Joanna Lumley reveals the outrageous threat she made to Jennifer Saunders to get her to agree to Amandaland role as pair finally reunite on screen

In Absolutely Fabulous, they played bickering friends who were always at each other’s throats.

Now Dame Joanna Lumley has revealed she told her former co-star Jennifer Saunders they needed to reunite on screen ‘or I’ll have to kill you’.

These remarks came during the Amandaland Christmas special screening at the BFI Southbank in London; The popular Motherland spin-off is set to return to screens following its big debut earlier this year.

This will be the first time the pair have shared the screen since 2016’s Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, in which they played champagne-drinking duo Eddie and Patsy.

In Amandaland, 79-year-old Lumley plays Felicity Sanderson, the evil mother of Amanda, played by Lucy Punch, while 67-year-old Saunders plays Felicity’s sister Joan.

Speaking at the screening, Lumley said he was determined to lure Saunders back to the BBC.

These words came during the screening of the Amandaland Christmas special; The popular Motherland spin-off is set to return to screens following its big debut earlier this year.

He said: ‘When I heard the idea that it could be Jennifer, I actually emailed Jennifer and said: “If the script gets in your way, do it, or I’ll have to kill you.”‘

Saunders, whose career has spanned decades of BBC comedy, described the reunion as ‘an absolute gift’.

“I am delighted to be joining the amazing Amandaland gang for a Christmas special,” the comedy icon said. ‘It was really fun to hang out.’

But despite their decades-long friendship, Dame Joanna insisted the Amandaland dynamic was entirely new.

‘Knowing each other, we never think this will happen on the big screen,’ he said. ‘The difference here, of course, is that we play sisters. When we were making Ab Fab we knew what they were going to be like. “We’ve never played with those two.”

Amandaland averaged 6.4 million viewers when it premiered in February. It quickly became the BBC’s second major comedy launch, and filming for the second series is currently underway.

This warm meeting provided a rare moment of celebration for the BBC, which has been dragged from crisis to crisis this year.

Saunders suggested the BBC focus on entertainment rather than news content.

In Amandaland, Lumley, 79, plays Felicity Sanderson, the evil mother of Amanda, played by Lucy Punch.

Asked about the controversy surrounding Donald Trump’s latest lawsuit against the BBC, Saunders said: “We definitely need more comedy.”

The company is bracing for an eye-watering legal bill of up to £75 million as it prepares to fight a $10 billion (£7.5 billion) lawsuit brought by the US President over a doctored clip aired in the Panorama documentary.

Mr Trump’s legal team has accused the BBC of defamation and unfair trade practices after footage of a speech he gave on January 6, 2021, was edited to appear as if he was urging his supporters to march on the US Capitol.

An internal report accused the broadcaster of bias and censorship, leading to senior resignations including director-general Sir Tim Davie and BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness in one of the most serious leadership crises in the company’s history.