I might be in my 70s.. but I honestly believe all these young men think I’m around 36
The Coronation Street star talks about her BT advert, grief, Gogglebox and putting liver and sausages down her bra
Smore comedy from Evelyn but likes her strong plotlines especially as she fancies doing a proper drama. he said: “I don’t have any plans to stop any time soon. I’d love to be in a drama series one day.
“I’ve been watching Call My Agent! on Netflix and I’m so full of envy. I won’t stop dreaming because you never know when it might happen.
“Look at someone like Fiona Shaw – she’s been in the business for years but it wasn’t until Killing Eve came along that she’s really been able to choose to do whatever she likes.”
Instead of a well-dressed assassin, Maureen gets to improvise with Corrie grandson Alan Halsall, who plays Tyrone Dobbs, and work with Cerberus.
She said: “He’s such a joy to work with.
He leaves the set rather more than we’d like, so I constantly have sausages stuck in my bra.
“When I put a cardigan on I haven’t worn for a while, I find myself taking liver out of the pockets.
“I adore dogs and have one of my own. She’s a rather neurotic basenji called Diva, who suffers from separation anxiety.
“When you take her for a walk, she coughs all the way. Right now, everyone thinks she’s got dog coronavirus. She hasn’t, she’s just a bit of an actress.”
Maureen has been entertaining us for 50 years, since her film debut in Up the Junction.
She has also appeared in films such as The Wildcats of St Trinian’s, Educating Rita, Carry on Columbus and The Pianist while on TV she’s popped up on Doctors at Large, The Sweeney, About Face, Doctor Who, Plebs and Skins.
She reckons the secret to her success is her “gift of the gab”. In an interview for Prima she said:
“I was never a pretty young thing. I got my dad’s nose, slightly squinting eyes and buck teeth (I had them fixed).
“So, after drama school, it was a question of convincing people to give me the jobs when they were expecting a blonde with pert breasts to walk in.
“I’ve never had that moment of, ‘Take your glasses off, Miss Jones. You’re beautiful and we’re taking you to Hollywood.’ I’ve doggedly worried away at things like a terrier – and here I am.”
● Read the full interview in Prima’s August issue out today.
I find myself taking liver out of the pockets
MAUREEN LIPMAN ON CERBERUS’S TREATS