Ab Fab's Patsy and Edina grow older disgracefully in new movie

LONDON (Reuters) - Patsy and Edina, British television's raucous partying duo, may have aged a bit since they first appeared on screens in the 1990s, but they are as badly behaved as ever in "Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie". In the movie, which hits U.S. and Canadian theatres on Friday after premiering in Britain last month, Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley reprise their roles as the chain-smoking, champagne- and vodka-drinking duo - fashion PR agent Edina Monsoon and magazine editor Patsy Stone. More than two decades on, they are still partying hard. "They never seem to go away actually," Saunders said about playing the characters again. "They're always with us." The big screen adaptation of the television show, which began in 1992 with three series before resuming in 2001, sees the pair face a media storm after accidentally pushing model Kate Moss into the River Thames, forcing them to flee to the south of France. The movie has been eagerly awaited since Patsy and Edina returned to TV screens for a 2012 London Olympics special. "For people to actually remember it and remember us, I think that as an actor is always thrilling," Lumley said in a joint interview with Reuters. "This is what's been a bit mind-stretching, this reception." Saunders said she put pen to paper again for the movie after a wager with long-time comedy partner Dawn French, with whom she wrote the original sketch that gave rise to "Ab Fab". "She told me I was writing it and told the press I was writing it even though I wasn't," Saunders said of Lumley, adding French then bet her 100,000 pounds she would not do it. "I accepted the bet... It was quite nerve-racking thinking what I don't want to do is I don't want to cancel out all the good work we've done with the series, keeping it going, keeping it funny. It was immense pressure, actually." (Reporting By Marie-Louise Gumuchian; editing by John Stonestreet)