Death

While Saffy Monsoon (Julia Sawalha) mourns the death of her grandfather, her mother, Edina (Jennifer Saunders), is too busy mourning the failure of her latest weight-loss program: a bizarre scheme in which she is slathered in mud and then mummified for several hours. Gran (June Whitfield) handles her husband's death with typical aplomb, but Eddy goes way over the edge as soon as she has time to ponder her own mortality. Filled with self-centered dread, she goes on an art shopping spree at a snooty gallery and then bristles as the guests at her father's wake mistake an expensive mobile for what it is: a set of coat hangers. Ex-husband Marshall (Christopher Ryan) and his new grief-counselor girlfriend, Sondra (Gwen Humble), try to cheer the family up, but when Sondra realizes there's a corpse in the house she completely freaks out. Eddy and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) freak out, too, getting rip-roaringly drunk as the rest of the funeral party proceeds to the cemetary. Waxing sentimental, Patsy begs Eddy to give her the house when she's gone, and Eddy agrees -- as long as Pats will accompany her to the graveyard. Unfortunately, neither woman is in any shape to navigate the rough boneyard terrain, and Mr. Monsoon's funeral ends much like any other family event: grotesquely. Originally broadcast on BBC 1 on February 3, 1994, Absolutely Fabulous: Death marked series two, episode two of this popular Brit-com. Llewella Gideon reprises her role as the wise-cracking West Indian nurse who originally appeared in the previous episode, Absolutely Fabulous: Hospital.