I Love The 90s: Absolutely Fabulous

Sweetie darling, pour yourself some bolly, whack on some Christian La croix,  insert a cigarette because it's time to get Absolutely Fabulous. Those 90s icons, Eddie and Patsy, have been making us laugh with their morally corrupt antics of over-indulgence and debaucherous behaviour for over 20 years now and they're still as popular today as ever. Ab Fab is so of the time, so unmistakeably 90s, with their awful fashion, the massive hair and of course living live to excess, all under the disapproving eyes of Eddies straight laced daughter, Saffie. Ab Fab is one of the best sitcoms to ever come out of England and is hands down one of my favourite shows ever, I love it.

 

 

From the first moment when Eddie wakes up, hits her alarm and we hear Saffie say 'thank you' before Eddie blows a her raspberry in response, you  already know these characters, the mother-daughter relationship completely flipped on its head. Saffie's serious, level headed, straitlaced character has to put up with her drunk, immature self-obsessed and reckless mother to hilarious effect. That's one of the things I love most about this show, when it's just the two of them, downstairs in the kitchen arguing over something stupid that Eddie wants to do or has already done that is completely absurd and unreasonable, like adopt a Romanian baby. Or just turning nothing of great importance like, heaven forbid, a small family lunch into the worst thing that could ever happen! And if poor Saffie doesn't have it hard enough then she has her mothers life long best friend and closest confidant, Patsy Stone, to worry about.

 

"Oh you little BITCH TROLL FROM HELL."

Patsy is quite possibly one of the best sitcom characters ever created. This woman is amazing; she's a fashion editor, although she rarely ever works, hasn't eaten since 1973 and whose age is well, questionable to say the least. She often claims to be somewhere between 39 and 43, although some suspect her age to be a little bit higher. She is played to perfection by Joanna Lumly who steals the show as the ageing beauty who is fastly losing control of her ability to attract men as well as control of her bladder. She acts as the devil on Eddies shoulder to Saffies angel, always encouraging her to do everything she knows she shouldn't, which mainly consists of taking drugs, getting drunk and falling down, a lot.

 

 

"Pay no attention, don't even look at her. She was always doing that as a child."

 

The superb cast is rounded off by the great June Whitfield as Eddies alzheimers suffering mother and her wonderfully strange personal assisstant, Bubbles, who is brought to life by Jane Horrocks. She started out in the first episode as a slightly dizzy PA before turning into an insane piece of abstract art, in fact all the characters became more exaggerated as the series progressed. They drank more and more, living to excess with copious bottles of champagne and vodka, this life style would of course have killed our beloved Eddie and Patsy years earlier but in the world of Ab Fab, their bodies seem to be able to handle a lot more then we mere mortals.

 

 

"Sweetie darling... let me in... Sweetie darling... LET ME IN!"

 

It's the escapades of these two leads that have provided some of the shows best moments. Their selfish and childish behaviour has seen them get up to all sorts of mischief. Eddie seems to have unlimited funds, she's a hell of a lot richer then she even knows which means she can afford to day trip to New York, just to find a door handle that she remembers seeing once. Can go out and spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on art, redecorating her home nearly every year. Not to mention her extensive wardrobe of questionable designer clothes.

 

 

"La Croix sweetie, La Croix."

 

My favourite episodes were the ones where they didn't leave Eddies Holland park house, which is where I want to live one day by the way, like in 'Birthday' where Eddie refuses to attend her own party. I love it when Patsy arrived on the motorbike, so funny. Or the episode when Patsy burns down the kitchen and they end up getting locked in the living room with Saffie for the evening discussing sex and Saffie's birth. Why she stays in that house is beyond me, with the constant stream of abuse she received. That episode contains probably my favourite line from the series ever.

 

 

"When Ed said she was pregnant, I told her to abort. Abort, abort, abort, I said. Chuck it down the pan and bring me a... knitting needle!"

 

Absolutely Fabulous is so bloody funny, Jennifer Saunders is such a phenomenal talent, not only an amazingly gifted comic actress but an incredible writer, as well as writing all 39 episodes she has also written another series 'Jam and Jerusalem; and the new Spice Girl musical 'Viva Forever', which I can't wait to see. I love this woman and I love this show.

Who was your favourite character? And what do you think is the best episode? Let me know what you think, feel free to comment, follow, like, plus and share. Thanks.