Eurydice Colette Clytemnestra Dido Bathsheba Rabelais Patricia Cocteau Stone, try saying that after a few glasses of champagne sweetie!

The beginning

As an aspiring actress Joanna Lumley arrived in London in the swinging sixties. During her career she modelled for Jean Muir and was photographed by Lord Lichfield, but her first acting job was a small part on the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty?s Secret Service. After a stint playing Ken Barlow?s girlfriend, Elaine Perkins, in Coronation Street, Joanna won a lead role in The New Avengers. Her part in the cult sci-fi drama Sapphire And Steel kept her on British Television screens for the latter part of the seventies and early eighties.

Patsy

Joanna?s career was relatively low key during the rest of the decade. But after a sustained campaign by Ruby Wax to revitalise her career, Joanna took a chance and blasted her prim and proper reputation out of the water by taking on the role of ?fash-mag-slag? Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous. Playing the drunk, highly sexed, disgusting, merciless and ubiquitous sidekick to best friend Eddy Monsoon, Joanna has made Patsy a legendary comedy character.

After 5 series and loads of specials, Joanna has more than gained her comic credentials playing the 39 year old Patsy Stone? and she?s also bagged a couple of BAFTA?s along the way.