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00:00:00Bursting at the seams with comedy, there's something for everyone with Gold On Demand.

00:00:30It's quite simply the greatest sitcom ever made.

00:00:34For the first time in almost a decade, we're reuniting the cast to tell the definitive story of ApFam.

00:00:44We'll hear from famous fans.

00:00:54And get all the guest star gossip.

00:01:01Jennifer Saunders has opened up the ApFam archives.

00:01:19Jennifer and Joanna share their fondest memories of working together.

00:01:26We'll relive the scenes that still make the cast laugh all these years on.

00:01:30Are we keeping old corks?

00:01:38And reveal some outtakes that'll leave you wondering how the show ever got made at all.

00:01:46All the ingredients needed for a wonderfully nostalgic look back at a truly iconic sitcom,

00:01:51with a couple of delicious treats for even those who know ApFam inside out already.

00:02:01Was I in it?

00:02:03No, I don't think I was.

00:02:30Idina Monsoon and Patsy Stone first stumbled onto our screens, slightly the worst for wear, on the 12th of November 1992.

00:02:38It was a sitcom like no other, and ApFam immediately won a huge fan base,

00:02:43who were as thirsty for Pats and Eddie as Pats and Eddie were for Bully.

00:02:47Comedies that make you laugh. There's probably, I would say, one every ten years that really makes everyone laugh.

00:02:54Forward thinking, so progressive, so inclusive, and it felt modern.

00:03:01A lot of those jokes still feel current.

00:03:04I think the fact that the whole show is from the female gaze is where its magic lies.

00:03:15It's 30 years ago? I'm gonna faint with horror.

00:03:19We just had the best time. We had to do a bit of filming, yes, but we also just had the best time.

00:03:25Darling, before you go, can you help me? You know tomorrow I've got the PR PR person's awards dinner of the lunch month.

00:03:35I'm going upstairs, I've got some work to do.

00:03:38Darling, before you go, listen, can you help me? You know tomorrow I've got the PR PR person's awards dinner of the lunch month.

00:03:43But as long as you didn't need her to say PR PR person's lunch of the month,

00:03:46at this point Jennifer's business card definitely said performer first and writer second.

00:03:51I hadn't really had much of a career before, a writing career, before I had Fab.

00:03:56I'd written with Dawn, but sketches really, just sketches.

00:04:01What did the crankiest say to you?

00:04:04It's your friend Ebadoshi.

00:04:07Jennifer and Dawn were just such inspirations for any of us.

00:04:12They produced and wrote their own stuff, and because of that their voice was authentic.

00:04:17April 1990 was when the Ab Fab story began, over to French & Saunders producer and British comedy royalty John Plowman.

00:04:25It started with a phone call from the girl's agent, in which she told me that Dawn probably wasn't going to be available for the next series of French & Saunders.

00:04:36And during that time Jennifer would be free, and what Jennifer was thinking of doing was writing a sitcom.

00:04:43She then said well it's a sitcom based on a sketch that we'd done in the previous series as it were of French & Saunders.

00:04:51That sketch was called Modern Mother & Daughter.

00:04:54Debbie, it's me, can I come in?

00:04:56No mum, I've got to do my homework.

00:04:58Oh sweetie, honestly.

00:05:00I love the idea that Ab Fab was based on a relationship that was in a sketch.

00:05:06The thing about a sitcom is it should be crystal clear what the relationship is almost from the first two sentences that the characters say, and that's true of sketches as well.

00:05:18In Modern Mother & Daughter, viewers were introduced to straight-laced Safi, played by Dawn, and her dramatic acting.

00:05:24In Modern Mother & Daughter, viewers were introduced to straight-laced Safi, played by Dawn, and her dramatic and self-involved mother who at this point was named Adriana.

00:05:33Oh, Adriana needs a cuddle.

00:05:36Well, hard luck.

00:05:39But could this short sketch be expanded into a comedic world that would sustain five series, six specials and a movie?

00:05:46Spoiler alert, yes. Yes it could.

00:05:48It was so unlike anything else that I wasn't sure necessarily that it would sustain, but I thought if Jennifer's got faith in this, I've got faith in Jennifer and I've got faith in it.

00:06:01And the sketch went on for about nine minutes, so I thought, there's only two of those and you've got a sitcom.

00:06:06What am I going to do without you here? You're the only person who knows how to find the coffee in the morning. I'm hopeless at that, you know that sweetie.

00:06:13Sweetie, make mum a cup of coffee.

00:06:15You're so clever and you know where everything is, darling, don't you? I think it's marvellous the way you know where things are, darling.

00:06:22And so the world of Adriana, who by now had been renamed Edina, started to take shape.

00:06:28If I think of writing Edina, I think of everything being a problem. Even getting up is now going to be a problem.

00:06:38And so everything is funny.

00:06:41But Edina needed someone to do all that everything with. Enter Patsy Stone.

00:06:47I'd seen Joanna guest hosting Terry Wogan's show when I was producing Terry Wogan's show.

00:06:57I'd also seen her in a not necessarily great play called Vanilla.

00:07:04I saw Joanna in a play called Vanilla where she played Imelda Marcus.

00:07:08This very good satire. And she had very short hair and she was pretty terrible.

00:07:13But I liked doing that and Ruby thought it was funny and came backstage, I'd never met her, and said you have to work with me.

00:07:18I mean the timing was magnificent. I remember heaving out of the balcony and then I went backstage like a kind of an agent.

00:07:25I was nobody, right? And I said, hey, you should be in a comedy. And she was thrilled because her career had plummeted.

00:07:32She doesn't mind me saying that, but it was, you know, under the floorboards.

00:07:37So I put her on my show and every year we showed her Descente.

00:07:46It was an alternative Joanna Lumley life where she'd gone off the rails and rehab and Ruby trying to get her out and get her a job and so on.

00:07:54But I loved that.

00:07:55I just worked with her year after year and then when Jennifer, we were talking about Ab Fab, I said I have Patsy.

00:08:04This is how Patsy Stone came into my life. A script plopped through the door, you pick it up, you read it, it's from Jennifer Saunders, read it, thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

00:08:12Was invited to the BBC to meet Jennifer for the first time and to read through a scene so we could just get to know each other a little bit.

00:08:19I remember sitting to do a scene in the back of a car.

00:08:21Are you going straight to the office?

00:08:23Yes.

00:08:24Passed Harvey Nix?

00:08:25No, Pats.

00:08:26But as there was no description as to who or what Patsy was like, I didn't know.

00:08:31And as Jennifer was not at her most communicative in those days, gave me no hint, except look sadder and crosser at almost every word I uttered, I thought this is a dead loss.

00:08:43We didn't know each other. I mean, it's hard, isn't it?

00:08:45We didn't know each other. I didn't quite know what you wanted.

00:08:47And I didn't quite know what I wanted.

00:08:49Well, you didn't quite tell me.

00:08:50No, I didn't know.

00:08:52I rang my agent and I said, look, I don't think Jennifer wants me, but she's too polite to say anything. Do you think you can get me out of this?

00:08:59And my agent said, no, it's a pilot. Just do it. Might not take off.

00:09:04I nearly wasn't Patsy.

00:09:07She inhaled our kitchen.

00:09:14I just nodded off.

00:09:16Then it came to casting Safi, the straight laced daughter played to perfection by Dawn in the original sketch.

00:09:22We saw a lot of people, Jane Horrocks came in to read for the daughter. We had a lot of really lovely people came in.

00:09:29I did the film Life is Sweet that Mike Lee directed and Jennifer saw that and I think that's why I got the audition.

00:09:37But when she saw me in real life, she can't play my daughter. She's far too old.

00:09:41Jane wasn't right, but I thought she's just too good not to have something. So I made Bubble for Jane.

00:09:50Bubble was Adina's PA, a very useless PA.

00:09:55Bubble, did all the models turn up?

00:09:58Yeah, every single one.

00:10:00Except one.

00:10:02Except one? You're not going to tell me it's Yasmin Le Bon, darling?

00:10:07No.

00:10:08Thank God.

00:10:09Sorry, yeah. Yasmin Le Bon's Hill.

00:10:13Originally she was going to be posh, but then we met Jane, Bubble became just more and more eccentric.

00:10:19She will show no mercy in the defecation of your character.

00:10:24Who'd have thought Jane Horrocks was this completely brilliant airhead when she's obviously a deeply intelligent and serious actress.

00:10:32I love the fact that she played so against time.

00:10:35Where's the computer?

00:10:37Computer?

00:10:38Where's the laptop?

00:10:40Laptop?

00:10:42Top?

00:10:46But I do play a good thicker.

00:10:49Get rid of it.

00:10:51Bubble's so fun, and it's so cute, and it's not just for life, it's for Christmas.

00:10:58I think Bubble went through different kind of metamorphosis.

00:11:02She started off being quite like me, and then she was sort of my niece, who was about five at the time, and then she became a snob.

00:11:12And she went, oh, this beautiful thing. Gucci, it's like being down the market.

00:11:17Nightmare in Gucci and Prada.

00:11:20And, yeah, it was a dream role.

00:11:23With Jane cast as Bubble, the AbFab team were still looking for the right person to play Safi, until they met Julia Sawala.

00:11:30I remember getting the script, which was unusual. Not the whole script, just my pages, and I thought, God, that's a lot.

00:11:39And I thought, oh, no, it's Jennifer Saunders, you know, just one of my heroines.

00:11:46I remember reading a scene with her and not being able to look at her.

00:11:50It was the speech out of the pilot, the long speech in the first episode. I had to do that speech.

00:11:55Why is today such a panic anyway? It's only a fashion show and you've had six months to prepare it.

00:12:01I mean, why is everything always so hysterical?

00:12:04I mean, all you've got to do is play a bit of music, turn on the lights, get some people who've thrown up everything they've ever eaten and send them down a catwalk.

00:12:12She was so serious, and she just got it.

00:12:17And I thought, oh, my God, that's exactly what we need.

00:12:20And she completely had the right effect on Edina, which is to make her just seem silly.

00:12:28Who was it you were in a previous life? I suppose you were the Elizabeth Taylor of the Ming Dynasty.

00:12:33Well, close, yes.

00:12:35So how come you've ended up just a mad, fat old cow?

00:12:38But Saffy did have one ally in the Monsoon household, Edina's mother, who was called, well, Mother.

00:12:45Exquisitely portrayed, of course, by the late Dane June Whitfield.

00:12:49Grandad.

00:12:52Always put his false teeth in the turkey's bottom.

00:12:57To make it look as if it was smiling.

00:13:08It's Princess Annie.

00:13:12That's absolutely insane.

00:13:14Oh, June. Oh, she was just fabulous.

00:13:19She gave Mother such a madness.

00:13:21Did you think of her at once when you thought of Mother?

00:13:24I think so, because of growing up with Terry and June and everything else that she'd done.

00:13:30I thought she'd be incredible.

00:13:32I say, I remember those trousers.

00:13:34No, you don't.

00:13:36Still hung on to those.

00:13:38Mind you, I'm surprised you can still get into them.

00:13:41It was rather like trying to get toothpaste back into the tube, even then.

00:13:46She would find pauses, and then she'd drop the line, you know, and I thought, I kind of got into that.

00:13:53I thought, well, that's fantastic.

00:13:55The seventies are back.

00:13:57Oh, does that mean you'll be voting Labour again, dear?

00:14:00So, with the cast assembled, the Ab Fab pilot was recorded in the autumn of 1991,

00:14:06but not everyone at the BBC was ready for such brazenly female-fronted fun.

00:14:11Given that the corporation back then was basically 99.8% men,

00:14:15it's perhaps unsurprising that there were one or two of them who didn't quite get the joke.

00:14:20So, we do the dress rehearsal for the pilot in the afternoon.

00:14:23It's going to happen in front of an audience in the evening.

00:14:26In the afternoon, we do the pilot, and I see Robin Nash, who was the then head of comedy,

00:14:32and I said, what do you think?

00:14:35And he said, I've never found women being drunk very funny.

00:14:42I apologise now.

00:14:45I've never, never found drunk women funny.

00:14:48That's just take the drunk away from that sentence.

00:14:54He's not left.

00:14:56And I thought, well, that's it. It's over.

00:14:59I remember also a Times television review when the first episode came out,

00:15:05and it was, sorry, no, this is not going to work, and it's not funny,

00:15:10and drunk women aren't funny, goodbye, this is the end of that show.

00:15:13And I remember it also said, beware of the sitcom where the writer takes the main part.

00:15:17I thought, oh.

00:15:21But we did it in the evening, the audience were wonderful,

00:15:25and my abiding memory is, at the end of it, I saw Ben Alton,

00:15:30and Ben Alton said, well, I've seen the future of comedy, and it's that.

00:15:35Milking it, milking it, milking it.

00:15:38Coming up, the show is unleashed on an unsuspecting British public,

00:15:41and an icon is forged.

00:15:43Oh, I knew I'd get it wrong.

00:15:45Plus stolly bolly and some courtroom mayhem.

00:15:48Can I just say one word in my defence?

00:15:56This wheel shall explode.

00:15:59Pass.

00:16:01Oh, hello, Brady.

00:16:03Beautiful day out there, you know, the sun's so bright, it's almost blinding,

00:16:06like shards of glass just piercing the clouds.

00:16:09Oh, every second of my journey here is just blazing down my memory.

00:16:13I feel fantastic.

00:16:15Champagne?

00:16:17Oh, yeah, I think so.

00:16:19Powering the engine that drives Ab Fab are the twin pistons of Idina and Patsy.

00:16:24It's ultimately their relationship that keeps fans coming back for more.

00:16:28I mean, I wasn't unconscious for long, was I?

00:16:30Came around really quickly, I was really proud of you.

00:16:32Honestly, I've never remembered a laughing so, so hard.

00:16:36Yeah.

00:16:38And it must have been so annoying for other people, too,

00:16:40because we just would find everything they did funny.

00:16:43It may be stretched to the limit at the moment, darling,

00:16:45but at any moment when he least expects it, it will...

00:16:48I forgot my words.

00:16:50LAUGHTER

00:16:52One of the amazing things about Ab Fab

00:16:55is the size of the characterisations

00:17:00and yet the realism of them.

00:17:02That's one of the things that sitcom can do.

00:17:04You think, oh, my God, that's definitely a real person.

00:17:08Idina Monsoon is up there with Basil Fawlty and Edmund Blackadder

00:17:11as one of the most iconic comedy creations,

00:17:14but what inspired the character of Eddie?

00:17:16Who is she?

00:17:18She's a massive mixture of people,

00:17:20and Rebecca Hale, who's a costume designer,

00:17:23used to tell us stories,

00:17:25because she had quite an eccentric, wonderful mother,

00:17:28always off doing something, you know,

00:17:31suddenly coming out on a balcony when they're on holiday,

00:17:33stark naked, going,

00:17:35darlings, look at the sunset.

00:17:37I remember me and Dawn thinking,

00:17:39that's a cracker of a character.

00:17:41Then when I was an au pair in Italy

00:17:44for someone called Adriana Ivanchich,

00:17:46who was eccentric, eccentric and wonderful and marvellous,

00:17:50and always did wonderful, crazy, crazy things.

00:17:53The same woman had been Ernest Hemingway's muse.

00:17:59And I think I sort of got to love these eccentric, big characters.

00:18:03It's extraordinary to imagine

00:18:05that the woman who inspired Across the River and Into the Trees

00:18:08was the same woman who inspired Idina Monsoon

00:18:12in a successful sitcom.

00:18:14Then we met Lynne Franks, who did PR,

00:18:17and I thought, oh, this is a world.

00:18:19This is a world PR.

00:18:21Let me say, Ab Fab is not based on Lynne Franks,

00:18:23but there was an incident

00:18:25that kind of started the whole thing.

00:18:27Anyway, I was at the airport,

00:18:29and she said, would I like a lift home?

00:18:31So she's in her Jaguar, and she's yelling,

00:18:33what words can you say these days?

00:18:35Okay.

00:18:36I'm going to tell her she's got to get off that fucking runway

00:18:39or I'll fucking slit her throat.

00:18:41And then she held the phone and went,

00:18:43tell that bitch, tell that bitch it'll never work again.

00:18:46I'm going to tear her face off.

00:18:48Do you understand me?

00:18:50She's a bitch.

00:18:52So I had to call Jennifer right away and say,

00:18:54you've got to use this.

00:18:56It was a mixture,

00:18:58and then Idina became probably more me than anything else.

00:19:00And everything you want to moan about,

00:19:02complain about, everything you can't do,

00:19:04Idina can do.

00:19:06I love the way Idina kept a Buddha

00:19:08in the lavatory near the front door.

00:19:14I said, do you do that every day?

00:19:16And you went, yeah.

00:19:18Almost religiously, darling.

00:19:20Try this.

00:19:25We're only sending them up

00:19:27to show how Idina would flit

00:19:29from one to the other, one to the other.

00:19:31She would go, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching,

00:19:33that's when Buddha's thing, da, da, da, da, da.

00:19:34Oh, isolation tank, done that.

00:19:36She would just flit,

00:19:38thinking it was doing her good,

00:19:40whereas, in fact, the big problem

00:19:42was never going to be solved.

00:19:44Yes, yes, yes, yes.

00:19:46Do you want a little bit of joy?

00:19:48She's all surface,

00:19:50and quite a lot of surface at that.

00:19:52Still, it doesn't really matter, does it, darling,

00:19:54because, you know, fat or thin,

00:19:56you still love me, don't you?

00:20:00Patsy just floated into her life

00:20:02and was the excuse for all the bad behaviour.

00:20:04The excuse for the bad behaviour

00:20:06was the fact that they were together

00:20:08and they could egg each other on to do anything.

00:20:10I mean, look, we've only been here an hour

00:20:12and already Pats has got some stuff.

00:20:14No, actually, I brought these with me, Eddie.

00:20:16The character of Pats was inspired in part

00:20:19by someone you might just recognise

00:20:21from other episodes of Ab Fab.

00:20:23I think, initially,

00:20:25she was based a little bit

00:20:27on my friend Harriet Thorpe,

00:20:29who went on to play Fleur.

00:20:31Skin is in.

00:20:32Oh, of course, the usual.

00:20:34Try to look more beautiful

00:20:36if you want to have more sex.

00:20:38Harriet has a great way of supporting you

00:20:40even in your worst habits or anything.

00:20:42If anything's gone wrong,

00:20:44like if I was writing

00:20:46and hadn't written something

00:20:48and the office would be on to me

00:20:50going, oh, when are we going to have this

00:20:52and could we have it

00:20:54and we can't make the show

00:20:56unless we have a script,

00:20:58I mean, ridiculous things like that,

00:21:00I'd ring Harriet and she'd go,

00:21:02you're writing this.

00:21:04Have you ever not done it, darling?

00:21:06No.

00:21:07Well, then tell them to fuck off.

00:21:09Honestly, tell them to fuck off.

00:21:11It'll all be all fine.

00:21:13It'll all be fine.

00:21:15Just you doing it, darling.

00:21:17You're the talent, you're the one.

00:21:19Now, come on, let's go and have a drink.

00:21:21And so that was always Harriet.

00:21:23It was hilarious.

00:21:25And I thought, initially,

00:21:27that was quite a good role

00:21:29for Idina's friend.

00:21:30I thought she'd be a daily mail journalist

00:21:32or something like that.

00:21:34I had her down as a sort of

00:21:36what we used to describe gutter press.

00:21:38Sometimes when you're auditioning for a sitcom,

00:21:40someone comes in who's not exactly

00:21:42what you've written

00:21:44and you think, oh, they're actually

00:21:46going to be funnier,

00:21:48but I'm going to have to write it

00:21:50a little bit different to what I had in mind.

00:21:52Joanna came with this idea

00:21:54from friends of hers

00:21:56and her own experience of modelling.

00:21:58I thought, oh, no,

00:22:00she's also a lowlife.

00:22:02One snap of my fingers

00:22:04and I can raise hemlines so high

00:22:06that the world is a gynaecologist.

00:22:08What a relief it must have been

00:22:10for Joanna Lumley,

00:22:12who is so beautiful,

00:22:14had been the beautiful one

00:22:16since the 60s,

00:22:18and here she got to be a grotesque.

00:22:20Unfortunately, because I'd been a model,

00:22:22I was always cast as pretty girlfriend

00:22:24or sad victim

00:22:26or somebody just not funny.

00:22:28Ready and turn!

00:22:30I remember that Patsy

00:22:32had probably had most of her organs removed

00:22:34and she smoked a lot and she drank a lot

00:22:36and she hung out with the Stones

00:22:38and so although she speaks pretty much all right

00:22:40most of the time,

00:22:42sometimes she goes back to that

00:22:44because she remembers Mick once.

00:22:46Well, I don't think she does,

00:22:48but anyway, she imagines she knew Mick.

00:22:50Eddie, remember that weekend

00:22:52with Mick and the boys?

00:22:54Patsy's not really there a lot of the time.

00:22:56She's smoked and done so much stuff

00:22:58that she hasn't got much going on anywhere.

00:23:00She waits for Eddie to do things

00:23:02and she'll be there too.

00:23:04I mean, why not just have a stupidity tax?

00:23:06Just tax the stupid people!

00:23:08Let them die!

00:23:10Let them die.

00:23:12Let them die.

00:23:14Here, here.

00:23:17What I love is

00:23:19that Patsy has no idea

00:23:21why they're there

00:23:23and what's happening at all.

00:23:25She had quite a slim grasp

00:23:27of anything going on, really.

00:23:28But if she's around another court case...

00:23:30Exactly.

00:23:32Let them die.

00:23:34As a bit of Patsy in every woman,

00:23:37you watch her and you go,

00:23:39I wish I had the ovaries to do that.

00:23:42She likes me because I eat all the food.

00:23:44I like her because she eats nothing.

00:23:46And they egg each other on to do things

00:23:48which they wouldn't do on their own.

00:23:50Yeah.

00:23:52They do stuff together.

00:23:54You need some fun, darling.

00:23:56Let's do something.

00:23:58All right, darling, I'll clear my desk.

00:24:00Mum!

00:24:02I've got to have a life, haven't I?

00:24:04I'm in work.

00:24:06She'll just be the little side salad.

00:24:08I have so many favourite moments.

00:24:10Patsy eating.

00:24:12And the crisps came around

00:24:14and Patsy said,

00:24:16I'll have one of those.

00:24:18Everyone went quiet.

00:24:20I am feeling a little peckish.

00:24:22And we were this close to you

00:24:24in the shot.

00:24:26I think there was Julia and me

00:24:28eating a crisp.

00:24:30And we laughed so hard

00:24:32that you'll notice by the actual take

00:24:34we are not in the shot at all.

00:24:48Delicious.

00:24:51The one where she goes,

00:24:53you know, that.

00:24:55I mean, in rehearsals we couldn't get through it.

00:24:56And she said in rehearsals,

00:24:58I'm not going to do it.

00:25:00I'm going to do it on the night.

00:25:02And we just collapsed.

00:25:04I remember the time that Patsy

00:25:06had to sleep in my bedroom

00:25:08but you made a bed like a dog

00:25:10at the end of the bed.

00:25:12I had to go round and round.

00:25:14I can remember us in Val d'Isere.

00:25:17Ready?

00:25:19Ready now.

00:25:23Patsy got stuck on a ski lift,

00:25:24didn't dare get off,

00:25:26so she just went round all night.

00:25:28Eddie, I'm going round again.

00:25:30A trip to the slopes

00:25:32wasn't Pats and Eddie's only effort

00:25:34to rack up the air miles.

00:25:36I hate France. I hate it.

00:25:38There was the not entirely easy

00:25:40to find chateau in France.

00:25:42We stayed in the gîte

00:25:44instead of the chateau.

00:25:46And the old man who had the keys

00:25:48to the chateau kept trying to

00:25:50knock on the door and give them to me.

00:25:52But he looked quite revolting

00:25:54and didn't have teeth.

00:25:56He just went...

00:25:59What I like is when they have to

00:26:01adapt to real life.

00:26:03It's spidery walls and mouse droppings

00:26:05and having to go into the village

00:26:07for a baguette.

00:26:09A cockroach! A cockroach!

00:26:11No, don't kill it, darling.

00:26:13I'm a Buddhist.

00:26:15I could come back as one of those.

00:26:17To see them doing that I thought

00:26:19was quite funny.

00:26:21We went to Morocco

00:26:23and almost didn't come home again.

00:26:25It's a massive square

00:26:27where you have all the snake charmers,

00:26:29all the stalls selling all the trinkets

00:26:31and it leads off into all the souks.

00:26:33There we are in the market.

00:26:35I'm wrongly dressed

00:26:37in the tiniest, skimpiest thing

00:26:39in high heels.

00:26:41It's honestly shocking.

00:26:43I wish you'd cover yourself up, Mum.

00:26:45Darling, these people don't mind.

00:26:47With a Vivienne Westwood...

00:26:48Wrong for Morocco.

00:26:50Quite an odd threesome, really.

00:26:52Oh! Mum, that man pinched me!

00:26:55Don't worry, he's obviously

00:26:57very old and completely blind.

00:26:59And by the end of it, of course,

00:27:01we haven't got Safi because

00:27:03Patsy sold her halfway through

00:27:05and pulled that award of money

00:27:07which was good because she got rid of Safi.

00:27:09Saf! Saf!

00:27:11Then afterwards,

00:27:13we went and did a bit of shopping.

00:27:15It was all quite Adina and Patsy

00:27:16and Safi, actually,

00:27:18but in our normal clothes.

00:27:20But I know Jennifer bought a lot of rugs.

00:27:25And then there was Adina and Patsy's

00:27:27memorable reunion

00:27:29amongst the New York skyscrapers.

00:27:32How did we get to do this?

00:27:34How did I ever get to stand

00:27:36near the edge?

00:27:38That is iconic.

00:27:40They're all better!

00:27:42There, there, there!

00:27:44And what's weird is

00:27:46you wouldn't know that's me

00:27:48because it's so far away,

00:27:50but that is me!

00:27:52Yeah, babe!

00:27:54Come on!

00:27:56They're in a stolley!

00:27:58I've got a bottle!

00:28:00Christ almighty, I'm so scared.

00:28:02Come on, I'll meet you down there!

00:28:04No, get me from here!

00:28:06I can't find the stairs!

00:28:08Look at me, holding on

00:28:10for dear fucking life.

00:28:12Look at me, I'm standing on the edge

00:28:14of a sixty-seven floor building

00:28:16for five fearful days of our lives.

00:28:18I was shitting it.

00:28:20Shitting it.

00:28:22That last shot, I have to say, is worth it,

00:28:24which pulls out from you.

00:28:26It was amazing what we got to do

00:28:28and it's just a little comedy

00:28:30and I loved it.

00:28:32Coming up, we'll be hearing the gossip

00:28:34from some of Abfab's legendary guest stars.

00:28:36Everything is being done

00:28:38by these brilliant ladies

00:28:40and Joanna Lumley is handing out Rothmans.

00:28:42And we reunite those brilliant ladies

00:28:44to share all their fondest Abfabs

00:28:46and to reminisce about

00:28:48Who's the Worst for Ruining takes

00:28:50by giggling.

00:28:52We were awful together.

00:28:54We had to do our scenes looking like that,

00:28:56not at each other,

00:28:58which made it even worse.

00:29:00We couldn't look at each other.

00:29:02That's absolutely terrible.

00:29:08Help mummy, darling!

00:29:10It's alright, it's alright,

00:29:12just give me a second.

00:29:22The misadventures of Pats and Eddie

00:29:24were a big part of why audiences

00:29:26so loved Abfab.

00:29:28But at its heart, it was a sitcom

00:29:30about a family,

00:29:32albeit a slightly unique one.

00:29:34The programme, weirdly,

00:29:36was about Idina and Safi.

00:29:38That was the kind of basis

00:29:40of the whole thing.

00:29:41And this succubus came in.

00:29:43She was like Ivy or something,

00:29:45you know,

00:29:47or those insects which live off you.

00:29:49Safi, you're going to have to help me, darling.

00:29:51I think Rigor has set in.

00:29:53Oh, for God's sake.

00:30:04But the dummy at the end.

00:30:07What you often need

00:30:09when you're dealing with characters

00:30:11who are also kind of morally irreprehensible,

00:30:13you kind of need permission to laugh.

00:30:16When I heard that Ed's was pregnant,

00:30:18I told her to abort!

00:30:20Abort, abort, abort!

00:30:22Chuck it down the pan!

00:30:24Bring me...

00:30:26A knitting needle?

00:30:28A knitting needle!

00:30:30I can remember being terrified

00:30:32of saying that line

00:30:34about knitting needle and everything.

00:30:36I said, do I have to say that?

00:30:38And she said, yes, you do.

00:30:39And lines like that,

00:30:41the marker was whether Julia thought it was

00:30:43or whether she thought Safi

00:30:45would find that offensive.

00:30:47And she said, no, no, no, that's fine

00:30:49because it doesn't affect her at all.

00:30:51Patsy hated me

00:30:53and it's a horribly toxic,

00:30:55dysfunctional scenario

00:30:57that the three of them are in,

00:30:59but yet they feed off each other.

00:31:02I mean, she's the one

00:31:04who ruined your figure in the first place.

00:31:06She's the one who turned you

00:31:07into a stupid thing.

00:31:09I particularly love the scene

00:31:11where Safi snaps.

00:31:13She says,

00:31:15I'm not going to take it anymore.

00:31:17Sight reading here

00:31:19without my glasses.

00:31:21This is not how it's going to be anymore, Mum.

00:31:24I'm not going to be here

00:31:26just to put you to bed,

00:31:28to feed you, stub out your joints,

00:31:30clear up the sick,

00:31:32lie for you, disapprove of you,

00:31:34and not just you, you as well,

00:31:36a stinking bag of bones

00:31:38that haunts his house every day

00:31:40like a mouldering cadaver,

00:31:42leeching the lifeblood

00:31:44out of everything it can get its suckers onto.

00:31:46I'm fed up of being suckered.

00:31:48I will not take this anymore.

00:31:50This is not how it's going to be.

00:31:52I love that scene.

00:31:54Julia does it so wonderfully.

00:31:56That was really shit.

00:31:58Don't put that in.

00:32:00I think one of the things about sitcoms

00:32:02is that you can make people suffer

00:32:03and there are consequences.

00:32:05You know that Saffy's still going to be there.

00:32:08There's no plot that's going to mean

00:32:10that she ends up having a heroin habit.

00:32:15She was so horrible to Patsy sometimes.

00:32:17But she did do a little test.

00:32:19Patsy had got some...

00:32:21Something from the National Health

00:32:23to say you've got to check yourself.

00:32:25Patsy literally didn't know what she was talking about

00:32:27and had reluctantly to ask Saffy.

00:32:29And Saffy went,

00:32:30Oh, this is revolting.

00:32:32I've got to test your...

00:32:34Check your breasts.

00:32:36Tit test.

00:32:38I've got to do a tit test.

00:32:40Do you feel anything?

00:32:42What's that?

00:32:44Oh, it's nothing.

00:32:47Mother, going past,

00:32:49pilfering stuff from around the house,

00:32:51peeped in through the door

00:32:53and saw what she thought was the beginning

00:32:55of something grotesquely girly happening.

00:32:57Well, I don't think there's any rain on the way.

00:32:59And went, whoop, whoop,

00:33:01tipped her away again.

00:33:03And dear Saffy was so,

00:33:05so revolted by her,

00:33:07but sort of went, you know,

00:33:09you've got to go...

00:33:11Because she's ultimately a good person, Saffy.

00:33:13She was a good person.

00:33:15And the other thing, the smear,

00:33:17is that a doctor thing or...?

00:33:19Doctor.

00:33:21I'm always surprised

00:33:23that people think that Saffy is weak

00:33:25because she's very, very tough.

00:33:26Oh, what's this?

00:33:28Be careful, Gran.

00:33:30This is a new kitchen.

00:33:32Saffy wasn't the only person

00:33:34in the Monsoon household

00:33:36forced to endure a mad parent.

00:33:38Eddie's relationship with Mother

00:33:40was only very slightly less dysfunctional.

00:33:42You used to have one of these

00:33:44when you were a girl.

00:33:46Yeah, but I was never allowed on it.

00:33:48No, you were too big for it.

00:33:50You wobbled.

00:33:52There was an old lady that I knew

00:33:54that was a sort of similar person

00:33:56and they referred to her

00:33:58as the malevolent cabbage.

00:34:00And I think that it's a type

00:34:02that we all know

00:34:04and that is what Mother is.

00:34:06She's the malevolent cabbage.

00:34:08She sits there and she's quiet

00:34:10and she looks a bit sort of soft and frilly

00:34:12and then she'll kill you.

00:34:14She'll just kill you.

00:34:16What you two don't seem to realise

00:34:18is that inside of me, inside of me,

00:34:20there is a thin person

00:34:22just screaming to get out.

00:34:24Just the one, dear.

00:34:26That's the perfect,

00:34:28she'd have got down to one line a scene.

00:34:30Yeah.

00:34:32But it's the killer line.

00:34:34Just the one, dear.

00:34:36That's perfection, you just threw that away.

00:34:38You didn't even look at her,

00:34:40you just went, have it.

00:34:42Master, mistress.

00:34:44A beautiful foil, you know what I mean?

00:34:46Yeah.

00:34:48A beautiful person for your kind of

00:34:50roll-a-lock street woman.

00:34:52My showing-off-ness.

00:34:54Well, yes.

00:34:56Claudia, you're here.

00:34:58Twiggy!

00:35:00A remarkable feature of Ab Fab

00:35:02was the sheer number of guest stars

00:35:04who queued up to join in the overacting too.

00:35:06You've done for me,

00:35:08you've done nothing for me.

00:35:10Oh, what was it? Fisting.

00:35:12Fists across America.

00:35:14Oh, don't start.

00:35:16Do this, do that, be good, be safe,

00:35:18don't be naughty.

00:35:20Zig-a-zig-a-tah,

00:35:22house-proud, house-proud,

00:35:24look at you.

00:35:26She was the butt of the joke

00:35:28because she really was the butt of the joke

00:35:30a lot of the time.

00:35:32And as was Twiggy, as was Lulu.

00:35:34Don't be shy.

00:35:36I bet you've got a lovely voice

00:35:38when you try.

00:35:40Okay.

00:35:42Wait!

00:35:44Stop, stop!

00:35:46I think it always becomes the mark of

00:35:48I think we've got it right

00:35:50when you've got superstars lining up

00:35:52for a cameo.

00:35:54Do you want to press the lotto button?

00:35:56No.

00:35:58Celebrity weakest link?

00:36:00No.

00:36:02Celebrity fat bath?

00:36:04Celebrity rehab?

00:36:06Celebrity junk search?

00:36:08Celebrity wannabe?

00:36:10Celebrity, celebrity, celebrity.

00:36:12She's just brilliant.

00:36:14Celebrity, celebrity, celebrity.

00:36:16I was like, it's really hard as well

00:36:18to not laugh.

00:36:20Celebrity or die with Donna Eyre?

00:36:22No, no, no, nothing with celebrity in it.

00:36:24Well, you're limiting yourself, frankly.

00:36:26Because we needed Eddie

00:36:28to have another client.

00:36:30She only had Lulu.

00:36:32Do you remember Lulu and Queen Noor?

00:36:34Queen Noor.

00:36:36Did I ever tell you the Queen Noor story?

00:36:38No.

00:36:40I was in a design museum doing something

00:36:42that was a great tribute to Stanley Kubrick

00:36:44and all kinds of great and good were all there.

00:36:46We all sat down at quite narrow tables

00:36:48in that place to eat

00:36:50and I was sitting opposite Benedict Cumberbatch

00:36:52who was sitting next door to an attractive woman

00:36:54who leant forward to me with her beautiful hair

00:36:56and I said,

00:36:58she exists.

00:37:00And I said, hello, hello.

00:37:02She said, the kudos I have now in my family

00:37:04with my children since your programme came out,

00:37:06thank you very much.

00:37:08I said, I'll pass that on to Jennifer.

00:37:10Queen Noor.

00:37:12I do remember one of my lines

00:37:14which I just,

00:37:16when I saw them written down

00:37:18I thought, oh my goodness.

00:37:20But to say them out loud

00:37:22was actually quite empowering.

00:37:24If you think

00:37:26you've got the shit

00:37:28of a sweaty overeater

00:37:30the colour

00:37:32of an old man's scrotum

00:37:35then you

00:37:37have got another thing coming.

00:37:42And I just thought that was brilliant.

00:37:44Perhaps you'd become obsessed

00:37:46with one drawer.

00:37:48You know the rubbish drawer in the kitchen, right?

00:37:50It's a string, a pen, a string,

00:37:52whole bits of food

00:37:54and sugar

00:37:56and champagne corks.

00:37:58That's my favourite line

00:38:00almost ever.

00:38:02Are we keeping corks?

00:38:04Are we keeping old corks?

00:38:09But Emma was

00:38:11terrific as that.

00:38:13And guest stars weren't limited to

00:38:15British pop icons.

00:38:19Just by chance,

00:38:21and this is weird,

00:38:23we were filming on a bridge

00:38:24and

00:38:26Sasha Distel actually walked by.

00:38:28Patsy!

00:38:30Oh, sorry.

00:38:32I thought you were someone else.

00:38:34He was an adorable man

00:38:36and a huge star.

00:38:38I love Sasha Distel.

00:38:40A young Tom Hollander popped in

00:38:42and did a turn as

00:38:44Safi's really quite horrible fiancé, Paolo.

00:38:46Maybe this one will last for me, darling.

00:38:48Maybe this will be the one

00:38:50to finally break the seal on that cat box.

00:38:52Mum!

00:38:54You piss out of me a lot,

00:38:56out of my character, my character, my character, not me.

00:38:58What do you think of this one, Pats?

00:39:00Go away, he's too clever for you.

00:39:02Too small.

00:39:04Sex with him would be a rather localised experience.

00:39:06She was ironing my shirts,

00:39:08that was one of the jokes.

00:39:10Cuffs, cuffs,

00:39:12collars cuffed,

00:39:14side sleeve,

00:39:16collars cuffed, side sleeve.

00:39:18I do iron shirts

00:39:20still thinking

00:39:22collars cuffed, side sleeves,

00:39:24side sleeves,

00:39:26and just recently I thought

00:39:28maybe that's not actually true.

00:39:30Well, I don't want to be seen as some sex object.

00:39:32I don't think of you as a sex object.

00:39:34Don't you?

00:39:36I don't think it's even accurate

00:39:38because actually if you start with the sides

00:39:40and the back,

00:39:42you get much further with the shirt, much faster

00:39:44and you feel a sense of achievement

00:39:46and then it's nearly done immediately

00:39:48and then the collars and the cuffs

00:39:50you just do at the end.

00:39:52Whereas if you start with the collars and the cuffs

00:39:54you don't get this anecdote.

00:39:56Some guest stars took a rather more jazz approach

00:39:58to the script.

00:40:00Ruby Goldberg made an appearance

00:40:02when Eddie and Patsy went to New York.

00:40:04Who's been smoking?

00:40:06I can smell it.

00:40:08Is it you?

00:40:10Come here.

00:40:12Come here, girl.

00:40:14Come here, let me smell you.

00:40:16Oh, God.

00:40:18One more time.

00:40:20She was fantastic

00:40:22but she did not do

00:40:24if she was just extraordinary

00:40:26because she's grown up in comedy

00:40:28and improv and everything

00:40:30you present her with a script

00:40:32which went completely off it.

00:40:34Give me five minutes, I'm a genius.

00:40:36We'll meet you on the pier.

00:40:38Can I get another hit?

00:40:40Sure.

00:40:44Who's your mum?

00:40:46Honestly, I just sat there

00:40:48aghast at her genius.

00:40:50It wasn't just movie stars

00:40:52that made an appearance

00:40:54but there were other people

00:40:56who were there to help us

00:40:58and to help us get in, briefly.

00:41:00My main memory of Elton John

00:41:02being a guest on the show

00:41:04was that we were told

00:41:06absolutely he will give you 40 minutes.

00:41:08He was coming in to play at the party.

00:41:10Oh, Elton, darling.

00:41:12What is going on?

00:41:14We've got you the piano.

00:41:16What?

00:41:18The piano, to play at the party.

00:41:20What is this?

00:41:22She's presumptive, darling.

00:41:24Playing?

00:41:26Well, just play, you know, entertain.

00:41:28If you can call it that.

00:41:30You've got a nerve.

00:41:32Anyway, he greeted me as Pat

00:41:34which was very nice

00:41:36because he'd met me in a former incarnation.

00:41:38I think I knew you when you were a man.

00:41:40And I knew you when you had hair.

00:41:42I've always had hair.

00:41:44What a bitch.

00:41:46Get off me!

00:41:48Get off my Yoji!

00:41:50Last season's Yoji!

00:41:52I mean, Elton John.

00:41:54Elton John came in.

00:41:56He came in, he did it.

00:41:5840 minutes later, he left.

00:42:01Zandra.

00:42:03Zandra came in.

00:42:05Zandra Rhodes.

00:42:07Oh, Zandra, hi, it's me, Patsy.

00:42:09I think we did a flashback

00:42:11of Patsy as a model.

00:42:13It was a shoot.

00:42:15And Patsy was on so many drugs

00:42:17that she couldn't just stand up.

00:42:19She was tripping.

00:42:21Oh, no, it's just...

00:42:23I only got her here because she's your friend.

00:42:26Come on, Zandra.

00:42:28She's your friend.

00:42:30And Zandra turns around and goes,

00:42:32she's not my friend.

00:42:34I hardly know her.

00:42:36I just felt sorry for her.

00:42:38I hardly know her.

00:42:40And I think I hardly know her

00:42:42became our sort of catchphrase.

00:42:44You became obsessed with that.

00:42:46And then Jane started saying it

00:42:48and we all started saying,

00:42:50yeah, but I hardly know her.

00:42:52It's really funny.

00:42:54But Ab Fab didn't just cast megastars as guests,

00:42:56it also set some young actors

00:42:58on the path to Hollywood.

00:43:00Oh, look.

00:43:02There he is, Idris.

00:43:04Idris Albert.

00:43:06I like to think you launched him in Ab Fab.

00:43:08Anyway, since then, he's never mentioned Ab Fab.

00:43:10He's never said he's...

00:43:12Oh, no, he's very sweet, actually.

00:43:14I've met him and he's absolutely lovely.

00:43:16I know, but he's never on his list of things he's done.

00:43:18Have you done this before?

00:43:20First time.

00:43:23We did give him the worst joke.

00:43:25Has anyone ever told you

00:43:27you look like Sean Connery?

00:43:29The poor man, I'm not surprised he doesn't advertise it.

00:43:31Has anyone ever told you

00:43:33you look a bit like Sean Connery?

00:43:35Sophie Grable?

00:43:37Sophie Grable, yes.

00:43:39That was for the killing,

00:43:41when the killing was everywhere.

00:43:47And I thought, oh,

00:43:49maybe Idina would dream in Danish.

00:43:50What's up?

00:43:52What's up?

00:43:54Leave the necklace.

00:43:56Leave the necklace.

00:43:58The necklace doesn't mean anything.

00:44:00Can you do some of that Danish now?

00:44:02And she was going to wake up

00:44:04and she said, no, I'm speaking Danish.

00:44:06No, you're not.

00:44:08I'm speaking Danish.

00:44:10No, you're not.

00:44:12It's a ham.

00:44:14No, you're not.

00:44:16But you also had an alternative family in your dream

00:44:18when you went in to have your toenail clipped

00:44:20in your fantasy dream

00:44:22when everybody was replaced.

00:44:24So Safi became Helena Bonham Carter

00:44:26and an ex-husband of yours was Richard E. Grant.

00:44:28Mandy Rice-Davies.

00:44:30Mandy Rice-Davies.

00:44:32But you also had that little Lady Penelope on your foot.

00:44:34Yes, I had Lady Penelope dancing about on my toe.

00:44:36The doctors say there is nothing they can do.

00:44:39It sort of became something

00:44:41that people yearned to be part of.

00:44:43They just wanted to be associated with it.

00:44:45They just loved it.

00:44:47That's because of you, Christine.

00:44:48Oh, yes.

00:44:50Everyone is absolutely fabulous.

00:44:52After the break, we'll take a catwalk

00:44:54back to the 90s world of ab-fab fashion.

00:44:56What are you wearing, Eddie?

00:44:58Lacroix.

00:45:00It's fabulous.

00:45:04And Jennifer and Joanna slip back

00:45:06into some of their old costumes.

00:45:08See you in a sec.

00:45:14Step out of the car, please, madam.

00:45:16Hey, what the hell?

00:45:21What do you want?

00:45:23What are you doing to her?

00:45:26Welcome back.

00:45:28The world of fashion and PR

00:45:30were perfect for Patsy and Idina

00:45:32as there aren't many jobs

00:45:34that combine drinking at lunch

00:45:36with an endless stream of party invitations

00:45:38and couture launches.

00:45:40Except maybe voiceover work

00:45:42I'd probably be done by two, I reckon.

00:45:43PR was a big doodah in the 90s,

00:45:45you know, and it was full of crap.

00:45:47Do you remember just getting

00:45:49endless invitations to parties

00:45:51that were just on the more

00:45:53and more extreme things, you know,

00:45:55just to come to this,

00:45:57come to a vodka party,

00:45:59come to this party,

00:46:01come to hairball.

00:46:04Come to the hairball.

00:46:06I'm sorry, Mum,

00:46:08but I've never really seen

00:46:10what it is you actually do.

00:46:11PR!

00:46:13Yes, but...

00:46:15PR!

00:46:17PR things!

00:46:19People!

00:46:21Places! Concepts!

00:46:23Lulu!

00:46:25No, no!

00:46:27The thing that is funny

00:46:29is that the world of PR

00:46:31is both in this show

00:46:33ridiculous and pointless and mad

00:46:35and the most important thing

00:46:37that has ever happened in the world

00:46:39and if Lulu does not come

00:46:41I make the fabulous,

00:46:43I make the crap into credible,

00:46:45I make the doll into delicious!

00:46:47Delicious!

00:46:49PR, the reason I used it

00:46:51is because it's a way of getting

00:46:53into a lot of different worlds.

00:46:55It was quite a useful job

00:46:57for her to have

00:46:59and getting free stuff,

00:47:01getting lots of free stuff

00:47:03which is what Eddie loved.

00:47:05This is the new me, darling.

00:47:07I'm a mover and a shaker

00:47:09and I'm moving out.

00:47:11It's giving me free

00:47:13and it's the latest thing.

00:47:15But I was always fascinated

00:47:17by Idina's office

00:47:19and what I love so much about it

00:47:21is that she's never there.

00:47:23It's the same with Patsy,

00:47:25like there's a moment

00:47:27when you find out Patsy has a job

00:47:29like halfway through you're like,

00:47:31what?

00:47:33Even I think Idina is like,

00:47:35what do you mean you have a job?

00:47:37I'm going into my office.

00:47:39What do you do?

00:47:41But she's never at work.

00:47:43I am always at work

00:47:45thanks to our friend Mr Mobile Telephone.

00:47:47Anyway, Patsy's got that job for life.

00:47:49You don't mean to say

00:47:51she's actually good at something?

00:47:53No, darling,

00:47:55she slept with the publisher.

00:47:57Funny girl, Eddie.

00:47:59It's my Chanel still in there.

00:48:01This one?

00:48:03Yeah, my little baby.

00:48:05It frightens the editors

00:48:07I'm the only one with Chanel couture.

00:48:09Let them kiss my buttons.

00:48:11By Kathy Burke.

00:48:13Yeah, good.

00:48:15We need to draw up some more advertising revenue.

00:48:17We've lost Swiss watches,

00:48:19two lingeries,

00:48:21and all my tampons have dropped out.

00:48:23I think she was terrified of those names

00:48:25but she absolutely nailed it.

00:48:27She hated those speeches

00:48:29but she did it with such gusto.

00:48:31And, of course,

00:48:33if you're going to run a posh magazine

00:48:35you need to have a few posh people around too.

00:48:37A friend of mine's got a shop

00:48:39with some lovely glasses.

00:48:41They sort of became a double act, didn't they?

00:48:43Yeah.

00:48:45Because they were always there together.

00:48:47Is it expensive?

00:48:49How do you mean?

00:48:51Oh, well, does it cost a lot?

00:48:53Fleur, just literally

00:48:55almost nothing inside.

00:48:57I mean, many sandwiches short for picnic.

00:48:59Faces, eyes, lips, nostrils.

00:49:02It's all off the top of my head.

00:49:04And then Kanye, Katrina,

00:49:06who had the...

00:49:08and with vast blue eyes.

00:49:09And always quite willing to be there

00:49:11and she didn't know what she was doing.

00:49:13Chairs, I thought, might be quite interesting.

00:49:15I've got a friend who's got a shop

00:49:17with some lovely chairs in it.

00:49:19We could have some lovely chairs or something.

00:49:21I mean, I say that much too much

00:49:23given how little I talk about chairs.

00:49:25I mean, it doesn't matter.

00:49:27Somehow they operated very well together.

00:49:29They operated very well.

00:49:31You employed them, Patsy employed them.

00:49:33Patsy only knew two people other than Eddie

00:49:35and that was them.

00:49:37Oh, and Magda, who ran the magazine.

00:49:39I'm quite frightened of Magda.

00:49:41I'm quite scared of Magda.

00:49:43Always scared of Magda.

00:49:45Anybody would be scared of Magda.

00:49:47Where's Magda?

00:49:49Is there a meeting or something?

00:49:51It was just one scene with a couple of lines

00:49:53but Ab Fab was the iconic female comedy show.

00:49:57Just the iconic comedy show, frankly, for me.

00:50:00So I was absolutely thrilled to be asked

00:50:03and I thought, I'm going to be on set

00:50:05with Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley.

00:50:07It was really exciting.

00:50:09How do I look? How do I look, Eddie?

00:50:11I think I can see a panty line.

00:50:13Oh, but Eddie.

00:50:14What?

00:50:15I'm not wearing any pants.

00:50:17Fashion was important

00:50:19because of the extraordinary nature

00:50:21of what Eddie wanted to look like

00:50:23and the fact that everything she had

00:50:25was far too small

00:50:27because she only wore sample size

00:50:29because that's all she could get

00:50:31because she had to be the first to get it

00:50:33so it was always sample size

00:50:35and she was never a sample size.

00:50:37OK, that's it.

00:50:39That's as far as they'll go.

00:50:41Push me up.

00:50:43Leggings?

00:50:45No, slacks.

00:50:47Jennifer looks amazing.

00:50:49Joanna looks amazing.

00:50:51What normal person would wear that?

00:50:53And immediately tells you

00:50:55all about the shallowness

00:50:57and pretentiousness

00:50:59of that entire world.

00:51:01And it was impossible to judge

00:51:03if something was nice or not

00:51:04and I think it might have even been

00:51:06in the very first episode

00:51:08when you go, what are you wearing, Ed?

00:51:10And you go, lacroix, sweetie, lacroix.

00:51:12Lacroix, sweetie.

00:51:14It's all right, isn't it?

00:51:16It's a bit tight, maybe.

00:51:18It's all right, isn't it?

00:51:20People will think, wow, it's a lacroix.

00:51:22OK?

00:51:24I just can't find anything to go with it, that's all.

00:51:26Maybe I could throw up on something for you.

00:51:28Oh, I see someone already has.

00:51:30Gino.

00:51:32I didn't know who Lacroix was

00:51:34when he came up.

00:51:36I think you're in for a bit of a treat, my dear.

00:51:38You're not nervous, are you, darling?

00:51:40I'm fine. You tell him what you want.

00:51:42You tell him what you want.

00:51:44He was, in fact, real.

00:51:46He was a very nice guy.

00:51:48He liked the show.

00:51:50He was very nice to us.

00:51:52I'm sorry, we can't.

00:51:54I do remember once going to McQueen,

00:51:56probably with Rebecca Hale,

00:51:58us trying something on

00:52:00and the girl going,

00:52:02I'll get you a bigger size

00:52:04and she was the most beautiful clothes

00:52:06but they were so awful on Eddie.

00:52:09I've got to clear out my wardrobe.

00:52:11I've got all these horrible,

00:52:13revolting, unfashionable clothes

00:52:15that I simply would not wear, darling.

00:52:17They are not fashion.

00:52:19I put them in a pile on the floor to throw out.

00:52:21I thought you'd put them on, dear.

00:52:23In a show that so inhabited the world of fashion,

00:52:25someone had to keep a record

00:52:27of every cast member's costume, hair and make-up,

00:52:29however outlandish,

00:52:31to make sure they didn't change

00:52:32at the next.

00:52:34That someone was ABFAB make-up designer Jan Sewell

00:52:36and these continuity Polaroids

00:52:38are that record.

00:52:40She took so many

00:52:42that it's a sort of unique record

00:52:44of ABFAB.

00:52:46Oh.

00:52:48Oh, I love that one.

00:52:50Pat and Ed.

00:52:52Pat and Ed in Morocco.

00:52:54Look at that.

00:52:56We're standing in the toilets,

00:52:58because this is Jan Polaroid

00:53:00so she obviously caught us near the toilets

00:53:02because we were so hippie-ish.

00:53:04Very good, is that this?

00:53:06It's a good look, isn't it?

00:53:08It's a very good look.

00:53:10She was quite a successful boy.

00:53:12Let's do that Sonny O'Shea number.

00:53:14This is the patsy

00:53:16I think a lot of people remember.

00:53:18I know.

00:53:20The very short leather skirt.

00:53:22Very short leather skirt.

00:53:24I think this is the patsy

00:53:26that people imitate.

00:53:28They do patsy.

00:53:30They don't imitate

00:53:32Bobble had a way of appearing

00:53:34in a complete,

00:53:36she brought a world of her own

00:53:38to when she arrived.

00:53:40An entire kind of

00:53:42some extraordinary scenario

00:53:44which is this,

00:53:46she's some sort of revolutionary

00:53:48during the French Revolution.

00:53:50I love that.

00:53:52Now you see this is the same,

00:53:54this is Bex just going mad.

00:53:56Why does she have such a big bottom?

00:53:58Because she's in a little puff ball

00:54:00it's like a little outfit

00:54:02She came dressed as a Teletubby.

00:54:04She came as a Teletubby.

00:54:07I think he needs a drink.

00:54:09His nose is very dry.

00:54:11Leave him alone.

00:54:13This is my fave look.

00:54:15That's very early on,

00:54:17that's France.

00:54:19Look at that little Ernest face.

00:54:22You had some spiteful line

00:54:24you said you dressed like a Christian.

00:54:26What kind of friend are you?

00:54:28What kind of daughter are you?

00:54:30At least she has fun with me.

00:54:32You dress like a Christian

00:54:34but the similarity ends there.

00:54:36I think you do it on purpose.

00:54:38How long does it take you to get the crease

00:54:40so crisp down the front of your jeans

00:54:42you torturer?

00:54:44Get out!

00:54:46I had actually said to the costume designer

00:54:48when you iron my jeans

00:54:50can you put a crease

00:54:52right down the middle?

00:54:54Julia always wanted that.

00:54:56I said you could move up to Benetton.

00:54:58She just said no, no.

00:55:00It's got to be the worst.

00:55:02She's nightmare.

00:55:04What are you wearing?

00:55:06Look at this.

00:55:08Look at that shirt so I strangle you.

00:55:10Why does everything you wear

00:55:12look like it's bearing a grudge darling?

00:55:14You've got a wardrobe

00:55:16full of little murderers.

00:55:18Look at them.

00:55:20The ABFAB costumes

00:55:22poor Safi and her starched jeans aside

00:55:24range from the chic to the

00:55:26well certifiable.

00:55:28Oh this is boot camp.

00:55:30This is boot camp.

00:55:32I know I'm trying to remember it

00:55:34but this is boot camp

00:55:36and I was being trained.

00:55:39Arms, upper arms.

00:55:41Upper arms.

00:55:43Punch, punch, punch.

00:55:45Great, great that is fantastic.

00:55:47This is rather gorgeous

00:55:49because it's actually army surplus

00:55:51you can see from this

00:55:53this really is army surplus

00:55:55and then Beck sort of pimped it

00:55:57I hate that word

00:55:59but that's what she did

00:56:00Next one.

00:56:02I've got a feeling this is very, very expensive.

00:56:04I think it's Bottega Veneta.

00:56:06It is.

00:56:08Can you remember when you wore it?

00:56:10I can remember how small it was

00:56:12when I wore it.

00:56:14I went up the Eiffel Tower

00:56:16with Safi

00:56:18and wore this.

00:56:20I think we can just go to the second floor

00:56:22because I don't want to take you right up anymore.

00:56:24This is good.

00:56:26This is my favourite jacket

00:56:28of all time

00:56:30and it's got Eddie

00:56:32and it's got Patsy on it

00:56:34and I remember standing

00:56:36and we had a photograph

00:56:38and he said it was with Peru

00:56:40and he just said good luck.

00:56:42And I've got cigarettes like that

00:56:44it says Mega Death on the back

00:56:46Space Scouts, Girl Scouts, Celebrate Independence

00:56:48a bit bizarre

00:56:50and it's got a little kitten

00:56:52oh that's quite nice

00:56:54I might nick that

00:56:56but Beck's made this

00:56:58She wouldn't nick it

00:57:00Yeah, I love New York

00:57:02It's really chic

00:57:04This is honestly a lovely thing

00:57:06And you've got butterflies on your hood

00:57:08And I've got a feeling

00:57:10that she wore this

00:57:12Eddie wore it when she was washing the car

00:57:14and Twiggy brought mother home

00:57:16Hey!

00:57:18Is this your mother?

00:57:20Well let me see

00:57:22One white paw, yes that looks like her

00:57:24Oh no, the tea's fallen off

00:57:26It's not there

00:57:28No, it was a tea

00:57:30It was a ginger pacey

00:57:32Oh I love that

00:57:34I should have that, shouldn't I?

00:57:36Shouldn't that be mine?

00:57:38While someone tries to wrestle the props

00:57:40back off Jennifer

00:57:42let's take a short break

00:57:44Still to come, the incredible journey

00:57:46of an ab fab episode

00:57:48from scribbles on a page

00:57:50to perfection on screen

00:57:52Goes out, comes back, two fingers

00:57:54There's plenty more behind the scenes gold

00:57:56I think you need this framed in your house

00:57:58Assuming Jennifer

00:58:00And we get the band back together

00:58:02to relive all of their favourite moments

00:58:04Eddie came back

00:58:06from some frightful rave

00:58:08Yes, the rolling who

00:58:10The rolling who

00:58:12Back in two swigs from a champagne bottle

00:58:22Bloody con run

00:58:24Hello, hello, cab, cab

00:58:26Guns

00:58:28We haven't got much time

00:58:30Oh come on, it should be alright

00:58:32Actually the traffic's not too bad, is it?

00:58:34We should be okay

00:58:36When we get in there we're just going to point and load

00:58:38Point and load, point and load

00:58:40Ring the bell, ring the bell

00:58:42Get that door open

00:58:44Welcome back

00:58:46We've been mining the ab fab archives

00:58:48and have managed to unearth

00:58:50some gems that have, until now

00:58:52been feared lost to the BBC's local tip

00:58:54Remember Patsy's brush with the tabloids?

00:58:56Flash, flash, flash, flash, flash

00:58:58Flash, flash, flash, flash

00:59:00Guys, guys, guys

00:59:02Just give me a break, darlings

00:59:04Just give me a break, sweetie

00:59:06I have a life to lead

00:59:08I remember writing that

00:59:10Flash, flash, flash, flash

00:59:12I thought, just keep it going

00:59:14Just keep it going for as long as you can

00:59:16Sweeties, darling, can you just leave me alone?

00:59:18Flash, flash, flash, flash, flash

00:59:20Patsy, Patsy, Patsy

00:59:22Did we overact the whole way through?

00:59:23Yes

00:59:25It's terrible overacting

00:59:27Are these today's?

00:59:29Yes, sweetie

00:59:31Anything in them?

00:59:33Not much, darling, no

00:59:35MP in drug craze, sex romp

00:59:37Shock with fash, mag, slag

00:59:39Damn

00:59:41Drug craze, sex romp

00:59:43I think you need this framed in your house

00:59:45Actually hilarious

00:59:47The Daily Star

00:59:49Full letter Patsy in MP's sex rave

00:59:51Shock's wife of MP keeps silent

00:59:53Bitch

00:59:55One of these though set her age

00:59:57And that just depressed her

00:59:59Yeah, the only thing she didn't like was the age

01:00:01Everything else she was quite pleased with

01:00:03Bastard

01:00:05No, no, no

01:00:07Watch, watch, watch, watch

01:00:09Close horses and

01:00:11No, no, further, further

01:00:13Patsy sent

01:00:1547

01:00:17I'll sue

01:00:19Something I've got at home

01:00:21Because I kept them

01:00:23Videos of Patsy that she did as films in the old days

01:00:26I've got those

01:00:28What do you mean?

01:00:30You know, cheeky old sex films

01:00:32No, no, darling, they're more cult classics

01:00:34She had an enormous sort of

01:00:36Booberella

01:00:38Booberella

01:00:44Occasionally people have taken screen grabs of it

01:00:46And sent it to me to sign

01:00:49That was my fear

01:00:51That they honestly thought it was my tits

01:00:53So the truth is

01:00:55I say, look, it's not me

01:00:57I turn to a very kind old grandmother

01:00:59I say, this was good fun

01:01:01And so I can sign it Patsy Stone

01:01:03Which is what I do

01:01:05Pats would have liked that

01:01:07It's hard to beat Booberella

01:01:09But whilst leafing through her AbFab memory box

01:01:11Jennifer found these incredible handwritten notes

01:01:13That became the basis for so many of AbFab's

01:01:15Most famous moments

01:01:17What I normally do is like

01:01:19As with French and Saunders

01:01:21You just gather loads of ideas

01:01:23And eventually think

01:01:25What could this one be about?

01:01:27Oh, let's call it shoes

01:01:29This'll be about shoes

01:01:31There are some tantalising morsels here too

01:01:33Snippets of projects that might have been

01:01:35Take this single page idea for instance

01:01:37Simply entitled AbFab Movie 2000

01:01:40Futuristic house where they live

01:01:42Only Saffy grows old

01:01:44Which is very funny

01:01:46And very fat with a moustache

01:01:48I think this might be Eddie's dream

01:01:51Everyone's living and wearing silver foil

01:01:54This is the PR PR conference it says here

01:01:59Claudia Bing

01:02:01We feel we have worked out the importance

01:02:03Of brand identity more keenly than many of our rivals

01:02:06As we've shown recently

01:02:08Who's a speech I've written?

01:02:10So obviously I didn't write it for the actual script

01:02:12But I'd written it in longhand on the script

01:02:15And it didn't actually end up like this

01:02:18Because I think it must have got better

01:02:20Because I've got lots of red lines through it

01:02:22Go, take this out

01:02:25Hello, hi, I was hereby going to launch

01:02:29My global integrated network

01:02:31Network, system, bloody system, system

01:02:34But you know if that's what the world's coming to

01:02:36I don't want to be in it, no I don't want that

01:02:38Whereas I, like a bird on the wire

01:02:43Like a bird on the wire

01:02:45Like a drunk in a midnight choir

01:02:49I have tried, yeah, in my way to be free

01:02:54No, it's not all great and fabulous

01:02:56But it ain't that bad

01:02:58Bad, you know, so come on world, cheer up

01:03:00It may never bloody happen

01:03:02Come on darling, I think you're just dead, Eddie

01:03:04Yeah, come on

01:03:06Goes out, comes back, two fingers

01:03:11Bubble is gay, it says here

01:03:14Bubble is gay

01:03:16I never knew that

01:03:18What's her girlfriend like?

01:03:20Because she was always a mystery

01:03:22We never went too much into Bubble

01:03:24Because it's quite nice just to have

01:03:26A slightly surreal character

01:03:28Hoover, Hoover, Hoover

01:03:31You have to turn it on, not just make the noise

01:03:39Hello, this is my daughter

01:03:41This is the weirdest thing in the

01:03:43There, so obviously I'm writing

01:03:45And that says, hello, my name is Beattie

01:03:46It's obviously my daughter

01:03:48When she was very small

01:03:50Just finding it and trying to write on it

01:03:52I just, I just think it's all about

01:03:54Little, little ideas really

01:03:56And little sketches

01:03:58And that went on for the first

01:04:00I think most of the first series I wrote like that

01:04:02And then the second series I didn't

01:04:04And then, then it became harder

01:04:08When things did become harder

01:04:10Jen would reach out to her dear friend

01:04:12And ABFAB script editor, Ruby Wax

01:04:13Ruby was incredibly useful

01:04:15She'll go, better line here

01:04:17You need something here

01:04:19And then she'd come up with them generally

01:04:21Or write six alternatives

01:04:23Her skirt was so short

01:04:25The world was her gynecologist

01:04:27Or, you know, when she did yoga

01:04:29She could give herself a gynecological

01:04:31Examination from the back

01:04:33A man who can look you in the vagina

01:04:35But never in the eye

01:04:37I used to do a lot of faxing

01:04:39Because that's how we sent things

01:04:41Jennifer would sometimes say

01:04:43I'd know to get to it

01:04:45So this is, she said, dear Rube

01:04:47Sorry I didn't call on Saturday

01:04:49But got involved at a horse show

01:04:51She's a whore

01:04:53However, script not very good as a result

01:04:55Blaming the horse show already

01:04:57Need help

01:04:59Urgent

01:05:01Subject matters are

01:05:03Hunting, shooting, fishing

01:05:05And I remember thinking

01:05:07I must do something about hunting, shooting, fishing

01:05:09Because Madonna, Madonna

01:05:11Had married Guy Ritchie I think

01:05:13So I did hunting, shooting, fishing

01:05:15Madonna has opened up this world

01:05:17For us now, sweetheart

01:05:19She's made it stylish, reinvented it

01:05:21So you're going to kill things

01:05:23Because of Madonna

01:05:25This is my favourite bit

01:05:27After an aborted day of clay pigeon shooting

01:05:29Where Eddie manages to shoot a real pigeon

01:05:31Paul!

01:05:33Oh!

01:05:38Good God, Eddie

01:05:40I'm obviously well behind

01:05:41And a bit desperate

01:05:43I will fax you the vague plot of a script

01:05:45That went out this morning

01:05:47But don't be too downhearted for me

01:05:49It is improving by the second

01:05:51And any help much appreciated

01:05:53Realise you are very busy

01:05:55So no panic

01:05:57I'm going to cry

01:05:59Yeah, I think

01:06:01I was a bit desperate at this point

01:06:03I'm going to keep this fax and sell it

01:06:05As a matter of fact

01:06:07I'm going to sell all my scripts

01:06:09To be clear, Ruby is not selling

01:06:11Her scripts to us

01:06:13Although she has given me an idea for a show

01:06:15Desert Island Faxes

01:06:17Let's take a break

01:06:19Whilst I call my agent

01:06:21And we'll be back with some

01:06:23Never-before-seen photos

01:06:25From inside the Ab Fab rehearsal room

01:06:27Oh, look!

01:06:29And some moments from the studio floor

01:06:31That didn't quite go according to plan

01:06:33Oh, stop it!

01:06:35Now that was you!

01:06:37See you in a sec

01:06:42We shall change our vile body

01:06:44That it may be likened

01:06:46To his glorious body

01:06:48According to the mighty working

01:06:50Whereby he is able to subdue

01:06:52As he pleases

01:07:06She's very upset, you know

01:07:08I know

01:07:09Welcome back

01:07:11There are so many famous pictures

01:07:13Of Pats and Eddie through the years

01:07:15But here are some very special photographs

01:07:17That have never been seen before

01:07:19I was intrigued

01:07:21When we started doing this

01:07:23To come across this

01:07:25Which is a book of photographs

01:07:27Given to me by Jennifer

01:07:29Jennifer thought

01:07:31That history should record

01:07:33What we were doing

01:07:35While we were rehearsing

01:07:37And she hired a very nice lady

01:07:39Called Sally Holmes

01:07:41To take some pictures

01:07:43Oh, look!

01:07:45This is quite good

01:07:47To illustrate the rehearsal room

01:07:49Because this is what a rehearsal room looks like

01:07:51I think we'd have four days

01:07:53In the rehearsal room

01:07:55And I remember us asking Sally

01:07:57To come in

01:07:59Just to take some photos

01:08:01As we went

01:08:03I couldn't have done it without you

01:08:05Nobody else would have let me

01:08:07With lots of love

01:08:09Lovely

01:08:11I wouldn't have cared if we never filmed it

01:08:13Never ever?

01:08:15I wouldn't have cared if we weren't even paid

01:08:17Just to do rehearsals

01:08:19Just to be in rehearsal

01:08:21Was just the most fun thing

01:08:23Of just thinking

01:08:25How can we be the funniest we can be

01:08:27And how can I make everyone in this room laugh

01:08:29If you laugh between yourselves

01:08:31In the rehearsal room of a sitcom

01:08:33You're pretty nearly always right

01:08:35Why are these remedy bottles all over...

01:08:37No, that's annoying

01:08:39That's fine

01:08:41It's the first time

01:08:43She's ever had to say that line

01:08:45And I think she deserves some applause

01:08:50I went to rehearse

01:08:52And I remember thinking

01:08:54This is a matriarchy

01:08:56This is quite nice

01:08:58Everything is being done

01:09:00By these brilliant ladies

01:09:02And Joanna Lumley is handing out Rothmans

01:09:04We liked all the smoking

01:09:06Jennifer didn't smoke, I made her

01:09:07And I remember there not really being

01:09:09Much formal rehearsal

01:09:11There was just a lot of people

01:09:13Being very, very funny

01:09:15That thing that happens in comedy circles

01:09:17Where there's a sort of intimidating

01:09:19I always find it an intimidating level

01:09:21Of people being brilliant

01:09:23And topping each other

01:09:25So I was thinking this is all fabulous

01:09:27And they're all kind of

01:09:29Rock star level famous

01:09:31Because of this show

01:09:33But as Jennifer came on

01:09:35And as Joanna came on

01:09:37And Keith, Mick, Ronnie

01:09:39Out they came

01:09:41And Tom Hollander as Barlow

01:09:45Still no tongue

01:09:49You can't make a great sitcom

01:09:51Without a great director

01:09:53And Ab Fab had the best in the business

01:09:55In Bob Spears

01:09:57Bob was insanely brilliant

01:09:59He'd done

01:10:01The whole of the second series

01:10:03Of Fawlty Towers

01:10:05He'd done Dad's Army

01:10:07And he'd just start blocking it

01:10:09And Bob would just let us

01:10:11Work it out

01:10:13And what he was great at

01:10:15Was not interfering with the jokes

01:10:17Or anything he wanted to do

01:10:19He was just a genius

01:10:21At knowing how to put cameras

01:10:35Even though the Ab Fab scripts

01:10:37Weren't perfect by the time

01:10:39They were delivered on camera

01:10:41To put it politely

01:10:43Jennifer occasionally didn't have

01:10:45Every line worked out

01:10:47By the time the cast went into rehearsal

01:10:49To put it less politely

01:10:51It was mayhem

01:10:53But for good reason

01:10:55I do enjoy the fact that

01:10:57It wasn't complete by rehearsal

01:10:59Because then rehearsal sort of made it

01:11:01But there was a couple of times

01:11:03When I just hadn't thought of it

01:11:05I just hadn't thought of it

01:11:07And it consisted usually

01:11:09Of me ringing and saying

01:11:11Okay, how's it going?

01:11:13When do you think we'll get there, Jennifer?

01:11:17Two or three weeks

01:11:19We got very good at playing a game

01:11:21Where she knew she was lying to me

01:11:23I knew she was lying to me

01:11:25But we were in a world

01:11:27Where that was okay

01:11:29Okay, so what happens

01:11:31Is there's nothing, nothing, nothing

01:11:33And then sort of two days

01:11:35Before they're going to film it

01:11:37And then just genius

01:11:39Genius waves out and you go

01:11:41Where did this come from?

01:11:43I think a good comedy rehearsal

01:11:45Is a little bit like jazz, actually

01:11:47You kind of, you need to have the bones

01:11:49You need to know the tune

01:11:51And then you should be allowed to riff

01:11:53Because actually sometimes

01:11:55The magic is in that playing

01:11:57I totally get why Jennifer

01:11:59Liked to keep it loose

01:12:01Probably incredibly frustrating

01:12:03For everybody else, the script editor

01:12:05And people trying to plan the shots

01:12:07It's lightning in a bottle

01:12:09Did it frustrate you, Joanna

01:12:11That sometimes the script

01:12:13Wasn't entirely ready on day one?

01:12:15No, it didn't

01:12:17No, never

01:12:19I never minded at all

01:12:21You never worried

01:12:23I mean, I do think that

01:12:25The chaos of Eddie's mind

01:12:29Was maybe usefully served

01:12:31By the apparent chaos

01:12:33Of Jennifer's writing method

01:12:35In the first series

01:12:37The scripts were there

01:12:39The plots were there

01:12:41But the scenes weren't finished

01:12:43And I started to get

01:12:45Really nervous about that

01:12:47I had a conversation with Jane

01:12:49At one point

01:12:51Because I thought I was flailing

01:12:53Well, I was flailing

01:12:55And I said to Jane

01:12:57I'm struggling so much

01:12:59And Jane said

01:13:01Oh, I'm exactly the same

01:13:03I feel exactly the same

01:13:05Joanna used to get

01:13:07Given a lot of lines

01:13:09At the last minute

01:13:11Which wouldn't have

01:13:13Kept me happy at all

01:13:15But they had a great capacity

01:13:17To learn very quickly

01:13:19Jennifer once gave a script

01:13:21And said one scene

01:13:23Was something funny happens

01:13:25We once did a bathroom scene

01:13:27Where we were smoking a joint

01:13:29And had hidden in your bathroom upstairs

01:13:31Mother was outside

01:13:33Wrap-tapping on the door

01:13:36So we did

01:13:38What? What? What?

01:13:40No, I've forgotten the word now

01:13:42No, what?

01:13:44On your grave marker

01:13:46The words on your grave

01:13:48What is that?

01:13:50Your epitome

01:13:52What is that?

01:13:54What you want on your epitome?

01:13:56I want

01:13:58She was fantastic

01:14:00Patsy was here

01:14:03It wasn't just

01:14:05The people of Ab Fab

01:14:07Who were responsible

01:14:09For making the show sparkle

01:14:11On our screens

01:14:13The studio audience

01:14:15Played a big part too

01:14:17I think there was some shock value

01:14:19In having the audience

01:14:21And the immediate reaction

01:14:23To jokes and things

01:14:25So you knew what worked

01:14:27I love working with an audience

01:14:29I feel like you get the feedback

01:14:31Straight away

01:14:33The audience is a glorious

01:14:35Cast aside with joy

01:14:37It seemed to me that it encouraged

01:14:39The actors

01:14:41To go for it

01:14:43If in doubt, take three, fall over

01:14:49It gives you an adrenaline rush really

01:14:51Just the nerves

01:14:53Of going out in front of a live audience

01:14:55And knowing you had to do it for the cameras

01:15:00The second the audience start to laugh

01:15:02It's you, absolutely

01:15:04Panto

01:15:06Every day is like a pick and mix

01:15:08And all you can eat for 50 cents

01:15:10Is forbidden fruit

01:15:12Isn't it darling?

01:15:20Just darling

01:15:22Stop it

01:15:24That was you

01:15:26Your friend

01:15:30Naughty audience

01:15:33You're not allowed

01:15:35To put off the actors now

01:15:37The difficulty about a studio audience

01:15:39Is that we are actually

01:15:41Servants to the cameras

01:15:43Because that's where it's going out

01:15:45To the wider audience

01:15:47But there in front of you

01:15:49Are 300 people

01:15:51And you drop blood

01:15:53To get them to laugh and love it

01:15:55But they're behind

01:15:57So the temptation is

01:15:59Particularly my temptation

01:16:00To remember that you're doing it

01:16:02For the cameras as well

01:16:04There was this thing

01:16:06Where the people who knew

01:16:08What they were doing

01:16:10I.e. not me

01:16:12Were playing the audience

01:16:14As well as playing the scene

01:16:16Of this dual split thing

01:16:18That you do when you're recording

01:16:20You're acting for the camera

01:16:22But you're also acting

01:16:24For the live audience

01:16:26Look at this beautiful face

01:16:28When I first saw this face

01:16:30I'd never seen before

01:16:32So that was

01:16:34Very anxious making

01:16:36So I went to a doctor

01:16:38And I said

01:16:40Could I have some beta blockers please

01:16:42Because I'd heard that beta blockers

01:16:44Stop you getting hysterical

01:16:46And the doctor went

01:16:48No, I can't just hand out beta blockers

01:16:50They're for people with heart conditions

01:16:53And I said

01:16:55No, no, I'm on Absolutely Fabulous

01:16:57Later, today

01:16:58And he went, really?

01:17:00Pulled open his jaw

01:17:02Here

01:17:04Improvement on the last one

01:17:06The one he picked up

01:17:08In Covent Garden Piazza

01:17:10Old clown face, bad breath and sandals

01:17:12I think when you're filming

01:17:14Without an audience

01:17:16You're trying to nail down

01:17:18What you had

01:17:20Whereas when you're doing it

01:17:22In front of an audience

01:17:24You're trying to expand

01:17:26Into what might be

01:17:28The audience

01:17:30At the end, we'd gone

01:17:32And taken our make-up off

01:17:34Grabbed our bags

01:17:36We'd go up to

01:17:38The bar

01:17:40The bar at the top

01:17:42Hospitality suite at the top

01:17:44Where June's husband Tim

01:17:46Would always be saying

01:17:48That was a marvellous show

01:17:50And he'd always got in

01:17:52Absolutely

01:17:54Well done, that was marvellously funny

01:17:56And we'd all have drinks already there

01:17:58And that was a thing

01:18:00That June might not be happy with

01:18:02And so he was always there

01:18:04Going, June, now

01:18:06Do remember

01:18:08We've got a little thing

01:18:10And she'd be going, oh, Tim, don't worry

01:18:12And June would stay for all the drinks then

01:18:14But he was just always

01:18:16In case she wanted a bit of getaway

01:18:18Do remember, June, we've got a thing

01:18:20That we might need

01:18:22And she'd be going, no, no, Tim

01:18:24And I was always the last one

01:18:26Out of the hostility suite

01:18:28The reason that people get ABFAB

01:18:30In my eyes, wrong

01:18:32Is the fact that they imagine

01:18:34That they crave the wealth

01:18:36And the fancy hotels

01:18:38And the cars and the richness

01:18:40And everything, they hate it

01:18:42They have such disdain for it

01:18:44Which is why they treat it so badly, I think

01:18:46They would be completely in awe

01:18:48Of if they suddenly came across

01:18:50A bohemian, smokey basement

01:18:52With Serge Gainsbourg

01:18:54And Jane Birkin

01:18:56And Bardot

01:18:58And all these cars

01:19:00It's all to them, it's shit

01:19:02There's nothing

01:19:04Because it's not absolutely cool

01:19:06It's not the cool that they would really crave

01:19:11In 2016, Edina, Patsy and co

01:19:13Became fully-fledged movie stars

01:19:15In their own right

01:19:17In ABFAB, the movie

01:19:19A project that, like lots of the best ideas

01:19:21Began life as a drunken wager

01:19:24I think it was a bet with Dawn

01:19:26That I wouldn't

01:19:28A movie probably does go

01:19:30From A to F

01:19:33Whereas a sitcom goes from

01:19:35A to B to A to B to A to B

01:19:37It's a very different cup of tea

01:19:39I miss the audience

01:19:41I miss the rehearsal room

01:19:43I think the rehearsal room

01:19:45We were never together

01:19:47There was no sense of us as a gang

01:19:49Creating it

01:19:51I loved the film so much

01:19:53And I went to see it

01:19:55The night it came out

01:19:56It wasn't just full of women

01:19:58It was all women

01:20:00Everyone had Bolly or vodka

01:20:02And everyone was with their friends

01:20:04And that's exactly what it is

01:20:06It's like an ode to friendship

01:20:08And I thought the film was so wonderful

01:20:10It really talked about the fact

01:20:12That they are kind of

01:20:14They're the love of each other's lives

01:20:16So the question I have to ask is

01:20:18Is there any chance that

01:20:20Absolutely fabulous worried there?

01:20:22No, no

01:20:24Absolutely none

01:20:26Jennifer Saunders, thank you

01:20:28My pleasure

01:20:30I mean, Jennifer also said

01:20:32All those ABFAB scripts

01:20:34Would be delivered on time too

01:20:36And we all know how that went

01:20:38The ABFAB movie was the last time

01:20:40That Jennifer, Joanna, Jane and Julia

01:20:42Were all together on screen

01:20:44Until now

01:20:46But I mean, not right now

01:20:48In a couple of minutes after the break

01:20:50It'll be the ABFAB reunion

01:20:52You don't want to miss it

01:20:54Surprise, surprise

01:20:57This we shall explore

01:21:00Eddie darling, we need some drink here

01:21:02Champagne?

01:21:05We've got one bottle left

01:21:11Welcome back

01:21:13Well, here we are

01:21:15It's the final part of the show

01:21:17And it's time for the big ABFAB reunion

01:21:19Expect hugs, laughter and Bollinger

01:21:21Oh, oh, oh

01:21:23Is it those divine feet?

01:21:24It's the divinities

01:21:26Surprise, surprise

01:21:28Yay!

01:21:30Oh, oh God

01:21:32What a treat

01:21:34Darling, darling

01:21:36Oh, what do you eat?

01:21:38Oh, darling girl

01:21:41When was the last time?

01:21:43Ages ago

01:21:45After June's memorial

01:21:47Oh gosh

01:21:49Look here, have you seen these?

01:21:51These are the old Polaroids

01:21:52Bubbles, bubbles, Polaroids

01:21:54Oh, I remember, I actually remember that one

01:21:56That's so Bubble

01:21:58That was the first series, wasn't it?

01:22:00Have you seen this part?

01:22:06Adorable face

01:22:08But I was a bit sickly there

01:22:10That was in France, wasn't it?

01:22:12That was in France, definitely, yeah

01:22:14I had a really poorly tummy

01:22:16Such a pale little person

01:22:18Oh, Junie

01:22:20And now we're on to Junie

01:22:22And that, we filmed that

01:22:24before we'd done anything in the studio

01:22:26And that's when Eddie came back

01:22:28from some frightful rave

01:22:30Yes, The Rolling Who

01:22:32Is it The Stones?

01:22:34Who was it, darling?

01:22:36Was it Eel Pie Island?

01:22:38Is that cider I smell?

01:22:40The Stones, The Rolling Who

01:22:42The Rolling Who

01:22:46Oh, darling

01:22:48Now look

01:22:50That's gorgeous, don't you?

01:22:52Do you have a worst moment?

01:22:54Can't talk about other people

01:22:56No, my worst moments were always

01:22:59arriving at the rehearsal rooms

01:23:01Do you remember the one

01:23:03when we were rehearsing

01:23:05Hunt and Shoot and Fission

01:23:07And I had nothing

01:23:09I was literally turning up with nothing

01:23:11And I remember thinking

01:23:13What's the excuse?

01:23:15And the excuse was my computer

01:23:17wouldn't work on the train

01:23:19so I couldn't write it

01:23:20I had nothing

01:23:22But by the end of it we had a show

01:23:24It was invariably like that, wasn't it?

01:23:26Invariably by the Wednesday

01:23:28we were thinking

01:23:30And then we'd get new scenes

01:23:32And suddenly it would all happen

01:23:34and come together

01:23:36The paper was actually hot

01:23:38when off the printer

01:23:40It would come in warm

01:23:42On the Wednesday

01:23:44After the tech run

01:23:46Thank God for you, honestly

01:23:48I got off lightly

01:23:50We'd get reams of dialogue

01:23:52at the last minute

01:23:54And we're brilliant at remembering it

01:23:56You know that

01:23:58You know when Patsy says

01:24:00Well, can you say this?

01:24:02And it'd be like five lines

01:24:04I'd be like

01:24:06Oh, I know

01:24:08Oh, God, I'm so sorry

01:24:10It's making me feel

01:24:12You must have come into that room

01:24:14and just seen a sea of faces

01:24:16waiting and looking at you

01:24:18I had to stop outside

01:24:20on the first day

01:24:22because on that first day

01:24:24you had to be the one

01:24:26that kept everything going

01:24:28because otherwise it was Bob

01:24:30Or John

01:24:32who sometimes I remember

01:24:34having to throw out of rehearsals

01:24:36because he couldn't make his face smile

01:24:38And I remember saying

01:24:40John, you're going to have to go

01:24:42because he sometimes had

01:24:44and it was his thinking face

01:24:46He wasn't being awful

01:24:48We can't rehearse with that face

01:24:50It's brilliant

01:24:52And some people have it all prepared

01:24:54and whatever

01:24:56And that's how you flourish

01:24:58On the hoof

01:25:00So sort of improvising really

01:25:02weren't we?

01:25:04Yeah, absolutely

01:25:06Which is lovely

01:25:08And I wish we'd just called it

01:25:10The Improvised Show

01:25:12So there won't be a script

01:25:14It'll all happen that week

01:25:16because that would be great

01:25:18And you want to make sure

01:25:20it's perfect

01:25:22Yeah, not swinging saloon doors

01:25:31You two are terribly good

01:25:33at not ever laughing

01:25:35but you laughed once

01:25:37Talking about the same people?

01:25:39You got bad at one point

01:25:41You just got bad

01:25:43No, when she was doing

01:25:45When she was doing that

01:25:47What were you?

01:25:48I can't remember

01:25:50You were like a cat spraying

01:25:52What was I spraying?

01:26:05You!

01:26:07That wasn't her

01:26:19I don't remember that

01:26:25But we couldn't hold it together at all

01:26:27All the way through rehearsals as well

01:26:29Me and Jennifer

01:26:31We were awful together

01:26:33We had to do our scenes

01:26:35looking like that

01:26:37Not at each other

01:26:39Which made it even worse

01:26:41We couldn't look at each other

01:26:43That's absolutely terrible

01:26:45Because when I started telling her off

01:26:47Well, her bubble face

01:26:49Her bubble face

01:26:51You come back here now

01:26:53I'm fed up with this attitude of yours

01:27:00Much loved the world over

01:27:02for her portrayal of Edina's mother

01:27:04Dame June Whitfield died in 2018

01:27:06at the grand old age of 93

01:27:09June is a very, very sad loss

01:27:12She was a wonderful comic actress

01:27:14She absolutely knew

01:27:16how comedy worked

01:27:18And do you know, darling

01:27:20the real problem started, sweetie

01:27:22because I wasn't even breastfed

01:27:24Oh, don't be ridiculous, dear

01:27:26It wasn't done in those days

01:27:28Imagine me having that clamp to my breast

01:27:32And I always knew

01:27:34Junie always chose clothes for Mother

01:27:36that she might just take home in her suitcase

01:27:38At the end of the day

01:27:40Oh, do you think she did?

01:27:42Always, I know

01:27:44I just put some champagne on the table

01:27:46Nothing fazed her

01:27:48Do you remember her saying buggery bollocks

01:27:50and you go, my gosh

01:27:52Nothing ever fazed her

01:27:54Shall we raise a glass to June?

01:27:56This is to Junie

01:27:58To Junie

01:28:00And to Junie

01:28:02And if I may say so

01:28:04To absolutely Fabio

01:28:06Oh, cheers, my loves

01:28:07Fabio

01:28:09It's us here

01:28:11Fancy News Changing, darling

01:28:13Darling

01:28:15It's us now

01:28:17Fancy News Changing

01:28:19Oh, that's us in our underclothes

01:28:21Look at that

01:28:23I, since, since this picture was taken

01:28:25this is now my actual body

01:28:27This is completely what I look like now

01:28:30Isn't that weird?

01:28:32It was so funny

01:28:34We'd already walked round the BBC

01:28:35walked around the BBC going hello like this on the doors nobody laughed at us

01:28:39which made us laugh even more anyway we've gotten this coach I remember

01:28:43sitting at the front but dressed like this with teeth in I looked out at the

01:28:48window one of the traffic lights and I looked down there was a cup family in a

01:28:51car and a man he looked up like this I would oh no and he said oh look it's

01:28:55Joanna Lumley

01:29:05Oh

01:29:35bursting at the seams with comedy there's something for everyone

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