Even if it doesn't match the fashion and booze-fuelled brilliance of the TV series, Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie will be one of the summer's must-sees. One UK cinema chain is even laying on special champagne brunch screenings, as if the prospect of Eddy, Patsy, Saffy, Mother and Bubble reuniting on the big screen isn't mouthwatering enough. And that's before you get to celebrity cameos from the likes of Jon Hamm, Rebel Wilson, Stella McCartney, Joan Collins, Jourdan Dunn, Jerry Hall and Kate Moss, whom Eddy appears to drown by accident in the trailer.
To get you even more excited for the movie, which opens in cinemas on the 1st of July, we've compiled a slideshow of 10 unforgettable moments from the iconic TV series. Given how fresh Ab Fab still feels and how quotable Jennifer Saunders' scripts remain ("Champagne for Lulu!" "Cheers, thanks a lot", "Stolly-Bolly, sweetie?"), it's kind of surprising to be reminded that the first episode aired back in 1992. But in case you're wondering, Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley have recently confirmed in an interview with Gay Times that though Eddy is now in her "early sixties", Patsy is definitely still 39.
Patsy and Eddy wake up on a refuge barge
When Eddy loses her speech at a PR awards ceremony, she and Patsy head outside to the bins to retrieve it. But they're already several glasses of champers down at this point, so when they wake up the next morning, the boozy duo find themselves in the middle of the Thames on a trash barge bound for Ostend. However heinous your Saturday morning hangover, it's never going to compete with this.
Eddy and Patsy trash a ski lodge
Ab Fab's two-part special from 1996, The Last Shout, tends to get forgotten because it turned out not to be the show's last shout at all. (There have been since another two series, several other specials and of course the upcoming movie.) In this memorable example of Eddy and Patsy behaving badly, the BFFs begin hurling things at each other in a drunken rage before realising it's much more fun to trash their fancy Val d'Isère digs together.
Magda
A memorable presence in five episodes of the TV series, Kathy Burke's swaggering magazine editor is arguably the greatest of Ab Fab's recurring characters. In this endlessly quotable clip from 1994’s Hospital episode, she skewers fashion's obsession with youth – "If the models get any younger, Pats, they'll be chucking foetuses down the catwalk" – before sharing her thoughts on "journalists with egos." Excitingly, Kathy Burke will be back as Magda in the movie.
Bubble recaps the royal wedding
Jane Horrocks' inept personal assistant is Ab Fab's most off-the-wall character. When asked why she ever employed Bubble, Eddy replies: "She was like a little work of art, you know... a sort of conceptual installation, the concept of a PA." In this clip from 2012, Bubble explains the royal wedding to Saffy, who's just come out of prison, while Eddy and Patsy take down the Kardashians.
Mother's classic one-liner
June Whitfield's Mother isn't half as daft and harmless as she makes out. A kind of altruistic kleptomaniac, she's always looking for ways to steal Eddy's possessions so she can give them to local charity shops. And when the opportunity arises, she's more than capable of cutting her melodramatic daughter down to size.
Saffy slaps Sarah
Naoko Mori's sexually-repressed and tragically unhip Sarah – or "Titicaca" as Eddy always calls her – is another brilliant recurring character. When Saffy introduces her to her prison "best friend", Sarah presumes this is a euphemism for a more intimate kind of relationship, and gets a little bit over-excited.
Patsy rides a motorbike
Joanna Lumley has now become a national treasure who's campaigning to build a "Garden Bridge" across the Thames and famously helped to secure residency rights for all Gurkhas living in the UK. But her performance at hard-drinking, never-eating Patsy Stone is so brilliant you never question the disconnect between the actress and her most famous creation. In this brilliantly ridiculous montage, she shows off her gift for physical comedy while rocking one of Patsy's most iconic looks.
Eddy collects Patsy in a helicopter
Towards the end of Ab Fab's third series, Eddy and Patsy go their separate ways. Eddy tries to "find herself" at a horrible quasi-hippie commune, while Patsy accepts a job at a fast-paced New York fashion magazine. Neither copes very well without the other, so Eddy decides to track down her BFF in typically OTT fashion. As well as being hilarious and cinematic, which bodes well for the movie, this is one of the show's most touching moments
Pasty destroys the kitchen
Though she never does any cooking, preferring to snack on beluga or "some smoked salmon nibbly things" from Harrods’ Food Hall, Eddy's kitchen is the heart of her home. Or at least it was, until Patsy fell asleep with a fag in her mouth... Still, it's a great excuse to redecorate, right?
Please excuse the quality of the clip!
"They don't put fingers on these gloves any more."
Does Mother genuinely mistake condoms for washing up gloves, or is she just trying to embarrass her daughter (again)? Either way, this is one of the show's funniest and best remembered moments.
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