FAREWELL POSSUMS!

It’s the end of a worldwide comic institution who left a Size 9 high heel shaped footprint on TV audiences across the globe with her catchphrases and trademark gladioli flowers.

Now Dame Edna is bidding a fond farewell as creator Barry Humphries gives his most loved characters a final hurrah with a UK tour, which stops at the Mayflower Theatre next week.

He’s hanging up Edna’s diamante glasses and her size-9 high heels and her spectacular frocks are going into mothballs, along with another of his acclaimed characters, the drunken, leering cultural attache Sir Les Patterson.

But not before audiences say bye for good, they will be introduced to another controversial yet comical character – Gerard, Sir Les’s paedophile Catholic priest brother.

Barry Humphries is going out in style with the all-singing, all-dancing, but mostly all audience teasing Eat, Pray, Laugh.

Dame Edna quips: “Yo u will see me at the height of my powers, taking you on a wonderful spiritual journey you’ll never forget.

“I’m not saying my show will heal you, but you’ll certainly leave the theatre feeling considerably better for the experience.”

While Act One features Humphries and friends, this really serves as “just a bit of foreplay really before I make an orgasmic appearance in Act Tw o”, she adds.

While Barry Humphries’ famous creations are not officially retiring, Australia’s greatest Dame insists that this will be her final UK tour.

“So, Possums in Southampton, please do come and say goodbye to me. It would be lovely to see your faces for the last time.”

  • For Lorelei Reddin’s full interview with Barry Humphries, in which they talk disapproval and Dames, see tomorrow’s Seven Days magazine, free with the Daily Echo.
  • Eat, Pray, Laugh runs from Tuesday to Saturday. Click here for tickets>>