Review: Absolutely Fabulous

The episodes are themed around obsessions such as ‘Fashion’, ‘Fat’ and ‘France’. The sketches seem sharper as you get more comfortable with the tics and teeth of the cast.

Absolutely Fabulous
Director: Jennifer Saunders
Saregama/BBC, Rs 499
***1/2

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Among the shi shi crowd that believes in spending money, not earning it, you could be the sum of the therapies you subscribe to. Consider then, the profile of fashionista Edina, in the BBC comedy serial Ab Fab, who indulges in aromatherapy, psychotherapy, reflexology, osteopathy, homeopathy, naturopathy, shiatsu and Buddhist chanting. Throw a heady dose of dope and alcohol into the blender, and you get the juice.

Jennifer Saunders starts Season One as an Edina who overreacts to the goody-goodness of her always-right junior-college-going daughter Saffron, a role in which Julia Sawalha is fittingly annoying. ‘Saffy’ is like a conscience that scares the bejesus out of Edina and her best friend Patsy, an alcoholic, Ivana Trump-ish blonde, played by Joanna Lumley.

The episodes are themed around obsessions such as ‘Fashion’, ‘Fat’ and ‘France’. The sketches seem sharper as you get more comfortable with the tics and teeth of the cast. And you get gigglier with each raspberry at the petty posh.