Gold to make an AbFab retrospective

Jennifer Saunders breaks the news

Jennifer Saunders is making a retrospective about Absolutely Fabulous for the Gold TV channel.

The comedian broke the news at the BBC Comedy Festival in Glasgow, where she spoke about how she had been 'incredibly lucky' with the casting.

She said comedy icon June Whitfield 'somehow found a strength’ within her ‘submissive’ role and made it look ridiculous; that Joanna Lumley was ‘funny in a way that was slapstick, not caring what you look like’ and that Julia Sawalha was 'a genius … she was the person I was most afraid of.

Gold owner UKTV declined to comment on the Ab Fab retrospective, though it has made similar programmes about many classic comedies – most recently Bottom, created by Saunders’ husband Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall.

Other shows to have received the treatment include The Royle Family, The Fast Show and The Vicar Of Dibley, starring Saunders’ comedy partner, Dawn French.

Absolutely Fabulous ran for 39 episodes over five series from 1992 to 2004, plus a three-part 20th anniversary comeback and a 2016 film that took around $40million at the box office.

Gold is to renamed U&Gold this summer as part of a rebranding exercise across all the UKTV channels.

» ’We couldn't be so vicious about celebrities today’: Saunders at the BBC Comedy Festival

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Published: 24 May 2024