Joanna Lumley hasn't let go of her 'Absolutely Fabulous' character, Patsy Stone.

Joanna Lumley

Joanna Lumley

The 72-year-old actress played Patsy alongside Jennifer Saunders - who played Edina Monsoon - in the hit series about two outrageous middle aged women, and the star has admitted that her iconic character has been "lurking behind her".

While appearing on 'The Jonathan Ross Show', she said: "I have a funny feeling that we made this lovely show last year about going to the Champagne region. Somebody had to! Just Jennifer and I went.

"Of course Edina and Patsy were lurking behind us all the time. Everything we did had them as shadows and we thought 'We haven't let go of them yet. They haven't been buried like old carcasses in their sarcophagy.'"

The star added that sometimes a character is so well-rounded that it's impossible to move on from them.

She explained: "Some of these people are so beautifully made that when you have invested yourself into them you've kind of merged into them and you can't really shake them off. They come with you."

The show originally ended in 2004, but returned for an Olympic special in 2012 and on the big screen with 'Absolutely Fabulous:The Movie' three years later

The award winning actress revealed that the only way she could return to the show is if her co-star and friend - who wrote the original series - returned to create the script.

She said: "I don't know. Jennifer Saunders wrote it. It belongs to her. If she says she'll do more, she shall and if she won't - and she has said she won't - then she won't."