Absolutely Fabulous, Sporting fun and wrinkles
Yes, we know it’s the Olympics around the corner. We’ve got programmes telling us what the events will be, the history of each event, the history of the Olympics, not to mention Twenty Twelve and various other flags that have been waving the good wave ever since the Olympics committee said “I do” to a London setting and Seb Coe did a little dance for joy. And now they’re actually here, Eddie and Patsy are not going to miss out on all the attention.
I’m afraid that as much as I remember the original Absolutely Fabulous very fondly indeed I don’t have quite so much affection for the more recent flurries into catch-up, generally broadcast over a Christmas period or a brief five minute slot next to Doctor Who in a Comic Relief telethon. I am happy to report the writing is back on form. Yay!
“Brutally without vanity and hilarious for it…”
As much as this claims to be about the Olympics the episode title should really be ‘Ageing’. Brutally without vanity and hilarious for it, the biggest laughs are as ever at Edina’s refusal to accept her own body and its limitations. These used to be her lack of fitness, now she’s crow-barring Patsy into Spanx and planning extensive plastic surgery with as much elaborate detail as she would likely employ for her next wedding. She’s not getting the invitations she once got, she’s stalking Stella McCartney (resulting in a wonderful exchange with the special guest appearance, hawking out Patsy’s history with “your Dad, sweetheart”) and her friends are after cups of tea rather than flutes of Bolly. Even Patsy, the ever-ageless and battling decrepitude, clothes horse party girl, asks if Eddie wouldn’t prefer a private members club and a sofa these days.
Of course the supporting cast were there in force too, and benefiting from Jennifer Saunders’ sharp-witted pen, too. Jane Horrocks, really these days a class above Bubbles, dives in enthusiastically pootling around the house like a demented prophet in various skintight Olympic garbs and passing in snippets of messages as if in code. Julia Sawalha returns as long-suffering Saffy, this time freshly returned from Africa where she shares her husband with eight other wives. June Whitfield keeps her poise and battiness as Mother, executing some excellent comic timing. And Marshall and Bo are in town bickering as to whether he’s got a sex addiction or she’s having a bad menopause, another determined nod to the ageing process Eddie is so determined not to acknowledge.
Of course Joanna Lumley is still a star so bright she’s practically got her own orbiting planets whenever she donned the beehive of Patsy. Able to elicit a punchline from a sneeze and a look, Saunders’ love for her creation is evident in really giving her all of the best gags of the episode.
So, in conclusion – the girls are back on form. They have a couple of Olympics guest stars, they get to have a look around the track, but really this is back on track because it’s about what is irking Jennifer Saunders and is going to catch up with the rest of us sooner rather than later: Growing old, but certainly never growing up.
Absolutely Fabulous, BBC1, July 2012
