Arts: Patsy and Edina Drink in the Olympic Spectacle

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Five-ring Circus Patsy and Edina Drink in the Olympic Spectacle The Ab Fab girls crash the London Games—or try to, anyway. By Troy Patterson Posted Wednesday, Jul 25, 2012, at 11:34 AM ET Less a tribute to London's Summer Games than a symptom of them, Absolutely Fabulous: Olympics (BBC America, Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET) represents the last and limpest of three new Ab Fab specials. The sainted French and Saunders sitcom is marking its 20th birthday—a notable celebration for a series that took as its central theme the constitutional inability of its protagonists to age gracefully. Back in the day, Edina Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley) were plumed birds of the Swinging '60s, and when we met them, they were flopping and flouncing onwards as if the party had never stopped. Edina, by profession a PR exec and in her fashion sense a chronic self-victimizer, was raising, to her horror, a mousy and sober daughter named Saffron (Julia Sawalha). Patsy had the drug tolerance of Keith Richards and the moral rectitude of Brian Jones. The makeup department deserved a special BAFTA for absurdism in hairdressing for its work disarranging Patsy's bouffant at certain moments, as when she lurched into consciousness amid the charred remains of Eddy's kitchen with the cigarette that had caused the blaze still lit between her downturned lips. The passing years have only seasoned their immaturity. The best bit in the Olympics special is its opener: Edina tries and fails to secure special access or indeed any access to Stella McCartney's Mayfair boutique, ultimately wailing the designer's first name in a travesty of Stanley Kowalski. Edina trundles home ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Don't Even Consider Talking About the Olympics Sir, Do I Really Have To Work Today, Sir? Updike on the Universe	Advertisement
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