothers funeral to comfort Saffy, with boyfriend in tow. Edina has Bubble snap photos of herself with Serge and his bf because 'Meghan loves the gays.' Edina is also pushing her granddaughter on Instagram because she is biracial like Meghan, and a lesbian. (although later its found Edina made this up)

The end of the episode has Edina find out she was adopted and Bo and Marshall signing Meghan Markle up as their spokesperson for GOOP UK.

Following episode could be Edina finding her real parents (someone important no doubt, sweetie) and the collapse of GOOP UK and international embarrassment for Meghan Markle. (The Duchess of York is now also a spokesperson for GOOP. Edina wonders if the Queen would like a vaginal steamer)

R102 This is why there should never be another episode.

I thought it was pretty clever actually, staying in tune with the show's themes.

I think Mirrorball failed because the BBC didn't care for it and wanted another order of AbFAb.

Jennifer has tried to branch out several times with something different and it just hasn't caught on with the public. So then it's back to Abfab or French and Saunders. Shame because she's very talented (French is too).

I find the character of "Bubbles" to be repellant and offensive.

The characters of Patsy and Edina are extreme and silly because they were so hungry for fame, sex, celebrity, drugs etc. The characters of the other magazine editors are vapid and silly because they were so hungry for commercial success.

The character of "Bubbles" is silly because she seems to be mentally retarded and suffering with Cerebral Palsy.

[quote] I can still watch Small Opening and laugh my ass off even though it is derivative homage to the original..

IIRC Small Opening (Saffy's theatre play) mocked the habit of some shows to have filler episodes called clip shows.

Miranda Hart has been good in some things (Call The Midwife comes to mind) but her sitcom was very slapstick in a basic way. I am guessing it was very British in some ways and doesn't translate well.

I thought 'Small Opening' was great. And how in the end Edina and Patsy have lunch with the people that played them. 'Menopause' is good too. How Patsy has no bone density from not eating and is going through menopause only to be overdosed on HRT and turn into a Stepford wife.

[R106]. d'you mean "Bubble"? I always thought Bubble was the Greek Chorus of AbFab.

R108 We'll see since it is being remade in the US with Mayim Bialik in the Miranda Hart role.

R110 Wotz a Greek Chorus?

French and Saunders still doing bits.

I guess I'm one of the few who like Miranda. Yes, it's low brow but she's funny.

I can't stand Patricia Hodge on Miranda. I know she's playing a snob (and pretends to be a toff in real life) but it's almost as if she deems the role of Miranda's mother and the show beneath her.

Patricia Hodge has always problematic wth that freakish jawline of hers. She belongs on the stage.

I had a major crush on Patricia Hodge as Phyllida Erskine-Brown when I watched Rumpole of the Bailey. But, I have a major thing for blond posh women and men.

I wanted to like Patricia Hodge because she appeared in that classy drama "Betrayal" back in the 80s.

But she was the fallback option after Streep refused to appear in it and (as I said earlier) that jawline looks like a birth defect.

That old bitch made me want to slap her in Downton Abbey.

It was brilliant, but its time is over.

Agreed that it should have ended with "The Last Shout" as intended. Perhaps if Saunders had broken out in movies in a similar way to a mid career Julie Walters (I'm thinking of Walters' "friend"/"teacher" parts, not her leading roles), we would have been spared.

R28 Lulu is really old but eerily well-preserved. She’s had a few good scenes over the years. One episode where Edina commands “glass of champagne for Lulu!”, she blurts out “Bottle!”. When presented with the bottle, she coldly appraises it with a sneer, and points at Edina “...I’ll give you a month”.

At the time, it was interesting to see how the show depicted the interaction between “notables” and public relations agents. PR adversary Claudia Bing was like a punctuated version of Edina, more successful but also uniquely awful. Her bug-eyed blurting of ad concepts “MILK! and BEEF” inches away from Naomi Campbell’s face was sharp and observant comedy, some of the better writing and acting in that season. I think that actress is known in other British media. She’s really good. So was the actress who played Magda.

The actress who played Magda, Kathy Burke, normally plays repellant characters.

Claudia Bing was played by Celia Imrie, who's probably best known for "Acorn Antiques." I think she does those "old luvvies" shows/movies like Marigol Hotel.

Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French said that their favourite celebrity guest was Lulu. They said she was game for anything and she didn't sue them when they shot her. Their "Pulp Fiction" sketch with Lulu required a trip to the hospital for the latter.

R42 & R43---The Gran line I loved even more than "Just the one, dear?" was this one about the "porn cycle." Makes me laugh every time. Terrible video, sorry.

Lulu has taken to wearing ugly robes. She hasn't got fat. I guess she's just reached Dionne Warwick stage of "Couldn't give a shit about dressing up."

[R124], Celia Imrie appeared in an "Upstairs, Downstairs" (Season 4 #5) episode where Georginia trains to become a nurse. She has at most two lines.

Younger gay men don't know the show, which was so huge with Gen X gay men and of course Boomers. Younger Millennials are too far removed from the 60s generation to really get the whole premise and why it was so funny. Gen X were close enough to that generation to still understand the show.

[quote] No-one in the UK considers Miranda or Mrs Brown's Boys to be the best of anything. Where the fuck are you getting this from?

Honey, go look at their ratings and get back to us.

[quote] That's exactly what it DIDN'T need.

The show’s best lines came from a Ruby Wax. Moving on.

[quote] Miranda is also good because here you have this unconventional woman as the star of the show. She doesn't take herself seriously and she allows you as audience not to take her too seriously.

Miranda is ridiculously bad.

R130 By that token, the Big Bang Theory is the best sitcom the US has produced in the last 15 years.

[quote] Miranda is ridiculously bad.

No, it isn't. It's good for what it is, lowbrow humor. In the pilot episode, she's licking a chocolate penis. How can you not laugh at that?

The 102 comment is finely wrought R17

Celia Imrie may be known to Americans from the last remake of "Love In A Cold Climate' shown on many PBS stations. She played "Aunt Sadie"

As it relates to this group, Celia Imrie also starred in a 1990 BBC television drama called "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit".

Yes, as title suggests the series (based upon a novel) is about homosexuality, rather a young girl discovering she is a lesbian.

As for Naomi Campbell's appearance on Ab Fab, apparently she arrived late for first day of filming, and was promptly told off. NC was further warned if she didn't pull her socks up, she would be out.

Things were fine sailing from that point on........

I knew Celia Imrie best for being one of the old bitches in Calendar Girls.

Celie Imrie was also in two good Britcoms. "Kingdom" with Stephen Fry and "After You've Gone" with Nicholas Lyndhurst.

Celia Imrie is also in the senior citizen rom-com Finding Your Feet starring Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall & Joanna Lumley.

She was also in one of the Star Wars prequels.

Nobody's going to mention Celia's masterful portrayal of me?

We would if she was Imelda Staunton, R143.

Or when she professed to be Princess Margaret in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel?

Would it have killed you to have at at least posted a picture or link OP? I mean would that have been so hard? Why don’t you try to think more of others next time before you post?

R5

There are at least two; Christoper (Ed's hair colorist) and his partner in the "Sex" episode. Both roles played by out gay British actors.

Then of course you had Saffy's gay dad Justin and his partner Oliver.

Ironically Gary Beadle (Oliver) is also known for playing a rough thug on Eastenders