Channel Hopping - Absolument Fabuleux

The United States is not the only country to have taken Britain’s best sitcom export to its heart. In France too, the exploits of Edina and Patsy have a cult cable TV following. Film director Gabriel Aghion came up with the idea of making the series into a film with a French cast in a French setting. Jennifer Saunders approved, and the result is Absolument Fabuleux.

The film succeeds where many film adaptations of TV series have failed. This is because of, rather than in spite of, the fact that the action has been transferred from one culture to another. Being set in France with a French cast gives it the distance from the original required to stand on its own two feet. The film will please those who have never seen the British original, while the closeness to the spirit of the BBC series and the inclusion of many of its funniest gags means that AbFab fans will find it satisfying too.

Gabriel Aghion, the director and writer of the film, is a fan of AbFab. He knows all the episodes by heart. The challenge of making the film work seems to have been a labour of love. The attention to detail begins in the casting, where the parallels between the careers of the French cast and the original English cast are striking.

Eddie Monsoon becomes Eddie Mousson (the French word for monsoon) and is played by comic actress Josiane Balasko. Her best friend Patricia Laroche (roche = stone, geddit?) is played by Nathalie Baye, who just like Joanna Lumley, was not particularly known for her comedy roles before becoming fabulous. Saffron becomes Safrane (a model of car made by Renault!) and is played by Marie Gillain, a beauty just like Julia Sawalha, who has to stretch her normal range to play a frump. Mother in the French version is known simply as Mamie and is played by Claude Gensac, who just like June Whitfield is an old trooper of the comedy world.