Five Js make ‘Ab Fab’ a hit

JOANNA Lumley ( pictured) has played the outrageously hedonistic Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous for more than a quarterof-a-century. She knows her character “inside out” and loves her even though, of course, she’s nothing like her.

“I adore her, because she is so unlike me,” she says. “She’s the sort of polar opposite of me, which makes me really happy to own her, because I’m not her, but she is mine.”

After years of speculation that Ab Fab was coming to the big screen, she was delighted when filming started, especially as the “Five Js” were all on board.

The Five Js are Jennifer Saunders, who created Ab Fab and plays PR guru, Edina “Eddy” Monsoon, Julia Sawalha who is Eddy’s daughter, Saffy, June Whitfield who is Mother, Jane Horrocks as Bubble and Joanna as fashion editor, Patsy.

“A film always seemed like a great idea to me, particularly if we had the original cast,” she says. “I thought it was essential. You couldn’t recast Saffy, Mother or Bubble and if you left them out that leaves a great hole in the Five Js. Having everyone back together was wonderful. We had such a great time.”

Her first day of filming was in the south of France, where Eddy and Patsy have arrived after an unfortunate “incident” involving model Kate Moss that has forced them to flee London with the press and police in hot pursuit.

“Something goes horribly wrong that sends them on the run,” she laughs. “I can remember because the first day, the shoot was in the south of France, so this was almost three quarters of the way into the film. We were in a tiny little car, a one-seater, and there were two of us crammed into that.

“Jennifer had a too-big hat, and both of us with glasses on, driving around. There’s no sort of first day set up – we were straight back into character and it was Patsy and Eddy and it was just like we’d never been away. Great fun.”

The south of France is, she says, a perfect habitat for the luxury loving, champagne swilling duo. “They adore it. They’re in the money at that stage and life seems peachy. Things have gone wrong before, which is why they’re down there, on the run, but it seems to be pretty dreamy, and then it goes horribly wrong again ,” she laughs.

After five hugely successful series, and several specials on TV, Ab Fab has a loyal, dedicated following all over the world.

“When we did the pilot, back in 1991, we wondered if the north of England would get it, because we talked about ‘Harvey Nicks’ – would they know that’s Harvey Nichols, a huge, fabulous department store in London?’ Little did we think that it would work in Greece, Arizona, Calgary, Tokyo. So then you examine, ‘why does it work?’ I think three things: one, the fun and glamour of it; two, the friendship and the fact that it’s based on a real friendship, and no matter how ghastly the family seems, it’s not falling apart, and Patsy and Eddy are and were friends forever; and the third thing is that it’s so bloody funny, and if things are funny, they work, and it doesn’t matter where you are.”

A film was then the natural next step for Patsy, Eddy and company. “I think the idea for the film was that we always thought it should be glamorous, that it should have some sort of dilemma, jeopardy, chase, drama element, that it should be funny, and that it should have some sort of conclusion at the end, because we’re not going onto the next episode.

“The episodes are all stand-alone, but with the same characters. The great thing about having characters who’ve been building up over 20 years is that we know what they’re all like. We know Bubble is mad as a fish. We know that Saffy has always been prim, anxious and furious about her upbringing. We know that Mother is barmy and quite a loose cannon. We know that Patsy and Eddy are glued together and that there’s always the threat that Eddy’s business is going to go belly-up, because she can’t get enough people.

“All these are sort of things that the viewers know in advance, so that’s a huge advantage for the film.”

Filming in Cannes was a treat, she says. “Oh, it was gorgeous. It was lovely to be down there. They’re long days, but filming days always are long – you get up early and know what you’re going to do. You shoot out of sequence, because you have to. We had a lovely sort of dream sequence in it, which they’ve used as one of the trailers, which is how Eddy and Patsy always thought life might be if they weren’t who they were, involving handsome, incredibly young men, and glamour and sunshine and The Good Life, which I think is adorable. It’s so funny, because we both look so charmingly different from how we are in real life.”

Patsy and Eddy have a well-defined sense of style. Joanna knows exactly what Patsy would wear and what she wouldn’t.

“Yes, I always know what she would wear and so does Costume. We’ve got (costume designer) Rebecca Hale, who’s known about her forever, so they bring along stuff that they know would work.

“Patsy’s always beautifully dressed until she falls apart with too much excesses. She wears beautiful clothes from Alexander McQueen and beautiful shoes and she looks stylish with those fabulous bits of jewellery. She always wears her hair up, pretty much.

“She always smokes cigarettes and she always drinks champagne, so now you’ve got a few things that you know, ‘that’s Patsy.’ Which is why people love imitating her, and why the gay boys adore it, because it’s hair up, fag in, maybe sunglasses on.”

And in this politically correct age, Patsy and Eddy remain, utterly, themselves – drinking and smoking too much and living a life of unbridled excess.

“People are saying: ‘Oh gosh, will they be allowed to smoke in front of an audience?’ It’s like a small bonfire! They smoke whenever they want to, that’s all!” she laughs. Nothing can stop them, they just light up anywhere. They’ll have a glass of champagne no matter what time of day it is. I say ‘a glass’ – a bottle! Whatever, two bottles if they can get it.”

It was, then, a delight to play her once again and to be back with the rest of the Five Js. You might say it was absolutely fabulous, sweetie darling. – Supplied