Lesley’s Keeping Busy
When Lesley Joseph performed on Strictly ComeDancing last year, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to recreate such a vintage experience.
But the busy actress admits she feels so touched and lucky that 2017 has been yet another incredible year for her as she takes a central part in the BirdsofaFeather Christmas special and treads the theatre boards in Mel Brooks’ YoungFrankenstein in London’s West End.
Sounding so happy, she confides, “Do you know what? 2017 has been so fantastic. I am so lucky.
“Last year had been an amazing year. I did Strictly, Annie, panto and a Birds Christmas special. I thought it would be difficult to top it but then I had an email from my agent offering me a job on Frankenstein.
“And now Birds is back for another Christmas special! I am so proud that it is.
“We first started doing Birds in 1989 and I find it mental that here we are, still doing it again! Amazing.”
She says she laughs so much with Linda and Pauline that it’s never a chore working to such a tight schedule.
“We are all such good friends off-screen,” she says. “I really do think Birds is such a feelgood programme. This year’s Christmas special is pure vintage Birds.”
She hasn’t kept up the ballroom moves since taking part in last year’s Strictly but the 2016 group stay in touch.
“I think it was a very special year,” she adds. “It was a diverse group of people who really got on.”
Christmas will be a family affair for Lesley who plans to cherish every moment – particularly as she only gets three days off. But she’d not have it any other way.
“I love what I do,” she declares. “I can’t say the older you get, the less you work – it’s been the opposite for me!”
“Birds started in 1989. I find it mental that here we are, still doing it again!”
BirdsofaFeather goes out on ITV on December 18