Absolutely Fabulous is one of the most iconic Brtish sitcoms of all time, becoming an international success upon its debut in 1992. The show revolved around the enduring but often toxic relationship between Edina "Eddie" Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders) and her friend Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley). Together, the two drank their way through the '60s and try their hardest to maintain their buzz - and relevance - thirty years later.
As good as the two are together, the show is often very clear their relationship is in many ways harmful. Here are five ways Eddie and Patsy are best friends, and five ways in which they're not.
Real Friends: Together Since The Beginning
The most significant aspect of their friendship is how long it's lasted. Eddie and Patsy have been friends since childhood and virtually inseparable since the teenage hedonism in the swinging '60s. During this period, which the show revisited in a flashback on a few occasions, Patsy worked as a model and occasional actress. She described herself as an 'ex-Bond girl,' but Patsy actually didn't work on any Bond films (though Joanna Lumley did). She starred in a movie called Boldfinger, which was maybe not a family film.
Not Real Friends: Co-Dependent
Despite their decades-long friendship, it doesn't appear to be rooted in genuine love or affection. Though flashes of it emerge, what keeps them together is a desperate co-dependence that the show essays over the course of its first few series. Neither can function without the other. They do everything together, all day, every day. That includes things as innocuous as shopping (though the credit card bills can't be pleasant). Unfortunately, that tends to eat into Eddie's actual work, which keeps her from getting ahead, which makes her dependent on Patsy.
Real Friends: Unofficially Married
Eddie and Patsy evidently were a wrecking crew in the '60s and '70s when it came to relationships. Patsy in particular evidently slept with every member of the Rolling Stones, and one of the Beatles, though she no longer re which one. But their craziest (and maybe least surprising) relationship was with each other. The two often behave like an old married couple and that's because they are. At some point in their drunken, drug-fueled past, the two got hitched, though the legality of the ceremony at the time was in question.
Not Real Friends: Patsy Criticizes Eddy
Patsy enables Eddie's worst habits, which probably explains why Eddie is barely hanging on as the head of a PR firm in London. This is bad enough, but she also relentlessly criticizes her best friend in ways that are diminishing and demoralizing. Throughout the show, Patsy makes frequent comments about Eddie's weight, something Eddie is always self-conscious of and very neurotic about.
Patsy also guns after Eddie's fashion choices, which to be fair, are a little loud. The jabbing might be rooted in jealousy though, as Patsy relatively is very buttoned up in her choice of wardrobe.
Real Friends: ive
Despite this venomous back-and-forth, the two actually are very ive of each other. Eddie has dreams of fame and success, which Patsy s, though it's arguable her ive-aggressive behavior undermines her efforts. Eddie provides Patsy a sense of family and friendship that she otherwise didn't have (her mother had many children and neglected her, which may have been for the best given the fact that she branded her with the full name Eurydice Colette Clytemnestra Dido Bathsheba Rabelais Patricia Cocteau Stone. Yikes.)
Not Real Friends: Patsy Sabotages Eddy
Patsy's poor relationship with her mother likely drives the way she functions with Eddie. Patsy sabotages all of Eddie's relationships, desperate to keep her all to herself. Eddie's broken record of failed marriages and false starts with other men is in some measure due to her own security, but this is exacerbated by Patsy. She drives wedges between Eddie and her potential love interests in a bid to keep her perpetually single, but this also trickles down to Eddie's own family, which creates a toxic relationship within Eddie's home.
Real Friends: A Kind of Family
The swirling mix of toxicity and co-dependence isn't mutually exclusive from a functioning family, though and in many ways, Eddie and Patsy form the center of a strange, extended family. Eddie gives Patsy a home (though she basically just takes it, helping herself to Eddie's home, kitchen, and personal driver). Patsy gives Eddie a companion, which she desperately needs. The two together form the wobbly spine of a unit that includes Eddie's elderly mother, her younger daughter, Saffron, and her assistant Bubbles.
Not Real Friends: Enabler
Patsy enables Eddie in drinking and smoking and other vices, which essentially traps her in the relationship. Eddie makes a lot about finding balance and growth, always exploring a new New Age idea, but she never can, making Eddie and Patsy one of the worst couples in all of TV.
Their boozing and drunken exploits make for a lot of fun TV, and a great deal of the charm of the show, but strictly speaking their friendship really isn't one considering this fact.
Real Friends: Perfect For Each Other (Conceited)
Eddie and Patsy are terrible for each other. That much is clear from just the first episode of the show. But in a lot of ways, they're perfect for each other. Both women are conceited, vain, and overmatched in the world of fashion and fame they aspire to. The truth is they've essentially found their level. In any other show, they'd be secondary characters on the fringes of the main plot, but here they're the stars because they're the only audience for each other. As bad as it gets sometimes, they do a lot to keep each other afloat.
Not Real Friends: Hates Saffy
By far the most obvious way that Patsy and Eddie are not really friends is in the scorched-earth campaign Patsy wages against Eddie's daughter Saffron (played by Julia Sawalha). Saffy, as she's affectionately known, has no time whatsoever for Patsy's antics and routinely calls her behavior out for what it is. Patsy resents Saffy because she represents Eddie's greatest bond beyond her. Eddie loves Saffy, though she drives her nuts, and wants to approach the world much as Saffy does, with curiosity and optimism. But Patsy always tries to poison the relationship.