Birthday

On the morning of her 40th birthday, a sullen Edina Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders) resists daughter Saffron's every attempt to cheer her up. Lashing out monstrously at Saffy (Julia Sawalha), Eddy is disappointed to learn that instead of a star-studded surprise party, the girl has planned a quiet lunch with family members. Both of Eddy's ex-husbands will be there, but long-lost son Serge, of course, is busy in a Hawaiian volcano. After grudgingly accepting a pair of Christian Lacroix earrings and abusing Saffy to the point of domestic violence, Eddy retires sullenly to her room, where she remains even as the guests arrive. When sidekick Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley) fails to return from a champagne-foraging mission, however, Eddy makes an accidental splash entrance into her own 'do. As she grows increasingly drunk and belligerent, Eddy insults her gay ex-husband, Justin (Christopher Malcolm); his lover, Oliver (Gary Beadle); her recovering alcoholic ex-husband, Marshall (Christopher Ryan); Bo (Mo Gaffney), his controlling, New Age girlfriend; and perennial targets Saffy and Mother (June Whitfield). Along the way, the party guests learn the long-hidden secret that Edina is receiving double alimony from her exes -- a revelation that will come back to haunt her during the second-series episode Absolutely Fabulous: Poor. In the meantime, Patsy and Eddy get down with the help of Justin's gift: a karaoke machine programmed with the most obvious '60s hits. Originally broadcast on BBC 1 on December 17, 1992, Absolutely Fabulous: Birthday marked series one, episode six of this popular Brit-com.