Absolutely Fabulous (series 1) years before, to try and escape his mother's clutches. Her long-suffering daughter, Saffron "Saffy", whom Edina is reliant upon, is a Sixth form student and remains at home. The series also the includes Edina's sweet-natured-but-slightly-batty mother (June Whitfield), whom Eddy sees as an interfering burden, and Edina's dim-witted assistant Bubble (Jane Horrocks). The series was conceived from the French and Saunders sketch 'Modern Mother and Daughter', originally written by Saunders and Dawn French. Saunders has stated that the character of Edina Monsoon was based upon Lynne Franks, a PR agent whom she had joined on holiday. The first series premiered
Absolutely Fabulous at the end of each episode. Due to copyright issues, the theme song is missing from many of the US Region 1 DVDs, being replaced by an instrumental version of the song. Also excised from the US DVD release is the musical number from "Chicago" performed by Horrocks, Gaffney, and Ryan, during a dream sequence in the series 5 episode "Birthin'". In addition to the official theme song, in 1994, Pet Shop Boys recorded a song for "Comic Relief" using excerpts of dialogue from the series put to dance music. The single was attributed to "Absolutely Fabulous produced by Pet