joanna lumley
Actress Joanna Lumley on why she’s never slowing down and encouraging us all to be that little bit greener
When Joanna Lumley tells you in her familiar, soothing voice that everything is going to be alright, you can’t help but believe her. And the actress, 74, is resolute in her prediction that the coronavirus pandemic will pass and we’ll be back to normal soon.
“You’ve got to do something, which is try to live in the moment. Try to live for today and do the best you can,” Joanna’s notoriously plummy tones chime as we catch up over the phone. “Realise that all this will pass, that it is going to get better. Don’t be dejected… Try to be cheerful. It’s a kind of duty and a discipline. Keep your chin up, keep smiling and being kind. These little things can make your heart feel a lot happier, knowing that you’re doing your best.”
With her infectious positivity, it’s hard not to feel more at ease as Joanna tells us she’s had her first vaccine and isn’t in the slightest bit concerned about the virus. “I’m not a worrying kind of person. I’m a little bit kismet – either it will come and get you, sadly, or it won’t,” she explains. “Although I’m 112 years old, I’m quite fit and youthful, so I haven’t worried about it, no.”
A mainstay on our screens for half a century, the former Bond girl became a household name for her breakout role as spy Purdey in The New Avengers in the 70s. The next decade saw more success in much-loved sci-fi show Sapphire And Steel and roles in the Pink Panther films. The 90s, of course, brought us Patsy Stone.
The unapologetically awful sidekick to Jennifer Saunders’ Edina Monsoon, Patsy’s hilarious apathy cemented her as a cultural icon. And her role in Absolutely Fabulous remains Joanna’s personal favourite. “She’s been such fun to do and we all loved each other so much and had such a good time doing it,” she explains. But don’t be expecting a reprisal any time soon, as she adds, “After the film we made, people said will there be another and began speculating, but Jennifer said no so I think we’ve got to take that as a no.”
Is there anything at all we can learn from Patsy? “Absolutely not,” Joanna laughs, before considering the possibility. “Except that she lives for the moment. I’ve got to say, she doesn’t make any plans. She lives like a leech off everybody else, she uses Edina’s plastic to get what she wants, drinks far too much and smokes like a chimney, so those aren’t things I would encourage.
‘Although I’m 112 years old, I’m quite fit And youthful’
So there’s very little of Patsy I would pass forward as a recommendation, except that she doesn’t care too much. I think that’s what we might take from her – Patsy doesn’t worry.”
Despite spending much of the last year in lockdown, Joanna describes it as her busiest yet. Between filming for Finding Alice alongside Keeley Hawes, her recently-aired Uk-based travel show Joanna Lumley’s Home Sweet Home – Travels in My Own Land and several radio plays, she’s kept busy. “I’ve been pretty flat out all the way through,” she says.
Joanna has been unable to see much of her son or granddaughters, who live in Scotland, but has found joy in spending more time with her husband, Stephen Barlow. A conductor, his work would usually mean he is away as much as Joanna would be. “It’s been lovely. We’re one of those lucky families, we get on,” she explains. “He’s my best friend and somebody I like talking to as much as anybody in the world, so that’s never been a problem.”
Together, they’ve enjoyed binge-watching French police dramas and spending time in the kitchen of their south London home. “I’ve always loved cooking. My husband is a good cook as well. That’s been quite interesting,” she adds, “But only quite interesting because we are both terribly fat now! We’re going to have to turn the corner and go, ‘OK, stop all this nonsense.’”
For the actress who previously said she doesn’t eat during the day while on set, it’s quite a change of routine. But Joanna says, “I find my energy levels are much higher if I don’t eat. I think I prefer to have coffee in the morning and I scoot through the day. Unless I’m sitting at home with the fridge and I can see some delicious cheese in it. Then I’m afraid the door comes open!”
She started her career as a model and still looks as fantastic as ever. The secret to her youthful glow? Joanna puts it down to a vegetarian diet. “I don’t do exercises or special face routines or anything. But keep calm, keep cheerful. Be a vegetarian or cut down a bit on fish and meat and eat more vegetables.”
Of course, Joanna has no plans to retire. “It’s full steam ahead. When you’re acting, acting will retire you. So when you haven’t been asked to do anything for five years I think you can assume you are retired, but I’m still working away.” Her documentary on the Spice Route was forced to be pushed back last year,
but she hasn’t felt hard done by. “I don’t feel cheated. And, funnily enough, doing the series last year going around the British Isles, it’s absolutely opened my eyes to what a beautiful nation we live in.”
There is one burning issue that is at the forefront of Joanna’s mind though. The actress has long championed the environment and worries the pandemic has shifted focus away from the deadly threat of climate change. “I think a lot of people have thought while we’ve got the pandemic on our doorstep, let’s put all the other worries aside,” she says. “But actually, there is a limit to how much we can worry about the pandemic. But with the environment, you can absolutely make a difference. Reducing, reusing and recycling… You can have such pleasure in knowing you’re doing your small bit to help save the planet.”
Growing up in the Far East, Joanna explains that upcycling is something her mother taught her. “My mother was brought up in India, where people tended to have much less. Anything that we tend to throw away, they wouldn’t – they’d pull it apart and reuse almost all of the components. That’s the great reusing quality she’s always seen. She hated throwing things away.”
For Joanna, it’s meant a lifetime of reusable bags, upcycling old biscuit tins and even using gin bottles to store filtered water in her fridge. She’s working with BRITA on its campaign to get the nation to alleviate its “green guilt” by making small changes. And Joanna is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to green tips. “I save paper, which I will then reuse to wrap something. I save the string. I sponge down clingfilm, fold it and reuse it. I reuse tinfoil. Of course, plastic water bottles are one of the greatest sins. With the BRITA filters, you can get tap water to taste completely pure.”
Making small changes, the actress says, can help us feel more in control.
“It becomes quite a joy, it doesn’t become a chore. It becomes a pattern of your life.”
Joanna is no stranger to using her voice for the greater good. She’s campaigned for the lives of wild animals and the rights of Gurkhas, the infantry her father served in during the Second World War, to settle in the UK. Joanna explains that her fame would be pointless if she couldn’t help out.
“The only purpose of fame is to be able to use it for good purposes,” she says. “That’s something I’ve felt is a responsibility, a pleasure, a joy and a duty. Now, I’m asking you to look at the plight of things that we chuck away without thinking. Plastic is our greatest enemy because it just doesn’t biodegrade.”
As for being a trusted national treasure, she says, “It’s a sweet darling thing and I’m terribly touched. Part of it is because I’m very familiar, because I’ve been banging around in front of you for about 50 years so people know who I am. I’ve had this lovely warm reception to the parts I’ve played. People are kind and they know I love them, so maybe they love me back for that.”