Lipman: It’s fair enough to put older actresses on scrapheap

FOR generations actresses have bemoaned their short shelf life.

But Maureen Lipman says it’s ‘ f air enough’ that older actresses find themselves ‘thrown on to the scrapheap’.

Dame Maureen, 74, pictured, who pl ays Evelyn Plummer i n Coronation Street, said there is ‘a certain amount of invisibility’ at her age. But she told Radio Times: ‘I don’t sit around thinking about my absence from society, because I’m too busy getting on with life.

‘Yes, maybe we do get thrown on to the scrapheap after a certain age, but that’s fair enough, isn’t it? The same thing happens to a leaf on a tree.’

She added: ‘There’s not a lot of drama work out there for older actresses. And you have to understand that every older actress still thinks that she’s 34. Look at Joan Collins.’