Amanda Barrie exclusive
I’m doing Celeb Big Brother to take my mind off dying…
82-YEAR-OLD SOAP LEGEND:
Corrie legend Amanda Barrie has checked into Celebrity Big Brother at the age of 82 hoping it will be good preparation for a care home – and a distraction from thinking about death.
The veteran actress is known to millions for playing Alma Sedgewick on and off for 20 years in the ITV soap, as well as starring in sitcom Benidorm and Carry On films.
But now Amanda faces one of her toughest tests on screen, as she goes on a reality TV show at an age when most people are slowing down.
She says: “I vary between thinking, ‘Have I gone entirely mad at my age?’ to, ‘Is this going to be fun?’. The thing is, when you get to 82 and someone asks you to do something, it would be foolish to say no.
“It’s a new adventure for me. I mean, what else am I going to do? I’ll just be sitting at home, so I thought I might as well have a go.”
And the star jokes: “What keeps me working? I think it’s occupational therapy to stop me thinking about death, really.”
Amanda even says her fee for doing Big Brother could help pay for a nursing home one day.
She says: “I had no intention of doing it, but then I thought it could pay for my care home. It would be nice to have that independence.
“Though I did have this moment when my partner, Hilary, put me in the car with two suitcases where I thought, ‘Are you sure you’re going to Big Brother or has she sent you packing to a care home now?’.
“I think Big Brother will be good training for the care home, anyway. I may as well have a go at it now.”
Amanda also hopes she can use her appearance to help her family, following difficult times. She says: “I’ve had a lot of tragedies in my family recently, young ones and old ones.
“I think they all need a bit of a holiday together, so that’s what I will spend some of the money on.
“My family have all been incredible. They actually did say to me after all the tragedies we’ve had, ‘For God’s sake go in because you’ll make such a fool of yourself, it’ll take our mind off everything’.”
Celebrity Big Brother launched on Channel 5 last night with an all-female cast of housemates, in a salute to a centenary of women’s suffrage.
Joining Amanda were former MP Ann Widdecombe, Made In Chelsea star Ashley James, transgender newsreader India Willoughby, Ex On the Beach reality TV star Jess Impiazzi, former policewoman Maggie Oliver, Kardashian family friend Malika Haqq and journalist Rachel Johnson.
They will all be ordered around by Big Brother, although Amanda has never been one to follow the rules.
Aged just four when the Second World War broke out, she was obsessed with death as a child.
In her teens, she ran away to London to be a chorus girl. In 1967, aged 31, she wed theatre director