Joanna Lumley reveals her Absolutely Fabulous alter-ego Patsy Stone is transgender

There have long been slight references to her being a man - and now Joanna Lumley has revealed that her Ab Fab character, Patsy Stone is transgender. 

Joanna made the revelation to V magazine as she thanked the LGBT community for supporting the movie over the years.

She said: 'You go back and pick through it, the amount of gay references and ease with which it's been put into the story, without it being dragged along like a great log of plot. 

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The secret is out: Joanna Lumley has revealed her Absolutely Fabulous alter-ego Patsy Stone is transgender in a new interview

'It's really normal that one of Edina's ex-husbands now lives with his young boyfriend. It's completely normal that Edina wants Saffy to be a lesbian or that Serge is gay and living in New York. 

'It's completely normal that Patsy is transgender.'  

Patsy's gender has often been a talking point on the show. Eddy once refers to a time in the 1971 when she went to Morocco and underwent a sex change operation. 

Implying that she did in fact start life as a woman, she said she briefly lived life as a man, but 'her penis fell off.' 

Topic of discussion: Patsy's gender has often been a talking point on the show. Eddy once refers to a time in the 1971 when she went to Morocco and underwent a sex change operation

She said ahead of the fifth series: 'In the new episodes we flash back into her past again, and there's more on the fact that she may have been a man with a moustache'

During an interview in 2003, Joanna Lumley broached the subject once again in an interview ahead of the fifth series of the BBC show. 

She said: 'In the new episodes we flash back into her past again, and there's more on the fact that she may have been a man with a moustache.' 

Joanna told the Guardian that Patsy isn't tragic. 

'[There's something marvellous about her]. She's a strong woman. She has to be strong to survive. She hasn't eaten since 1973.

Sweetie, darling! Jennifer Saunders and Joanna return as Edina Moon and Patsy Stone as the star-studded first full-length trailer for Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is unveiled

'She lives on God knows what and she'll still be ready to party even when she's in incontinence pants.' 

It's been four years since Eddy and Patsy sashayed onto screen.

But the London fashionistas are back with a bang as the first full-length trailer for Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is unveiled - and it's jam-packed with A-listers.

Jennifer and Joanna are joined by a host of fabulous names - sixty in total - as their pursuit of their style idol Kate Moss ends in a soggy disaster. 

As well as Kate, designer to the stars Stella McCartney, Mad Men's Jon Hamm and Aussie A-lister Rebel Wilson, the cameos keep coming, with appearances from the likes of Barry Humphries aka Dame Edna Everage, Graham Norton, Jeremy Paxman, Jerry Hall, Dame Joan Collins, Pam Hogg, Perez Hilton and Wanda Ventham. 

After giving fans a brief glimpse of the upcoming movie last month with a short teaser, the first full length trailer has been unleashed.

It opens in typical Ab Fab style with Edina Moon falling out of her car in her glad-rags after another wild night, promptly plummeting all the way down to to outside the basement kitchen where her daughter Saffy, Julia Sawalha, is enjoying a peaceful breakfast with Jane, her teenage daughter.

Little seems to have changed for PR guru Eddy as she moans to Patsy (Lumley) 'I think I am now officially fatter sideways than I am front on.'

It Moss be the script: Supermodel Kate Moss is the focus of the highly-anticipated script's plotline as she converses with Hollywood heartthrob Jon Hamm in one of the opening scenes

Hamming it up: The Mad Men star looks afraid as he comes face-to-face with chain-smoking, boozing fashionista Patsy

Fash pack, dahling! Designer Stella McCartney also appears, alongside another catwalk queen, Lily Cole

Electrifying performance: Australian A-lister Rebel Wilson also makes a cameo, playing an air hostess who Tazers Patsy on a flight

Ain't nothing like a Dame: Joan Collins also appears when Eddy and Patsy head to the South of France as fugitives

Fancy seeing you here: Television chat show host Graham Norton also gets a cameo

Real life role: News correspondent Sophie Raworth breaks news about supermodel Kate Moss - perhaps not for the first time

The real drama comes though when Patsy phones Eddy, excitedly telling her that their idol Kate Moss is changing her PR. 

'We've got to get her, Kate Moss darling!' screams Patsy. Cue the friends crashing a fashion bash in London, where a whole host of famous names make cameos, including Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie, Lily Cole and designer Stella McCartney, who challenges Eddy over her wardrobe.  

'You're not wearing my clothes are you?' the top designer asks her,'No darling, no this is all TK Maxx,' a sheepish Eddy insists.

Icon: The film starts with PR gurus Eddy and Patsy heading out on a mission to nab Kate Moss as their new client

This is the dream: Eddy is seen working and lunching when she gets the call about Kate

This is it: 'We've got to get her, Kate Moss darling!' screams Patsy

Jourdan Dunn, Suki Waterhouse and Alexa Chung (left) and Jerry Hall, Krankies star Janette Tough and Joanna Lumley (right)

Shout out: Lulu with Jane Horrocks as Bubble pictured in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

G’day, possums: Barry Humphries as Dame Edna ends up in the pool. Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley are joined by a host of fabulous names in the new film

Soon the party-crashers spot Kate, chatting away on a balcony with Mad Men star Jon Hamm.   

'I'm going to roll away the Hamm,' Patsy tells Eddy as she saunters over, only for the handsome actor to exclaim: 'Oh god, I can't believe you're so... alive.'

In all the excitement disaster strikes as Eddy sends Kate flying into the river Thames below.  

Party time: Cue the friends crashing a fashion bash in London, where a whole host of famous names make cameos

Dressed to the nines: Jennifer is back in Eddy's fabulously eccentric wardrobe, modelling a gold jacket and a colorful Charlotte Simone fur scarf

'How bad can this be, you know?' Eddy asks Patsy and Saffy as the case of the missing supermodel hits headlines around the world. 

'You have killed Kate Moss!' Saffy points out. A brick through the window from Stella, 'the first thing I've ever had from Stella', soon convinces Eddy and Patsy to make their escape to the South of France, where 'everyone's a criminal'.

The glam location isn't exactly what they imagined though as they find themselves at what Patsy promptly dubs 'some kind of late life lesbo party'

There she is: The best pals spot their target- Kate- across the crowded room

Model overboard! In all the excitement disaster strikes as Eddy sends Kate flying into the river Thames below

After seeing Rebel Wilson taser Patsy on board a flight, the trailer ends with a typical exchange between Eddy and the voice of reason as she forlornly tells Saffy: 'I'm being trollied on Twitter, a woman told me I was a pariah.'

'Do you know what a pariah is?' Saffy asks. 'Yeah, it's a fish,' a distraught Eddy replies.

The Champagne swilling duo also comes face-to-face with the likes of Tinie Tempah, Ella Eyre, Foxes, Perez Hilton, Suki Waterhouse, Sadie Frost, Rylan Clarke and Jean Paul Gaultier.

On the run: Patsy and Eddy escape to the French Riveria with Saffy and her teenage daughter Jane

In disguise: The duo resort to outlandish plans in an attempt to outrun the authorities and the bad press

Meanwhile Jane Horrocks as Bubble, Celia Imrie as Claudia Bing and June Whitfield as Mother are back reprising their roles.

As well as starring in the film, Saunders wrote the script, which was directed by Mandie Fletcher, produced by Jon Plowman and Damian Jones.

The film hits cinemas in the UK on July 1, 2016 with US and Australia release dates of July 22 and August 11, respectively. 

Like the look? The duo are back in Eddy and Patsy's colourful, designer ensembles 

Voice of reason: Julia Sawalha is also back as Eddy's daughter Saffy, now in her 40s and with a teenager of her own