Since its 1992 BBC debut, Absolutely Fabulous (AbFab to those in the know), an irreverent, wickedly satiric swipe at the appealing and appalling fashion industry, has become the U.K.'s hottest TV comedy. Thanks to an equally ab fab reception on Cable's Comedy Central, the politically incorrect Britcom is currently delighting audiences on both sides of the Atlantic with its outrageous variety of loopy catch phrases, meaningless platitudes, and marvelously realized (i.e. ab fab) characters of the engagingly unpleasant type not seen since the 1970s heyday of Fawlty Towers. Here are the entire first six episodes (including excised material) in one ab fab book. Fans can now cherish, adore, and forever caress to their bosom the thoroughly disreputable lifestyles of the rich and infamous Edina and Patsy, as they drink, swear, abuse substances, and generally inflict, infect, afflict, and affect the style-crazed, vogue-conscious 1990s.
Jennifer Jane Saunders is a BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning English comedienne, screenwriter and actress.
She first came into widespread attention in the 1980s and the early 1990s when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Central School of Speech and Drama. Along with her comedy partner Dawn French, she proceeded to write and star in their eponymous sketch show, French & Saunders, and received international acclaim for writing and playing the lead role of Edina Monsoon in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.
In her other work, she has guest starred in the US-made sitcoms Roseanne and Friends, and won the American People's Choice Award for voicing the wicked Fairy Godmother in DreamWorks' animated Shrek 2. More recently, she has written and starred in Jam & Jerusalem and The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle.
Extending their adolescence well into their forties, two loud, crude Brit gals living only for booze, drugs, trendiness and each other forge their way unapologetically into the 1990s. Still as funny as when it was first penned, these transcripts of the original six episodes show why this BBC series was such a runaway hit. In spite of moments of genuine tenderness, nothing stops these two b**ches from strutting their stuff and running roughshod over anything and anyone who gets in their way. It’s riotous, ribald, rib-tickling fun and makes you long to watch the show all over again or for the very first time if you missed its initial airings.
EDINA: Darling, thank you. How kind! It was for personal use. You are allowed to have it for personal use. SAFFRON: Mum, they would send you to prison. EDINA: Not somebody like me, sweetie... not any more. SAFFRON: Pathetic. MOTHER: This filtered water boils very quickly. BUBBLE: That's because there's less of it. SAFFRON: (To Edina.) They are illegal drugs. You use them like most people have after-dinner mints... to round off a meal. Either you sniff something that make you speedy or smoke a little something to make you jellybrained. Either way you end up more boring than you can imagine. EDINA: That's rich coming from someone who lives their life at a level of boredom that would make a battery chicken think of taking up evening class.
[...]
All four are playing Monopoly BUBBLE: I'm broke. PATSY: Well, take out another mortgage. Don't give in. BUBBLE: On King's Cross Station? SAFFRON: (To Patsy.) I thought you were broke? Where did you get all that money from? PATSY: (Huge stash beside her.) Don't question me. SAFFRON: When did you get it? PATSY: I borrowed it from the bank. SAFFRON: You can't do that. That's cheating. PATSY: Listen, snake-eyes. I own Park Lane. I can borrow as much money as I like. EDINA: (To Saffron.) Try and get into the spirit of the thing, Saff.