{"id":232660,"date":"2025-10-22T14:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/232660\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T14:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:31:13","slug":"ab-fab-stars-jennifer-saunders-and-joanna-lumley-reunite-for-amandaland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/232660\/","title":{"rendered":"Ab Fab stars Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley reunite for Amandaland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul GlynnCulture reporter<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Saunders (left) and Dame Joanna are better known to millions as Ab Fab’s Edina and Patsy<\/p>\n

Jennifer Saunders will reunite with her Absolutely Fabulous co-star Dame Joanna Lumley in the Christmas special of another sitcom Amandaland, the BBC has announced.<\/p>\n

Saunders will appear as Joan, the sister of Dame Joanna’s character Felicity and auntie of the show’s titular star Amanda, played by Lucy Punch.<\/p>\n

Her new character is humorously described as “a ball of country-living, enthusiastic upper-class bluster – very, very different from Felicity”.<\/p>\n

Saunders said in a statement she was “delighted to be joining the fabulous Amandaland gang for a Christmas special”.<\/p>\n

“Playing Joanna’s on-screen sister is guaranteed to be a laugh,” she added. “Who doesn’t love a family reunion SoHa style!”<\/p>\n

Amandaland follows middle class Amanda and her two children as they adapt to life in South Harlesden – which she refers to, pretentiously, as “SoHa” – having been forced to leave Chiswick following her divorce.<\/p>\n

It is a spin-off of Motherland, a comedy about motherhood starring Anna Maxwell Martin, which aired between 2016 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Saunders will feature in the festive episode before a second series of the show airs in 2026, the BBC confirmed.<\/p>\n

\"Lucy<\/p>\n

Lucy Punch stars in the BBC sitcom as Amanda, a middle class single mum and daughter of Dame Joanna’s Felicity<\/p>\n

Star of the show Punch said: “I’m beyond excited to get started on Amandaland series two with our brilliantly talented, lovely cast.”<\/p>\n

She added, in character: “The Christmas special is going to be an absolute cracker – it’s like totes fire, with all the festive feels, for reals. Slay bells!”<\/p>\n

The first series of Amandaland, broadcast earlier this year, received rave reviews from critics<\/a>, with the Telegraph saying that Punch and her on-screen mother Dame Joanna “make a dream comic double act”.<\/p>\n

Fabulous addition<\/p>\n

Previous double act, Saunders and Dame Joanna both won Baftas for their portrayals of PR boss Edina and retired model Patsy, respectively, in the popular 1990s British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous – aka Ab Fab.<\/p>\n

The show initially aired from 1992 to 2005, before a 20th anniversary miniseries in 2012.<\/p>\n

Across a handful of series and a well received feature length movie finale in 2016<\/a>, the heavy-drinking, chain-smoking and codependent pair attempted to relive their youth – in swinging 1960s London – over and over again, often with funny and cringe-worthy consequences.<\/p>\n

The stars came together again last year, alongside fellow Ab Fab actresses Julia Sawalha and Jane Horrocks, to share anecdotes and backstage secrets on the Gold programme Absolutely Fabulous: Inside Out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul GlynnCulture reporter BBC Saunders (left) and Dame Joanna are better known to millions as Ab Fab’s Edina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-232660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}