Patsy and Eddy stagger on in 'Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie'

18 September 2016 - 02:00 By Rosie Fiore

Rosie Fiore meets the Stoli-Bolli pair and reviews their delightfully frothy film'I love your shirt," Joanna Lumley murmurs as I come into the room. I glow with delight. I'm a fashion icon! "It looks like one Edina would wear," she adds, and now I'm not so sure. Does that make me a fashion icon or a fashion victim? There's no doubt which label fits Ms Lumley - she's icon all the way, impeccably turned out in a cerise blazer, and it's impossible to believe she's recently turned 70.Jennifer Saunders begins with the story about her one-way wager with Dawn French, who apparently bet her £100, 000 she'd never write the script for the Ab Fab film. Saunders squeaked in just before the deadline.Rumour has it she'd written just 35 pages and the other 70-odd were filled with "blah, blah blah", but the fact remains she'd begun the process, and we are gathered to celebrate the final result.The film opened in the UK in the week of the EU referendum. I can't help thinking that this is either absolutely the worst week, or the best week, to open a film with the emotional depth of a foot spa. "What would Edina and Patsy think of Brexit?" we ask."They haven't noticed," says Lumley instantly."They didn't know they were in the EU, let alone that they've fallen out of it," adds Saunders."They normally borrow someone's private jet when they go somewhere. As long as the champagne supply doesn't dwindle, they'll be all right."And there's the enduring appeal of Ab Fab right there. For a show obsessed with fashion and the latest thing, Ab Fab is paradoxically timeless.Edina and Patsy are so utterly self-absorbed, they cannot be changed by events or circumstance. "Everything is magnified in them because they don't reflect. They don't see themselves," says Saunders.This insight prompts the question, "How like your characters are you?"Saunders laughs. "They're the people we can't be. That's kind of the whole point." She turns to Lumley. "Well, you're similar to Patsy in that you're always incredibly elegant.""Thank you," says Lumley. "That's very kind. I do smoke, but not as much as Patsy. I do drink, but not as much as Patsy. But after that, it's pretty much ...""You can get quite argumentative." Saunders interrupts. Lumley laughs.We ask Saunders how she found the experience of writing a film, being freed from the constraints of the TV format? "There's something quite nice about constraint," she says, "and something quite frightening about being allowed free rein.Film demands so much more in the structure. You can't dwell on things like on TV, you need to keep things moving."Despite these misgivings she seems to have risen to the challenge, sending Eddie and Patsy off on an adventure to the South of France and cramming every frame with celebrity cameos."When people heard we were making the film, they asked to do it," Saunders says. "Most people didn't mind what they did, or how humiliatingly small the part. They just wanted to be in it."  And they are. From Graham Norton to John Hamm, and from designer Jean Paul Gaultier to a glittering dream sequence involving Alexa Chung, Lily Cole and a dozen other supermodels. Recalling the names sends Saunders and Lumley off on a happy riff."I loved being on the terrace with Barry Humphries, with all the old men and the girls who are all about 16," says Saunders. "And of course, Joan Collins sitting by the pool and Dame Edna arrives. I'm sorry, it doesn't get much better than that.""Rebel Wilson is filthy," says Lumley, "So inventive.""She asked to be in the movie about a year before we began shooting," says Saunders. "When we met, you'd hardly heard of her. A year later she's a massive star through Pitch Perfect. She just ignored the script and said much funnier stuff. She's hilarious."..

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