JOANNA LUMLEY:
the pain and passion that drives me
“I’m an example of someone who was constantly underrated.”
Joanna Lumley is something of a contradiction. On the surface she appears all things perfectly proper, from her Queen’s English diction to her friendship with Prince Charles and the impeccably tailored trouser suit she is wearing as she sits, as straight-backed as a meerkat, in a bright airy office in London’s Soho. But the reality is the actress is as much of a rebel and rule breaker as her Absolutely Fabulous alter ego, Patsy Stone.
At 72, she lives her life exactly as she wants to – steam-rollering past government officials to visit far flung, often dangerous countries for her travel series or to fight for the rights of Indian Gurkha veterans to claim British citizenship. In Nepal she’s a national hero; in Britain and Australia an entertainment industry icon.
There is nothing conventional about her from her warm greeting (she leaps to her feet, clutches you to her bosom and purrs: “Darling, let’s really enjoy this chat, shall we?”) to her 32-year marriage to acclaimed conductor Stephen Barlow. As devoted as they are, they spend months apart while she is working all over the globe. Do they talk for hours on the phone to make up for not seeing each other?
“God no,” Joanna says, horrified. “I can’t bear all those scratchy, patchy calls on a mobile telephone from some remote part of the world where no-one can actually hear you talking. I find it very inconsiderate to burst in on someone else’s time like that. I can’t bear mobiles. I carry one only to take photographs, and for the people at home I love and miss I write postcards, so
they can read them in their own good time and see a picture of where I am.” How does her husband cope without speaking to his wife? She smiles. “Oh, he’s got used to me and my ways. It’s exactly why we’re so very well suited.”
When Joanna returns from her travels to places from Japan to Siberia, Iran to India, her greatest pleasure is not to put her feet up and be pampered on her return but to escape to a tiny basic shepherd’s cottage on a hill she and Stephen own in a remote part of Scotland. “It’s a very simple place, just a few rooms. We have an iron bed, a piano and walls lined with books. So many books. But the luxury for us is that it’s totally remote. We read, we talk, we walk and we spend time together miles from anyone and anywhere. It’s essential for both of us that we have that time and space and if you love to be with people, it’s also important to love time on your own. I always give a little cheer as we cross the border to Scotland.”
Joanna is a delight. She’s an unstoppable force of nature driven by a desire to make a connection with as many people and places as she can. If you catch her eye in the street she will smile at you. It is her rule. “I never ignore anyone and I always smile because if you smile, chances are you will get a smile back and even the plainest of faces are made beautiful by a smile. It’s an instant way to lift the spirits. In the most remote places I’ve been to, there are plenty of times no-one can understand a single word the other person says but the whole world understands a smile – it’s an incredibly powerful and unifying thing.”
In March she’s appearing in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, hosting a spectacular fusion of music and nature, providing the narration for an ambitious concert version of Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II TV series. Stunning underwater footage will be accompanied by Australia’s finest symphony orchestra performing the original Hans Zimmer music score written for the award-winning show. Joanna will be on stage next to a state of the art 75 square metre 4K Ultra HD screen, providing the narration to this extraordinary event.
“I can’t wait,” she says. “My knowledge of how it is going to work is a little blurry but all I knew was it was Blue Planet II, Hans Zimmer and Australia and I thought it sounded marvellous. It will be something different, something incredible and I adore Australia. I love the people because they are so straightforward and open and the idea I will be talking about the ocean whilst being in the proximity of the Great Barrier Reef which is a miraculous place but is under serious threat from climate change and plastic waste. Talking about the ocean and the wonders of the ocean at the same time raises awareness for the preciousness of its nature and how important it is for us to respect and take care of it and there’s nowhere that message could be more important than in Australia.”
Joanna does not hold back on her opinions but there is great thought and almost a ritualism to everything she does. Every morning she makes sure she does two rather humble things which she says always make her feel grateful for being alive. “I make a cup of coffee and I savour the smell, the taste, the warmth and look at the cup or mug it is in and find a beauty in it. I also open my door, whatever the weather, and stand barefoot for a few moments, I find it just works for me as a way to start my day, to place myself in the world.”
She is a fan – and friend – of Prince Charles who is, like her, an ardent campaigner for the environment. “I think he will make a very good King,” she says. “I’ve been lucky enough to get to know him off-duty over the years and I believe him to be a man of great thought and wisdom. But what really impresses me about him is his genuine and absolute care not just for this earth but for people – especially kids who fall through the cracks. He gets it in the neck for voicing his opinions but he wants to make the world a better place and that to me is admirable. Shouldn’t we all want to makes things better?”
Joanna’s happiness and sense of self have been hard won; her outlook on life carefully honed from experiences good and bad. Ask her how she manages to look so glamorous when she’s filmed after waking up in the middle of the Artic after a matter of hours sleep and she laughs: “I never enjoyed modelling but it taught me how to use make-up. In the ’60s models were expected to do
our own hair and faces so now I can do wonders with a hairbrush and a bit of well-placed slap. It’s interesting how useful that modelling training has come in.”
It was only really in her 40s that her life began to fall into place both personally and career wise with the advent of the awardwinning comedy series, Absolutely Fabulous, where she starred alongside Jennifer Saunders as the famous Patsy and Edina, a pair of ageing cocaine and champagne-addled buddies working in fashion and PR. “Before Ab Fab my career was either up or down and I had no way of having any sort of control over any of it. I learnt to live on very little and be grateful when any money came in.”
Joanna talks a lot about gratitude and how she now sees life as a series of opportunities. It was not always the way. She’s spent half her life in debt, suffered a paralysing breakdown, battled depression and “made many, many mistakes” before becoming the iconic figure she is today. “I am,” she says decisively in her smooth mellifluous tones “the champion of the second-raters. I’m an example of someone who was always overlooked and underrated and who got there in the end because I had to learn so many lessons along the way. The biggest lesson was to learn that you always have to keep on trying. Never give up.”
Born into a military family where her father, Major James Rutherford Lumley, served in the British Indian Army, Joanna’s childhood was spent in Kashmir, Malaysia and Hong Kong before, aged eight, being sent to a boarding school in Kent, England. She wanted to become an actress but couldn’t get into drama school so instead went to a finishing school (the famous Lucie Clayton College) and began modelling. At 21, she became pregnant and defied convention by becoming a single mother to her only child, Jamie, whose
“I learnt to live on very little and be grateful when any money came in.”