Jennifer Saunders reveals plans for Ab Fab movie

Jennifer Saunders reveals plans for Ab Fab movie
Jennifer Saunders reveals plans for Ab Fab movie (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Jennifer Saunders has revealed she's 'seriously thinking' about a big-screen version of Absolutely Fabulous. She says: "I did say it to someone and it seems to have ballooned into an idea. I'm thinking about it, really seriously thinking about it." Jennifer admitted she couldn't help notice a few signs of ageing when the Absolutely Fabulous cast reunited to prepare for the forthcoming BBC One Christmas specials. In publicity shots for the show, in which Jennifer, 53, resurrects outrageous PR Edina Monsoon, she and Ab Fab regulars Joanna Lumley, Jane Horrocks, Julia Sawalha and June Whitfield, have been credited with barely looking a day older. But she tells this Friday's Graham Norton Show: "It was a lovely thing going back. It all seemed the same, except at the read-through there was a lot of snapping open of spectacle cases and people bending low to read their scripts." Expressing her relief that the cast are all able to return for the BBC One specials, she jokes: "Everyone's still alive - phew!" Jennifer tells the BBC One chat show there wasn't space for lots of celebrity cameos, saying: "With only three episodes there are a lot of people to pack in, but we've got the regulars, Lulu and Emma Bunton." Jennifer wrote three new episodes which will be screened at Christmas, while recovering from breast cancer.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.