Ab Fab reunion in the works

An Absolutely Fabulous reunion is in the works, star Joanna Lumley has revealed.

The actress said that Jennifer Saunders has already contacted her with an eye to reviving the show, and she said: ‘Bring it on!’

The comeback is apparently the idea of executive producer Jon Plowman, who wrote to Saunders asking if she would be interested in returning to the PR sitcom.

Lumley – who is currently making her Broadway debut in New York said: ‘Jen wrote to me before I left and said, “Let’s talk through it. What do you think?” And I said, “Bring it on.”

‘Because we’re all still here. Mother’s still alive – the wonderful June Whitfield. Julia Sawalha, Jane Horrocks – the basic five J’s. We’re all still alive and available – ish – to do it, and I think we just have to do it.’

In her interview with Broadway magazine Playbill, she said the fact the show has already ‘fast-forwarded to where they’re very old and nearly dead and practically plugged into vodka machines’ means they have the freedom to keep returning to the characters.

The series debuted in 1992 and ran its supposed last-ever episode in 1995. However it proved a hard show to keep down, returning for another two ‘final’ episodes in 1996, before making another, more substantial comeback, in 2001 for two more series and three speicals, the last of which aired on Christmas Day 2004.

Published: 9 Nov 2010