Graphic by Tim Battersby
The idea for AB FAB, the hugely popular BBC TV series about 2 heavy-drinking, drug-abusing women, first came to Jennifer Saunders (Edina) when she developed a touring show with her longtime friend Dawn French (the Vicar of Dibley) called "Modern Mother and Daughter."
Ab Fab first aired on 12 November 1992 on BBC TV in the UK. Edina "Eddy" Monsoon (Saunders) and Patricia "Patsy" Stone (Lumley) and produced by Jon Plowman, is a comedy series that tells the story of two high-powered career women on the London fashion scene. Eddy owns a PR company, while Patsy holds a a position requiring little or no work but gives her status and financial benefit at a top British fashion magazine. The two women use their “in your face” wealth to indulge in alcohol, and psychoactive drugs, to try to maintain their youth and recapture their glory days as ravers in Swinging London. The partnership is largely driven by Patsy, who is both co-dependent and enabler to Eddy. Their lifestyle inevitably leads to a variety of personal crises, which are invariably resolved by Eddy's daughter, Saffron (Saffy) Monsoon (Julia Sawalha),whose constant involvement in their exploits has left her increasingly bitter and cynical,and fed up with always having to be the adult in the room.
The series also stars June Whitfield as Edina's sarcastic and thieving Mother. She plays the “oh so boring” grand-mom who is always over at Eddy’s house cleaning, and insisting on cooking anything that clucks. Eddy and her Mom have an (understandably) tense relationship, disagreeing on virtually everything. Also recurring characters in the Monsoon basement kitchen (the main set for the show) are Eddy’s two ex-husbands Marshall (Christopher Ryan) and Justin (Christopher Malcolm), and their respective new partners, Bo (Mo Gaffney), and the cryptic Oliver (Gary Beadle). Bubble (Jane Horrocks), plays Edina's brainless but lovable personal assistant. Bubble hails from the north of England (Lancashire) and has an unusual and hilarious accent, a unique dress sense and a wonderfully childlike outlook and attitude towards business and life in general.
The opening song “This Wheels on Fire,” was written by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko (The Band) in 1969 and was performed by Julie Driscoll and Adrian Edmondson (Jennifer Saunders husband) and became the official theme song for AB FAB.
AB FAB evolved from a French & Saunders sketch called "Modern Mother and Daughter" which starred Saunders as the mother (named 'Adrianna') and Dawn French as the daughter, named Saffron. Dawn French only appeared once in the actual TV series in a cameo role in season one in The Magazine episode.
Joanna Lumley the disreputable Patsy Stone and ne’er do well confidant and drinking buddy of Eddy, was born 71 years ago in Kashmir India to British parents James and Thyra Lumley. She was educated at The Convent of Our Lady School and afterwards attended the Lucie Clayton Finishing School after being turned down by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (R.A.D.A.) at the age of 16. Initially she became a model doing print and TV ads in England, and then gravitated to film work as her face became better known. She specialized in playing upper class parts, using her upper class background to her advantage and secured a part as a Bond girl in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, where she had 2 lines. She acted in a number of other films including becoming Purdey in The New Avengers, a revival of the secret agent series The Avengers in 1976. 16 years later after a string of successful films Lumley's career was boosted even more by her portrayal of the louche, selfish and frequently drunk fashion director Patsy Stone, the last of a string of children born to an aging bohemian mother in Paris in the BBC comedy television hit series AB FAB. The part of Patsy is a perfect fit for this brilliant comedienne.
Jennifer Saunders was born on 6 July 1958 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England. Her mother, Jane, was a biology teacher, and her father, Robert Thomas Saunders, served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF), reached the rank of Air Marshal and later worked for British Aerospace. She has three brothers. Because her father was in the armed forces, Saunders moved to different schools many times. She was educated from the age of five to 18 in boarding schools and then at St Paul's Girls' School, an independent school in west London. Saunders’ character in AB FAB Eddy is fixated on self-indulgence and self-actualization and subscribes to every trend that arises, including New Age spirituality. Saunders in direct contrast to her character is a highly organized lady who attended The Central School of Drama in Swiss Cottage London in 1977. She shared a flat with Dawn French and after college they became a comedy team called The Menopause Sisters becoming members of The Comic Strip a club that was located in London’s red light district Soho where they performed, earning a cult following that included Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson as fans. The Comic Strip is where she met her future husband Adrian Edmondson. Saunders has won a BAFTA, an Emmy Award and international acclaim for writing and playing the lead role of Edina Monsoon in Absolutely Fabulous, which also led to cameo roles in the American sitcoms Roseanne and Friends. She won an American People's Choice Award for voicing the wicked Fairy Godmother in the DreamWorks animated film Shrek 2, but more recently she has written and starred in another two BBC sitcoms, Jam and Jerusalem and The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle. Her other work includes being the face of Barclays Bank and BBC America.
The show has had an extended and sporadic run. The first three series were broadcast on the BBC from 1992 to 1995, followed by a series finale in the form of a two-part television film entitled The Last Shout in 1996. AB FAB is ranked as the 17th greatest British TV show of all time by the British Film Institute.
In 2016 Saunders wrote Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie. It was directed by Mandie Fletcher and was based on the popular TV show. It starred Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks. Of note Julia Sawalha, the hitherto straight-laced Saffy sings Janis Ian’s At 17 to a nightclub full of tearful drag queens.
If you’ve ever had a day with too many rules, too many “have to’s” and you need a dose of irreverent........... then AB FAB is the perfect evening cocktail. “Have that on me Duchess.”
Check out this awesome version of This Wheels on Fire performed by The Levon Helm Band and The All Star Band performed at The Love for Levon concert at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The concert was a tribute to the life of The Band lead vocalist and drummer Levon Helm. (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012 )