Amongst her many film and TV credits, make-up artist Christine Cant has worked on critically-acclaimed comedies including Father Ted, Spaced, Brass Eye, Alan Partridge and Absolutely Fabulous. She spoke to us about creating looks for the new big-screen version of Jennifer Saunders? classic sitcom.
How important is makeup in ABFAB"

It?s important in the way it would be with any character based story. Like a drama set in the 18th century with powdered wigs, pale makeup and beauty marks, this is a drama set today with contemporary wigs (and hair), fashion makeup, and jokes.
How do you approach the process" Do you sit down with Jennifer and plan it all out, or are you left to it"

There are all the usual production meetings, ‘tone’ meetings and design meetings, but I’ve worked with Jennifer for a long time so we regularly sit down to discuss life and family, have a bit of a laugh and perhaps a glass of wine while informally talking about what we want to do with the characters. That’s when most of the ideas arise. Then I have to run the ideas past the producers, the director and in this case Fox, to see mood boards and visual clues, wigs, makeup tests etc. But in the end, as Patsy and Eddie are such established characters, we do what we always do with nods to current trends. We?ve made them up so often it’s just like putting your own face on.The guest characters are where we exercise our real imagination. And which guest characte...