Absolutely Fabulous Moments; French & Saunders: The Ingenue Years; The Vicar of Dibley

The British Comedy Invasion continues with three new entries highlighting the comic talents of writing-acting team Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. Absolutely Fabulous Moments features--true to its title--unrelated scenes from the wildly popular BBC series Absolutely Fabulous, starring Jennifer Saunders as Eddy, a fashion PR exec; Joanna Lumley as her chain-smoking friend Patsy; and Julia Sawahla as Eddy's strait-laced daughter Saffy. The obtrusive framing device featuring Saunders and her stage mother goes well beyond tiresome and the "moments" range from standard comic palaver to genuinely hilarious. But, except for the outtakes, most viewers would be better served by watching the original seven volumes already available. Very optional. Aud: P.You owe it to yourself to watch French & Saunders: The Ingenue Years, if only to see their appalling portrayal of two overweight sex-obsessed, booze-swilling, channel-surfing guys who are invariably overcome by their emotions and commence to pelvic-thrusting anything they come into contact with--primarily walls, furniture or the TV set. It's the most embarrassingly stereotypical portrait of men who think with their private parts I've ever seen, and it's very funny. A compilation of highlights from French & Saunders first two seasons, The Ingenue Years also contains memorable skits on women wearing furs, prima donna ballerinas, spunky schoolgirls on a field trip, and more. While some of the pieces fall flat (and one is--to me--truly tasteless: a very mean-spirited parody of a very aged Katherine Hepburn), this is generally recommended. An additional title, Living in a Material World, is also available. Aud: P.Finally, The Vicar of Dibley is a more or less cute gender-bender tale about sleepy little village's reaction to the new vicar: a distinctly female person (who makes continuous jokes about her sizable bosom) named Geraldine Granger (Dawn French). Not surprisingly, the provincial locals (all unimaginatively identified by One Peculiar Attribute) play the straight men and women to the slightly more worldly female vicar. If you can picture yourself some day adding copies of Frasier episodes or any other popular but ephemeral TV show to your collection, you might want to consider; optional for others. Two volumes, The New Girl in Town and My Congregation and Other Animals, are currently available. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)