Actress Joanna Lumley has hinted that censors may curb Patsy Stone’s smoking habit.

The sight of magazine editor Patsy Stone clutching a bottle of Bollinger in one hand and a cigarette in the other will be familiar to viewers of Absolutely Fabulous.

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley in Absolutely Fabulous

But actress Joanna Lumley has hinted that chain-smoking could be banished from the upcoming film based on the hit comedy because censors believe it sends out a damaging health message to children.

Lumley, 69, who is reprise the role of Patsy in next year’s Ab Fab movie, said it was ‘madness’ that children saw graphic violence on the internet and yet were banned from seeing people smoking.

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When asked by the Sunday Mirror magazine ‘Notebook’ whether anything would be different in the remake she said: “The smoking will be interesting as people are very serious about it now.

“Children can access videos of beheadings and play the most horrifically violent video games, yet they will most definitely smoke if they see someone smoking on TV. It’s madness.”

Absolutely Fabulous initially ran from 1992 to 1996 on BBC 2 then creator Jennifer Saunders revived the show for a fourth series in 2001. It broadcast until 2004 then returned for a series of specials in 2011 and 2012.

The programme is ranked in the top 20 British comedy programmes of all time by the British Film Institute.

Lumley said she had asked for a wig this time round to recreate Patsy’s celebrated bouffant because she worried the constant backcombing would damage her hair.

“I’ve got a hair piece this time round,” she said. “Because I would be filming every day for seven weeks with my hair backcombed to sh*t, brushing it out and doing the same every morning. Horrible. I wanted hair at the end of filming.”

She added: “All the old cast are in it, there are plenty of surprises. It’s a fantastic story. It’s very funny. It’s divine, glamorous, ridiculous and fabulous.

“People will expect it to be good, and so they should. Nut much like Christmas cake, if you don’t like it, it’s more you than it.”

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