The Dame Edna Treatment - Episode 3 Review

Oh, Possums! What a glamorous ol' week it was in at Spa Edna!

This week, our celebrity healer, swami, and international heroine welcomed some fabulous stars to her treatment centre, and she gave them all a gentle, if not thorough probing.

First in treatment was Alec Baldwin, who joined Dame Edna on set in a bathrobe following his steam room session. This was a wonderful segment, and we really saw Dame Edna on top form.


Revelations were the order of the night! First, we learned that Alec is "OC/DC", that is to say that he suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Dame Edna, simply to clarify, wondered what the difference was between being OC/DC and being anally retentive...and suffice it to say that the conversation went deeper and deeper (now don't twist my words!)


We also learned that Alec played with dolls as a child, and in a funny coincidence, so did Dame Edna's son Kenny! Who would have guessed? And moreover, Alec's doll was named Kenny, and he apparently tended to put various parts of the doll in his mouth...truly, these are disclosures no other show could have achieved...

Next on the couch was Amanda Holden who, although in this correspondent's opinion is not exactly A-list, was great fun.

In going through Amanda's records as she entered Spa Edna, Dame Edna asked her which part of her body she least liked. She replied that it was her feet, and Valmai quickly brought in a foot spa with "Ednox" soak.

At this point we learned that Dame Edna is blessed with a fortune-telling gift passed down to her from the ancient Hittites in which she "reads shoes"- hilarious! - so while Amanda was soaking her tootsies, Dame Edna proceeded to give her a reading. She then went into a trance (an hysterical sight!) and in a vision saw two words.....Shoe Express....

It was classic Edna!

Other guests included Tim Allen (whose films include The Santa Clause, The Santa Clause 2, and The Santa Clause 3....oh, dear!), Shane Ritchie (who was fast-tracked by Dame Edna from the waiting room into a sunbed appointment, only to be burned to a crisp by a negligent Valmai), and a Naomi Campbell lookalike who was polishing Edna's brass as part of her community service.

The icing on the cake of this delicious Dame Edna show, was singer Engelbert Humperdinck, who didn't quite seem to know what was going on exactly (memories of Gina Lollobrigida from 'A Night on Mount Edna'...).

As Dame Edna was looking over his new CD of greatest hits, she noted that the cover said "36 Greatest Hits"....then added "...not all of them yours...". I'm sure she meant it nicely!

To cap off the evening, we were treated to a fantastic duet between Dame Edna and 'Eng', singing "Quando, Quando, Quando". It was a fabulous Dame Edna extravaganza, with the audience swaying gladis, the guest stars doing the conga and shaking their maracas, and the backing dancers giving it their all in wisteria hair. She and Eng gave an energetic and vocally charged performance, topping off a fantastic evening!


Simon and I were at the taping of this episode, Possums, and it was a really great night. The audience had such fun, and the things that didn't make it into the final show kept us laughing long after we left the studio. Maybe that will make another posting in the future...?

I see from the TV listings, that due to the Easter weekend, we won't get the next episode until the 14th of April. Whatever will we do without Edna's gigastar glamour on our TV screens until then?