BBC America Sets Date for Jennifer Saunders' "Clatterford"

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley are back... though they're not quite as absolutely fabulous this time around.

Digital cabler BBC America has announced a launch date for its latest programming acquisition, Clatterford (which aired in the UK under the title Jam & Jerusalem), from the fertile mind of Ab Fab creator Jennifer Saunders.

Series, which reunites the Absolutely Fabulous pairing of Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, will kick off on Friday, March 9th at 9 pm ET/10 pm PT.

Saunders, who wrote and executive produces Clatterford, stars as Caroline, whom the BBC America press materials refer to as "a very busy lady of the countryside." (Just look at that jaunty hat sitting positively askew on her head; if she's not a busybody, then I'll eat that hat with HP sauce gladly.) However, it's nearly impossible to recognize the former Patsy Stone herself, Joanna Lumley, who plays a rather terrifying-looking eccentric old woman named Delilah prone to riding her training wheel-laden bicycle around town. Bollinger champagne and Lacroix threads this certainly isn't.

Clatterford also offers a virtual who's who of British comedy actresses, including: Dawn French (The Vicar of Dibley and Saunder's longtime comedy partner) who plays the well-intentioned Rosie who suffers from multiple personality disorder (her alter ego is someone named Margaret); Sue Johnston (The Royle Family and the brilliant Waking the Dead) as Sal, a newly widowed woman and former community nurse; and Pauline McLynn (Father Ted) as Sal's best friend Tip.

These highly eccentric women form the local women's club in a small English town called (you guessed it) Clatterford. Sally Phillips (I'm Alan Partridge) and David Mitchell (Peep Show) also star.

I've already gone and marked my calendar in bright red ink. It's not every day that Jennifer Saunders launches a new comedy, though it's one of two this year, the other being the The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle, starring Saunders and Miranda Richardson, which is set to bow Stateside later in 2007.

Just how lucky can one Anglophile get?

Absolutely Fabulous News: Two New Series with Jennifer Saunders Announced

Crack open the Bollie, sweetie darlings!

Cabler BBC America has ordered two new comedy series from Absolutely Fabulous creator Jennifer Saunders, who will write, star, and exec produce these series (with The Office's Jon Plowman), both co-productions between Auntie Beeb and its Stateside offshoot.

First up, is the seven-episode black comedy Clatterford, which sees Saunders reunited with Ab Fab partner in crime Joanna Lumley. For the ladies of Clatterford, a small English country town, life in their book club is peaceful and orderly... until the arrival of a new member (Waking the Dead's Sue Johnston), freshly widowed, casts their tranquil little coterie into gossip. Saunders will play Caroline, a notorious busy-body, while Lumley will play a mischief-making eccentric named Delilah Stagg. (Also look for Peep Show's David Mitchell to turn up as a rather sensible doctor.)

The casting marks the first time that the twosome, who played Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone on Ab Fab for five seasons together, have reunited since that series ended in 2003. Clatterford is expected to premiere on BBC America in the first quarter of 2007.

Next up is a seven episode order for The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle, starring Jennifer Saunders and Miranda Richardson in a more, er, estrogen-rich version of The Larry Sanders Show. Saunders is Vivienne Vyle, a much beloved host of a live television therapy show, while Richardson plays her ambitious producer Helena. Vivienne Vyle is written by Jennifer Saunders and Tanya Byron.

I don't know about you, but this is the best news I've heard since Lacroix left Patou to start his own couture house. Or something like that, anyway.