Bunhill: Success spills over with tiny bubbles on the air

ANY publicity really is good publicity.

Joanna Lumley, with her recurring request for another 'smidgeon of Bolly' in Absolutely Fabulous, is at the other extreme of the social spectrum from the average drinker of Edward VII's favourite fizz. Yet the drinks buyer at Fortnum & Mason took me for an idiot when I asked what champagnes were selling well these days.

'Bollinger of course,' she said sharply. 'Don't you watch the telly?'

To explain La Lumley's behaviour and the way she has apparently become a role model I naturally consulted my tame market researcher, who confirmed that the series represented a breakthrough in the libidos of working women.

They previously felt compelled to behave in a respectable fashion, but now have been liberated from their unliberated liberated state (if you take my meaning) by the general applause that has greeted Ms Lumley's uncorseted behaviour.