User reviews

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Jennifer Saunders' pilot for a a potential new series is a classic in it's own right, growing from, but not overshadowed by it's AbFab roots. It is quite unfair (although natural enough) for this one-off to be compared so heavily to Absolutely Fabulous, as it is really quite different, apart from it's raking over the coals of celebritydom.

There are some truly inspired moments here. The scene in which stage great Bonnie Langford loses the role in "Angela's Ashes" (the musical no less!) to the obviously less talented Vivienne is priceless.

The characters are really quite different to the roles the cast played in AbFab. Freda is certainly less prim and prudish than Saffron, Vivienne is calmer and less frenetic than Edina, Jackie is less vapid than Patsy, and Yitta is not the vacant animated corpse that Bubble was, but rather an arrogant, spiteful young woman. Admittedly Dora seems a bit like Mother in some ways, but Dora truly is off her rocker, whereas Mother was obviously calculating her every off-the-wall-remark as a way to drive Edina insane.

All in all, "Mirrorball" is a good time all round and deserves to be enjoyed on it's own merits, not mearly as an offshoot of the AbFab phenomenon. It is available on the AbFab Series 4 DVD set. Don't miss it!

It was logical to think of Mirrorball as a follow-up for Ab Fab, though it isn't really. It has some nice story lines and of course humor is written all over it. Jennifer Saunders is as keen as ever. It's a shame it's not broadcast anymore.

This programme, shown on BBC1 in the UK on 22nd december 2000, is a one-off christmas special written by Jennifer Saunders. It was to be developed into a series but then Jennifer decided to write a new series of Absolutely Fabulous instead. This brilliant 30-minute comedy is about fading show-business diva Vivienne Keill (Saunders) and her has-been best friend Jackie Riviera (Lumley). Vivienne is a dancer who is well past her prime, but who still lingers in the public's imagination thanks to her trademark high kicks. She is nervous about her forthcoming audition for the role of matriarch Angela in Angela's Ashes - the Musical, and seeks advice from her sister Freda, a serious actress (Julia Sawalha). The audition and its fall-out serve to introduce other Ab Fab luminaries, notably the splendid June Whitfield as fifties starlet Dora Vermouth, Jane Horrocks as eccentric Icelandic waitress and would-be performer Yitta and Harriet Thorpe as desperate wannabe Cat Rogers.

Another triumphe by the BBC, but I still can't wait for the new AbFab!