| Patsy Stone | |
|---|---|
| Absolutely Fabulous character | |
| First appearance | "Fashion" |
| Created by | Jennifer Saunders |
| Portrayed by | Joanna Lumley |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Pats |
| Gender | Biologically female, briefly male |
| Occupation | Former fashion model,[1] magazine fashion director,[2] buyer for Jeremy's, former pornographic actress |
| Family | Mother Jackie (sister; deceased) |
| Spouse(s) | Edina Monsoon (unrecognised) |
Eurydice Colette Clytemnestra Dido Bathsheba Rabelais Patricia Cocteau Stone,[3] more commonly known as Patsy Stone, is a fictional character on the UK television series Absolutely Fabulous, portrayed by actress Joanna Lumley.[4]
Patsy was the last of a string of children born to an aging bohemian mother in Paris. She and Edina Monsoon were childhood friends, and since her mother despised and neglected her—regarding her more as a rival than a daughter—she came to rely on the Monsoons for most of her shelter, comfort, and food (though she has only been seen eating twice since 1973). She mentioned that her mother would have had an abortion, though she mistook her pregnancy for the onset of the menopause. The first few years of her life were spent locked in a room, and the rest of her childhood was dismal by Patsy's own description, without friends, parties, or presents. She claims to have blocked out everything before 1968, though occasionally memories come back to her in the form of flashbacks. She is an outrageous, nymphomaniacal, past-her-prime fashion model[1] and "ex-Bond girl" (although her only actual "Bond" films were Bond Meets Black Emmanuelle, Boldfinger, and The Man with Thunder Balls – Joanna Lumley was a genuine Bond Girl in On Her Majesty's Secret Service) who drinks and smokes heavily.[2] She shares a codependent parasitic existence with Edina. This relationship usually results in hilarious, albeit dysfunctional, behaviour and over-the-top conflicts. Patsy was born on 30 October, although her actual age is never clearly divulged; she often states herself to be between 39 and 43. In one episode ("Cold Turkey") a nurse guesses that she is around 65 years old. Patsy also has a sister named Jackie, whom Eddy abhors and who twice tried to kill Patsy with drug overdoses. Jackie intimidates Patsy into stating that Patsy is the elder of the two, and says, in the same episode, that she is 72, to which Patsy replies "My God, then how old does that make me?".
Patsy usually seems quite cold and unemotive, especially in her behaviour toward her chief rival Saffy,[5] but she sometimes reveals a more vulnerable side (in flashbacks to her bleak life with her mother, in her overeager admiration for the awful Jackie, and in those rare moments when Eddy temporarily withdraws her friendship) and even occasionally asks Saffy for advice. Unlike Eddy, she is usually conservatively, but stylishly, dressed and almost invariably wears her hair in a characteristic blonde beehive.[6] She has a well-paying, do-nothing job as a fashion director for a fashion magazine, which she received after having sex with the publisher. She then went on to work at "Jeremy's", an exclusive high street fashion store with celebrity clients such as Minnie Driver. It is hinted that Patsy has been involved in some questionable activities, such as adult films; she uses her knowledge from that time to blackmail Saffron's prospective mother-in-law. At a party to launch a new Beatles track in the episode "Schmoozin", Patsy's appearance in the low-budget soft porn movie Booberella is shown to the guests, much to her embarrassment. When faced with a situation that someone else might find alarming or disconcerting, Patsy often responds with a cool "right, cheers, thanks a lot." During the 1970s in Morocco, Patsy underwent a sex change operation and briefly lived as a man; but, as Eddy says, "it fell off". In a later episode, she becomes one of the few tourists to smuggle marijuana into Morocco.[7] She is very promiscuous up until "The Last Shout", then begins to lose her power over men. In two episodes ("Door Handle" and "The Last Shout") it is revealed that Patsy lives in the storeroom above Oddbins, a chain of UK liquor stores.[7] She says that she has not eaten anything since 1973, having had a "stomach bypass" according to Eddy. She is shown in a flashback in the episode "Magazine" to be eating a plate of food. There are 2 other instances where she does eat: in the episode "New Year's Eve" she painfully chews and swallows a potato crisp, then is visibly shaken from having actually eaten something; and in the Christmas Special "Cold Turkey" she renders the entire assembly speechless by demurely asking for a small slice of turkey during Christmas lunch, but chokes it up upon eating it.