Product Description

Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, June Whitfield and Julia Sawalha star in the award-winning TV comedy series that defined the early 90s. Enjoy Eddie and Patsy's hilarious escapades with this great box set and crack open the Bolly!

All eighteen episodes from the first, second and third series.

DVD Features:
Featurette
Outtakes
Photo gallery

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35892 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-03-13
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 700 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
"Inside of me there's a thin woman trying to get out," complains the ever-suffering Edina. "Are you sure it's just the one, dear?" asks her mother.

When anyone raves about Sex and the City, you need only to remind her that the Brits did it first--and better--with the creation of the brave say-anything show about sex, drugs, and the battle of the bulge. Absolutely Fabulous is a groundbreaking, off-the-wall comedy from the early 1990s, which began with a skit from The French and Saunders Show, about a moral, uptight daughter and her extremely loose mother. Ab Fab has taken this to the extreme. Edina (Jennifer Saunders) is the queen of excess. Her clothes are outrageous, her attempts at weight loss comical, and her efforts at motherhood (her daughter, Saffron--played to perfection by Julia Sawalha--is a practical-minded, reliable teenager) are uneven at best. Eddy's best friend is Patsy, a promiscuous Ivana Trump look-alike who always has a cigarette between her lips, a drink in her hand, and a fine-looking man (or boy) in her bed. The entire show lasted for three seasons, and all are included in this set. From organizing an orgy to a brush with poverty to the death of Eddy's father, nothing--and we mean nothing--is sacred in this show. Without a doubt, Ab Fab is one of the greatest television satires created, although keep in mind that it's strictly for adults. --Jenny Brown

Additional Features
Each of the first three discs in the four-disc set features a season of the show, complete with outtakes and a photo gallery (which proves slightly frustrating, as you are unable to skip around the photos--they are shown only in order). The fourth disc has the majority of the extra features: How to Be Absolutely Fabulous, a delightful behind-the-scenes look at the show; Ab Fab Moments, a retrospective of the entire series; Modern Mother and Daughter, the brilliant original skit from French and Saunders with Dawn French in the role of Saffy; picture galleries of the stars and guest celebrities; and a map of all the places Eddy and Patsy visited on the show. --Jenny Brown

Customer Reviews

Single Women ARE Absolutely Fabulous
If you grew up in a disfunctional family along with most of the "Boomers", DO NOT MISS THIS GOOD TIME! The writers of this entire collection had to have known my best friend and myself. With the exception of the wealth of Eddy, and the temporary "sex change" operation of Patsy's, this surely could have been written about our lives. We love this entire collection. I'm convinced they did their research watching us.

Absolutely Fabulous: Complete DVD Collection

Perfect mixture of intelligence and silliness in a fabulous BritCom, Sweetie Darling!
It's a shame we don't get more exposure to British comedy here in The States, especially when you see a great show like this. Apparently, this show started as a skit on The French & Saunders Show. And although I've seen this skit (it's included on these DVDs), I've never seen a full episode of F & S. Which is a shame, because I've liked Dawn French in anything I've seen her in, including Vicar of Dibley. But in Ab Fab, writer Jennifer Saunders does a beautiful job in the role of Edina Monsoon, a woman who never outgrew the decadent drunken, drug-crazed lifestyle of her youth. And her teenage daughter, Saffron (or Saffy for short, played brilliantly by Julia Sawalha) is far too often forced to play a parental role in this dysfunctional family. Some of the best, most intelligent, insightful moments (both comedy and drama) come from the constant conflicts between mother and daughter. Edina's best friend from school, Patsy Stone (played admirably by ex-model Joanna Lumley) was unwanted by her mother while growng up, and so she's even more of a drunken, drug dependant, slutty mess than Edina...and Patsy has always openly resented Saffy for being an obstacle to Edina's hedonistic lifestyle. The partying antics of Edina and Patsy add just enough silliness to make the show more fun at appropriate intervals. So, there is plenty of intelligence, insight, debauchery and silliness to make this a great all-around comedy. It's just like when Edina says to Saffy, "It's lovely how I call you Sweetie Darling all the time, isn't it? I wonder how that started." Saffy replies, "It started because you couldn't remember my name for the first 3 years." We need to see more brilliant British comedy here in the U.S. If you're a fan of British comedy, this is a great addition to your collection. If you haven't seen this show (no matter what the reason is), you really ought to! I highly recommend this!

Flawless and funny!
Why they took this show off the air is beyond me. These two women are hysterical and a credit to English Comedy!