Not Ab Fab without June
JOANNA Lumley says Absolutely Fabulous is unlikely to return to our screens – as it would not be the same without the late JuneWhitfield.
TV veteran Joanna, 74, revealed co-star and show creator Jennifer Saunders is reluctant to bring the smash hit sitcom back again.
The loss of June – who died in 2018 aged 93 – is said to be one of the reasons.
Joanna said: “I do not think there will be any more Ab Fab, because Jennifer said she doesn’t want to.
“That is the end of it. Jennifer wrote them. It is her baby. If she says no, it means no.
“Also without our beloved June Whitfield, who we all adored so much, it kind of puts it off balance slightly.We all agreed that was it.
“It is much better to leave something when people still remember it with affection, than banging on now when I look like what I do now.”
Ab Fab starred Jennifer as PR agent Eddy Monsoon, with Joanna as her glamour puss pal Patsy, while June played Eddy’s dotty mother.
The BBC show ran for five series, with seven specials and a movie version in 2016.
Just two years ago, Joanna had expressed her hopes that Ab Fab might return.
She said at the time: “There is some weird nagging thing, particularly for Patsy and Eddy. They don’t seem to have gone back into their boxes so maybe something will come up.”
But now that dream appears to have died, along with fans’ hopes of a 30th anniversary special.
Joanna admitted that the show being three decades old “hurts my head to think about”.
Meanwhile, the much-loved actress said she has struggled to deal with lockdown and being cut off from social circles.
She said: “The thing that is getting us all down is that we are such chatterboxes in this country and largely we do love to say hello to people – and I am no different.
“It will come back soon. I have always thought strangers are friends you have not met yet. We will all be extra nice and extra darling.”
Joanna was talking to Radio 2 about her ITV show Home Sweet Home – Travels In My Own Land.