AbFab: The Movie!?!?!?

November 8, 2011• bySeattle Gay Scene

Art: DouceArt

Absolutely Fabulous creator and co-star Jennifer Saunders plans to write a movie version of the BBC TV comedy. She hopes to pen the feature film next year once she has finished work on the Spice Girls London stage musical Viva Forever…Ab Fab: The Movie will kick off with Patsy and Edina waking up hungover in the empty drifting yacht of an oligarch in the middle of the ocean. Even worse, their cellphones can’t get a signal. BBC America has just co-produced three new Absolutely Fabulous TV specials, the first of which will air in the UK at Christmas.

WOW! That’s a lot to take in…I don’t know what’s more shocking: AbFab becoming a movie, or the notion of a Spice Girls musical. Both are potential delights…or trainwrecks.

I have to say, I’m nervous about an AbFab movie for a number of reasons. One, the characters are getting a bit long in the tooth…at a certain point, it’s not that funny to see aging actors portray ridiculous characters. It can get tediously ugly and embarrassing. Also, the show itself hasn’t been very funny the last couple go arounds. Adore AbFab and I adore Ms Saunders and Ms Lumley, but maybe enough is enough.

Finally, AbFab always worked best in half hour episodes. The feature length “Specials”, The Last Shout and Gay have their moments, but they also kind of suck, especially the frequently painful to watch Gay where Eddy and Patsy head to NYC to search for Serge. I’m a firm believer that brilliant television comedies seldom make for great films…they’re two different art forms. A half hour format is tough to translate into 80 minutes of coherent comedy. Also, I have a sneaky feeling that a film version of AbFab would feature big name guest stars and that has seldom worked out very well for the show…both Whoopi Goldberg and Nathan Lane were terrible additions to Gay. AbFab: The Film will probably try to cram in as many cameos as possible which would be a huge mistake…I think most fans prefer the antics of the core cast.

But, I also have to admit, I’ll pay $12 to go see this in a cinema. My inner gay daemon child must be appeased. AbFab is our Bible.