Jennifer's an Ab Fab gran 'THEY'RE JUST DIVINE!'

The comedian has one hard and fast family rule - no arguing, please

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Jennifer Saunders has a habit of making bad first impressions. Her Absolutely Fabulous co-star Joanna Lumley once famously told how she almost turned down her role as Champagneswigging Patsy in the iconic '90s sitcom because she got the distinct impression during their first meeting that Jennifer didn't like her.

And Joanna, 76, wasn't alone in assumptions of the BAFTA award-winning comedian.

 "Everyone's always going, 'Jennifer, they think you're frightening,"" laughs the star. "They'd go, 'You don't smile an awful lot.' But I've had that face since I was a kid, actually! It's a blankness and I think that's what people find odd, because if you're blank, they don't know what to think."

What's behind the vacant facade, she explains, is shyness. "And I don't realise what I look like when I'm scared!"

While strangers might have a hard time working out Jennifer, her family knows exactly where they stand. Her face lights up at the mere mention of her three daughters, singer-songwriter Ella, 36, and actresses Beattie, 34, and Freya 31.

Not to mention her grandchildren, two girls and three boys, aged between nine and a few months. "They're just divine," she coos.

Jennifer and her husband of 37 years Ade Edmondson, of The Young Ones fame, often play host to their grandchildren at their home in Devon in the south of England.