On The Cover Alison Steadman “We don’t stop living at 60!”

Telly favourite Alison Steadman talks about the joys of family and finding scripts with interesting parts for older women…

Alison Steadman knows the feeling that time is marching on. The 74-year old actress found it particularly helpful in her latest role in the BBC1 drama Life, in which she plays Gail, a housewife about to have a big birthday who is jolted into realising she ought to do the things she’s been putting off.

“It’s Gail’s 70th birthday and I’ve had a 70th myself and it is quite a significant birthday,” explains Alison, who in person is down-to-earth and dryly funny. “You do feel quite different at 70 than you did at 50 or 60. You’re thinking, ‘Oh, gosh, I’ve never done that and how many years have I got left?’ and ‘Maybe I should branch out and try this and not be so reticent’.”

Obviously, no one would say Alison has missed out on fulfilling her dreams. One of our most successful TV stars, she’s been a fixture of our screens for five decades in hit programmes such as Abigail’sParty,Pride andPrejudice,Gavin&Stacey, Boomers and HoldtheSunset. She’s also a keen twitcher and ambassador for the London Wildlife Trust.

For Alison, rather than pursue bucket-list dreams, the key to happiness is simply to feel more gratitude as the years advance. “I do value every day of my life, probably much more than I did years ago,” muses Alison. “I have a little grandson now, who I’ve bored people sideways with pictures of, but I can’t help it! That makes a big difference to my life.

“My character, Gail, also has a little grandson who’s four, so I can kind of identify with how thrilled she is to have him.”

Alison’s three-year-old grandson, Freddy, is the son of her son Toby – she also has a son called Leo, both from her marriage to filmmaker Mike Leigh, which ended in 1995. Alison now lives with her partner, actor Michael Elwyn.

Clearly, the character of Gail resonates with Alison, certainly when it comes to that ticking clock. But Gail, married for 50 years to Henry ( DoctorWho’s Peter Davison), only becomes aware of what she’s missed out on when, just before her birthday party, she runs into an old schoolfriend who changes the course of her life.

Alison picks up the story… “This schoolfriend remembers Gail to be a completely different person when they were at school together,” she explains.

“She says Gail was much livelier – she would tell jokes and was adventurous and the kind of person everyone looked up to. Now there’s suddenly this nice middle-class lady who’s very quiet, whose husband talks over her.”

The friend’s criticism jolts Gail from her quiet life. “It’s a revelation to her. It’s like she’s been in a quiet sleep for many years and has suddenly woken up,” says Alison.

Alison believes that style of marriage will be familiar to many women of her generation and before. “My parents had some friends years ago, and this chap would clap his hands and go, ‘Come on, woman, kettle on!’ and she would get up and toddle into the kitchen!” recalls

Alison, shaking her head. She adds that the woman had been a talented writer who hid her stories from her husband, a domineering man she never had the courage to stand up to.

“A lot of women will identify with Gail or know people like her. I think now this generation of women are much more able to stand up for themselves.”

Indeed, Alison has seen her career continue to flourish in late middle age – a time when many actresses complain the roles dry up.

“It’s great that we’ve got this lovely storyline at our age,” she chuckles. “Thank God writers have woken up and thought,

‘Do you know, there are interesting stories for people over 60,’ because people don’t stop living when they get to a certain age. In fact, a lot of people live even more! There are interesting things to discover and talk about, so it’s great that Mike Bartlett has written this.”

She returns to considering the march of time.

“When you get to a certain age you think, ‘Oh, gosh, if I get 15 more years, that would be good,’ and then you realise some people don’t even make it to 20. So for goodness sake, be thankful you’ve had such a good innings.”

“Writers now realise that there are still interesting stories for people over 60”