Fabulous is a BBC Radio sitcom written by Lucy Clarke which aired for three series between 2007 and 2010.
Faye Waters (Daisy Haggard) is a young woman who wants to lead a glamorous lifestyle but is thwarted by her own laziness, disorganisation, a downright evil mother, slobby boyfriend and being trapped in a job with a mean and demanding boss.
The sitcom mixed Faye's relatively mundane day to day office job and life with her over the top fantasies and dreams.
It stars Daisy Haggard, Katy Brand, Olivia Colman, Laura Solon, Joanna Scanlan, Adam Buxton, Justin Edwards and Melanie Hudson.
No relation to the video game Fabulous, the BBC television sitcom Absolutely Fabulous or the American teen sitcom Unfabulous.
This series contains examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Denise is simply Faye's irritating co-worker in the first series and quite a minor character. In the second and third series her role is much bigger, to the point of being almost a double act with Faye by the last episode.
- British Brevity: 14 episodes split over three series with six 15-minute long episodes in the first series and four thirty-minute long episodes in the second and third series.
- Bumbling Sidekick: Denise, Faye's co-worker and best friend (though Faye would deny it.) She is a childish oddball with a very odd and literal view of the world who is the only person in awe of Faye.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Faye's friend Joan, a romantic novelist vanishes after the first episode of the second series. She was possibly a victim of the increasing prominence of Denise as Faye's friend/sidekick.
- The Ditz: Denise is a gullible dummy who believes everything and Faye's boyfriend is a well meaning but dim bulb oaf. Faye herself isn't exactly the sharpest pencil in the box and is barely able to understand her own job.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first series episodes are only 15 minutes long compared with the full length 30 minute episodes of the later series. The characters are a little different too, with Faye being a bit nicer and Denise being more of an annoying co-worker rather than a dimwitted sidekick.
- Plucky Office Girl: Faye sometimes comes across as this trope and it fits her actual work position but she's less talented and lazier than the usual version of the character.
- Simpleton Voice: From the second series on Denise has a deep voice that sounds very slow witted (in the first series - where she was more intelligent and less childish - her voice is nasal and annoying but otherwise 'normal'.)
- Slice of Life: The show, especially in the first series follows Faye's day to day life and her interactions with her friends, family and co-workers. In the second and third series the show shifted more towards a standard sitcom as the plots got a little more big and surreal.
- The Un Favourite: Faye's mother has favoured Faye's older sister Kim from birth, ignoring Kim's endless faults and criticising Faye's comparatively mild shortcomings.
- The Unintelligible: Faye's boyfriend speaks in in a near incomprehensible mumble (except for the last episode of the second series where he speaks clearly while proposing to Faye.) Everyone else seems to understand him fine.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Faye is more of a a sympathetic Anti-Hero in the first series, as while she is lazy and vain she's also well intentioned and generally nice. In the second and (especially) third series she's more solidly this trope, being noticeably cattier and more malicious, picking on Denise, throwing things at her boyfriend when in a temper and generally getting into trouble with one episode revealing she's been arrested for being drunk and disorderly at least three times.
