Absolutely Fabulous

The product of Jennifer Saunders’ acerbic wit, Ab Fab also starred Saunders as a boozy fashion PR mogul called Edina Monsoon. Together with her sidekick magazine fashion director Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley), the two are high-functioning addicts who resort to desperate measures to fight off old age.

Julia Sawahala played Edina’s long-suffering daughter Saffy, and Jane Horrocks her foolish PA Bubble.

These days, TV comedies created and written by women, and starring a predominantly female cast, are rightly everywhere. It wasn’t always like that, especially in the UK where, not that long ago, female characters in sitcoms were often typecast as the butt of male jokes and relegated to the stock roles of sexpot, nagging wife or harridan mother-in-law.