I think stories can be found in any city... it’s just some are ultra-spectacular
Dame Joanna Lumley is packing her bags to visit some of the world’s great cities. JANE HAASE finds out more
AT the age of 75, Joanna Lumley remains one of the most glamorous people around.
It’s a fact that makes her look as if she wouldn’t be a keen explorer, but would prefer all mod cons. And yet, Joanna loves ‘mucking in’ – as she has done on TV many times.
After all, this is the woman who once stripped down to her underwear to get the phones ringing for the BBC’s Children in Need appeal (it worked), trekked the Himalayas for In the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon and appeared without make-up for Girl Friday, which saw her stranded on a desert island.
“I’ve been on camera looking as bad as can be, an awful lot worse than when I go to the supermarket,” she says. “You do whatever you can to stop your face looking awful in the morning, then go out and forget about it. If people find you attractive that’s wonderful, if they don’t that’s terrible – but there’s nothing you can do about it.”
You just can’t keep a good woman down – which is perhaps why Joanna keeps packing her bags and jetting off on adventures in all sorts of far-flung places.
Here the Ab Fab star tells us about her latest travelogue...
How would you summarise the series? It’s a little bit different from my previous travel series, in that cities are so different from countries to explore, but I’m hoping it gets people thinking again, ‘Let’s go abroad!’.
For people who have never been to these cities, it will be an exciting introduction, because we show what you would expect to see of the city, the great landmarks and avenues, to establish where it is.
But for people who know these cities well, or have been there once or twice, it will be a lovely opening of a secret cupboard door, looking into different and unseen parts of it.
What made you choose Paris, Rome and Berlin? They are all unique and are easy to get to, they had the added advantage of me having a few fragments of the language. I can understand a lot of French and German but am disastrous speaking back to them; and in Italy I tried to show off with a few phrases but lapsed into utter rubbish.
We met some marvellous people and found some lovely stories, but I do say this: I think stories can be found in any city. Just as every person you ever meet has got something fascinating about them, and nobody is ever dull. Cities are the same, and no city is less extraordinary than another. It’s just that some are ultra-spectacular, like Rome.
What makes each city so unique?
I think it’s the people that make them unique, the nature of the people. Parisians have always been considered slightly snooty, and we think they hate you if you don’t speak the language properly. They don’t!
I adored meeting a Frenchman who told me that black is the only colour to wear in Paris; I love knowing those foibles about Parisians.
Rome has a slightly wilder feeling, but it’s always been extravagant, and it’s built on ancient history and is regarded as a city that belongs to the whole world.
Any favourite moments or memories from filming?
Being in a hot air balloon over Paris. I was terrified – I once went up in a balloon and I said, ‘Never again.’ So when the team said to me, ‘You’re going in a balloon over Paris,’ I said, ‘Oh no I’m not.’ But they cajoled and shamed me ... and there I was! And weirdly, it was alright, actually it was thrilling – to see Paris quietly from the air.
How did it feel to be alone in the Sistine Chapel in
Rome in the early hours?
It was just wonderful, going through these miles of corridors literally clanking the doors open, like wandering through jewelled caskets with treasures on each side. For me, to be in there alone by torchlight, holding the only key in the world to its door – it felt a bit like a fairy story.
You visit many lesser-known gems in each city, were you conscious of wanting to surprise viewers too? Absolutely. I hope that they are slightly unusual. Also, I’m pleased that in all three programmes we met refugees, because I feel that’s something in the world today we’ve got to factor in. We can’t just close our eyes and think, ‘Oh this would all be lovely if it were 80 years ago’, this is something that’s happening now, and we’ve got to remember that, and see how other cities are responding.
Where is next on your wish list of cities to visit?
I’m hoping we might be following the Spice Route later this year, travelling from Indonesia to Mauritius, Zanzibar, the Red Sea, right up to Egypt. But every city deserves more exploration.
Every city has its own particular beauty, its own magnetic quality.
■ Joanna Lumley’s Great Cities of the World continues on Thursdays, ITV at 9pm