EDINA (Jennifer Saunders)

Former international PR guru, currently a woman of leisure, Edina Monsoon is twice-divorced, with a daughter, Saffron, and a son, Serge. A fad-follower and fashion victim with highly questionable dress sense, her alcohol consumption and capacity for outrageous behavior are surpassed only by the excesses of her best friend, Patsy. She lives off the income generated by the sale of her businesses, Monsoon PR and Radical TV.

PATSY (Joanna Lumley)

Patsy Stone is Edina's best friend. She works for a British fashion magazine in the newly elevated position of Managing Editor. Patsy, who makes no secret of the fact that her CV got to the top of the pile after she slept with the publisher, now has even less work to do than before. She lives on champagne, cigarettes, and a variety of banned substances and is usually responsible for convincing Edina that a bad idea is a good idea.

SAFFY (Julia Sawalha

The polar opposite of her fast-living, wild-child mother, Saffy sees Patsy as a parasite, living off Edina and corrupting her. She has a strong sense of morals and shockingly dowdy dress sense. She fancies herself as a playwright. While her first play, "Self-Raising Flower," was an unexpected hit (although the crowd thought the tense, coming-of-age drama was an uproarious comedy), Saffy continues to write. Recently she spent several weeks studying a "normal" family while living in their pantry.

MOTHER (June Whitfield)

June Monsoon is Edina's mother and Saffy's gran. A widow, she has dabbled with romance, surfed the net, and tried her hand at salsa dancing. Mother is lovable but tactless, and her "helpful" comments do little to diffuse the tensions between Edina and Saffy.

BUBBLE (Jane Horrocks)

Bubble has been at Edina's side through all her business schemes. Now that Edina is office-less, she is training Bubble, through electric shocks, to become a P.A. Always dressed in the most ludicrous ensembles (she traveled to Paris in a Napoleon outfit), she is convinced that Martians will soon be coming to whisk her away in their spaceship!

MARSHALL (Christopher Ryan)

Marshall is Edina's first husband and Serge's father. Marshall went to Hollywood 20 years ago to develop a screenplay. He has been a Rabbi, but now runs an evangelistic Christian television network with his American girlfriend Bo (Mo Gaffney).