Absolutely Fabulous - Series 3

Honestly sweetie, if you’ve come this far you know what you’re in for, so I’ll save you and me some value smoko time and just get on with it...

Door Handle
Edina is in the midst of an efficiency drive, so armed with her trusty new electronic organiser and with Patsy in tow, it seems the only logical place to look for the perfect door handle for her newly remodelled kitchen is New York.

Happy New Year
Edina and Patsy have Big New Years plans – with a spot of raving the order of the day. Then Pats gets word that her renowned party animal sister Jackie is popping by – but time hasn’t been too good to her and they all end up at Saffy’s boring bash.

Sex
Feeling a tad sex deprived, Edina and Patsy hire a couple of male prostitutes for a nice little orgy. Meanwhile, Saffy has a college presentation on genetics to give, but there seems to have been a bit of a mix-up...

Jealous
It’s time for the PR Person of the Year awards, and naturally Edina thinks she’s a shoe-in. When she misses out depression sets in, as does a not overly healthy sense of revenge. Still, at least she helps Saffy out - it had to happen one day!

Fear
With Saffy moving out to college, and having a falling out with Pats, Edina’s at a loose end - and then Lulu breaks her news! Pats has some of her own, for she’s been offered a new gig after her magazine folds, but it’s not very local...

The End
In search of her self, Edina joins a commune – but finds it tough going. So instead she decides to find Patsy in New York, they put aside their differences and hotfoot it back to London, where we get a bit of a glimpse into the crystal ball...

Seriously darling, you should have a fair idea of what to expect with releases like this by now. Made for telly back in 1995, it’s in full frame and is basically as typical a BBC production of the time as they come. All the inside stuff is shot on video, whilst external scenes are put down on film – and it’s the latter that shows the most in the way of problems such as grain, specks and loss of detail.

Colour is generally pretty fab, shadow detail is passable for the few instances where things aren’t presented in day-glo and the only other real incursion on video quality is the odd spot of aliasing. What does suck harder than Pats... erm, what is pretty shabby is the layer change. Rather than being placed between episodes as would be sensible, it occurs a third of the way into Jealous and is more noticeable than one of Edina’s outfits hanging in a Country Road store.

You guessed it, Dolby Digital stereo all the way. All the talk, talk, talk comes through very clear, clear, clear, but without any aid of the subwoofwoof or those boxes at the rear, rear, rear. Synch is spot on, and – well, there’s not much else to be said, except perhaps that the audience is annoyingly raucous at times. The theme remains the same, Adrian Edmondson and Julie Driscoll’s take on Dylan’s This Wheel’s On Fire, replete with more fabulous phasing than an entire season of some nerdy TV proggy that's got phasers in it.

Another drab, stiller than a Ben menu, although it is at least rather bright...

Outtakes - Absolutely Not: A 16:31 selection of those rather oddly titled “blooper� thingies, which does at least manage to raise quite the titter at times.

Photo Gallery: Similar to other releases in the series, this is just another dowdy old selection of 15 snaps. Move on sweeties...

What was originally intended to be the final series of Ab Fab certainly has its moments of brilliance, and as is tradition a veritable cavalcade of guests pop by in various episodes, from Britcom stalwarts Kathy Burke, Peter Richardson and Christopher Ryan through to tanty-prone model Naomi Campbell and the one and only Lulu. The video’s about as good as you’d expect, the sound does its job in workmanlike, but effective, fashion and the extras selection is small but does contain some fun goofy stuff. If you’re a fan of Edina, Patsy and all those in their bizarre little orbit then, well sweetie, you’ll probably already have this actually...