Absolutely the end
Exclusive: Jennifer Saunders reveals it’s all over for Patsy and Eddy
IT’S one of Britain’s best-known and best-loved TV series – and has made a string of comebacks since it first hit our screens in 1992.
But its star and creator Jennifer Saunders has revealed that, this time, it really is the end of the road for Absolutely Fabulous.
Speaking exclusively to today’s Event magazine, the comedienne declares: ‘I’m not doing anything more with Ab Fab. That. Is. It.’
Saunders, 58, explains that she is seeking fresh challenges – and wants more family time.
‘I can’t see the point of doing anything else with [Ab Fab],’ she says. ‘It just takes so long. There’s lots of other stuff I’d like to do. Plus, I’d like to spend time with my grandchildren.’
Absolutely Fabulous, which stars Saunders as fashion PR Edina Monsoon and Joanna Lumley as her sozzled sidekick Patsy Stone, has run to five television series, the last of which was broadcast in 2003, with numerous special episodes screened since then.
Earlier this year, there was also a spin-off film that raked in £30million at the box office.
In her Event interview, Saun- ders, who has 550,000 Twitter r followers, also hits out at social- media trolls.
She complains about Twitter:r: ‘Everyone’s a critic. At least in n the old days you didn’t know how many people liked you or hated you, you just lived in this blissful close circle of friends… Nowadays I’m not surprised people are cracking up, because you think, “This is unsafe.”’
She warns that social media is dam- aging for young women, adding: ‘I hate the way it makes girls think they should look. That Kim Kardashian look, it’s so automaton. Girls spend longer and longer in the bloody bathroom, looking in the mirror, taking selfies. Girls are now getting ill because all they spend their lives doing is finding the perfect selfie.’
Saunders, who has three daughters with her husband, comic Ade Edmondson, also hates the way selfie culture means she is stopped on the street for a photo. ‘If you say no, they look at you like you just shot their child,’ she says. ‘Eventually you pull a face into the camera. He puts it on his page and before you know it, you Google my name and that’s the first picture to pop up. Looking s***.’