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 performed by Julie Driscoll and Saunders' husband Adrian Edmondson. The song was also sung by Marianne Faithfull and P. P. Arnold for the "Last Shout" special in 1996. Hermine Demoriane sang a French version of the theme song over the closing credits of the episode "Paris". At the end of the episode "Birthday", Edina and Patsy sang the song together using a karaoke machine. More recently, it has been sung by Debbie Harry, who also guest-starred in the 2002 Christmas special "Gay". For series four, a line sung by David Bowie, "Ziggy played guitar", from the song "Ziggy Stardust" played