THIS CHRISTMAS IS GOING TO BE ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!

By Marie Carter

Account Director, Tangerine PR

I love Christmas, but this year I am even more excited than ever – why? Because Absolutely Fabulous is going to be back on the TV for a three part special.


Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley will be reprising their roles as Edina and Patsy in this classic sitcom about the world of fashion and PR and I can’t wait...working in Consumer PR myself, this programme has always held a special place in my heart.

Christmas TV is an essential part of the festive season - especially a good comedy – it’s what brings the family together when you have eaten too much and the Queen’s speech has finished. Only Fools and Horses, The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family have all had us in stitches in the past and provided real laugh out loud moments. These shows bring an element of nostalgia and now it is Ab Fab’s turn – even though the cast don’t appear to be any older!

We tease our bosses, Sandy and Sarah that on occasion they have a Patsy and Eddy moment! However, the show couldn’t be further from the truth of PR, but that is what comedy is all about - what I love is that while we do work really hard at Tangerine, we don’t take ourselves too seriously either – and I think this is why we are all fans of the show.

Ab Fab is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year – the first episode was shown back in 2002 (the same year Tangerine was born!) and joining Patsy and Eddy are Eddy’s daughter Saffy, her mother (played by June Whitfield) and fashionista and PA, Bubbles. The two key characters spend their time drinking champagne, chasing bizarre fads in a desperate attempt to stay young and hip and the writing is pure genius. Eddy was apparently loosely based on PR guru, Lynne Franks, who set up her own PR company from her kitchen table and founded one of the UK’s best known consultancies in the 1970s. However, according to a recent interview in the Telegraph , it is only now that Lynne sees the show as flattering.

I know it is going to be popular TV – it still has a following - the Absolutely Fabulous Facebook group has 136,105 fans at the time of writing this blog and on twitter @abfabquotes, which shares some classic lines from the show, has 9,268 followers. So well done to BBC 1 and all I can say is thank you Jennifer for writing the three part Christmas special, especially at a personally difficult time in her life – you have certainly made my Christmas and I hope the rumours about a film are true – I think that would definitely be worth a Tangerine PR night out – with lots of champagne, sweetie darling!