Loose Women
Linda Robson on celebrating 50 years in showbusiness and turning 60…
Mon-fri / ITV
TV Times favourite Linda Robson is celebrating two milestones this year – 50 years in showbiz and her 60th birthday. As her Loose Women pals help her get the party started on Friday 9 March, Linda grants us an exclusive interview…
Best known for playing Tracey Stubbs in the long-running sitcom Birds of a Feather and, more recently, as a regular on ITV’S daytime chatfest Loose Women, Linda Robson celebrates an impressive
50 years in showbusiness this year.
‘I can’t believe it – 50 years is such a long time but it’s been fun,’ says Linda, who’s also gearing up for another significant milestone this year as she celebrates her
60th birthday on 13 March.
‘I’m still working and still happy and healthy – I feel better than I have done for a long time.’
Here, Linda talks exclusively to TV Times about her career highlights so far, family and friends, and reveals the TV shows that she’d love to be offered a role in…
So, how are you feeling about turning 60 next week?
I feel really good actually. I stopped drinking, cut out sugar and I’ve been going to Barry’s Bootcamp twice a week and I’ve lost weight. A few years back I climbed
Ben Nevis in Scotland and, recently, I went swimming with sharks in Miami. If someone had told me
I’d be doing these things at nearly 60 I’d never have believed them. I feel like I’m in my prime.
are you having a birthday bash to mark the occasion?
Yes. My kids have organised a big party for me at a venue in London. All my close family will be there and I’ve also got about 40 relatives coming over from Ireland. Pauline will be away and Lesley is doing Young Frankenstein in the West End [Linda’s Birds of a Feather co-stars Pauline Quirke and Lesley Joseph] but Lesley’s hoping to come along after that night’s show, and I know a lot of the Loose Women will be coming, too.
what about a 60th birthday present – is there anything in particular you’ve asked for? I’ve always wanted to go to the Italian island of Sardinia, so that’s still on the list. And, I know it sounds silly, but I’ve always disliked my neck. I put a picture up on Instagram the other day and someone said my neck looked like, er, part of the
‘female anatomy’! So in the next year I might look at having laser surgery.
This Friday, 9 March, the Loose Women ladies will be celebrating your birthday and career on the show. do you know what will be involved?
They’ve got something quite dangerous but exciting lined up for me. I do know what it is and
I can’t say – but
I did agree to it!
TV Times You first started performing at the age of 10. Can you remember what gave you the acting bug?
I went to Ecclesbourne Primary School in Islington, which is where I met Pauline, and we started going to a drama club run by Anna Scher. Martin and Gary Kemp, Phil Daniels and several others also went there. We started off making films for the Children’s Film Foundation and then Pauline got her own show, Pauline’s Quirkes, and I was in that. It was like a magazine show and we’d do some sketches and have a pop group on every week.
at what point would you say your big break came?
Playing Maggie on Shine on
Harvey Moon. The writers on that show, Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, liked the on-screen chemistry between myself and Pauline and came up with the idea for a sitcom featuring two sisters, Sharon and Tracey: one lived in a high-rise in Edmonton and one lived in a million-pound house in Chigwell. Pauline immediately said: ‘I know which one I am!’ Then we met Lesley, who was to play their man-eating neighbour, Dorien, and Birds of a Feather was born. Birds started in 1989 and I’m
thrilled that it’s still going now. So, you’ve known pauline for a long time… Pauline and I have been best friends for over 50 years. She lived in the next road to my nan in Hackney – we played on the same streets together, went through our teens together and got in trouble together, too! We came home late one night, and I got a clip round the ear from my mum – then Pauline got one as well! I’d say I was the mischievous one.
Have you ever fallen out?
No, we’ve never once had an argument where we’ve stopped speaking. We’ve been through so much together, like when Pauline lost her mum, and I lost my dad. We had our children around the same time and we’ve both got two granddaughters now. Sometimes I might not see Pauline for a while but we speak, text or Whatsapp all the time, so it’s like we’re never really apart. Myself, Pauline and Lesley are all really close.
in 2012, you became a regular panellist on Loose Women. You seem to have a lot of fun on the show… Yeah, we do. We’re great mates. I’ve known Janet Street-porter since 1976 when I first worked with her and she lives around the corner from me now. Janet hates Halloween and I thought it would be funny one year to turn up at hers wearing a Scream mask. I banged on the door but she wouldn’t open it!
all the Loose women are known for their forthright views – would you say you’re opinionated?
I think so. I’ve been in trouble a few times with my husband, Mark, and my kids [daughters Lauren and Roberta, and son Louis] for things I’ve said on the show. In general, I’m just honest. I always say what I think – whether it gets me into
trouble or not!
in 2012, you did I’m a Celebrity… Get me out of Here! would you ever follow in Lesley’s footsteps and do strictly Come Dancing? No. I’ve been asked a couple of times but I’ve always said no because I just can’t dance! I’d be the joke. I’d be the one in Lycra being swung around –
I’d be the Ann Widdecombe!
if you could have your time again, what would you do differently? Maybe I would have more children. I had a miscarriage many years ago, so I would’ve had four kids now. Once I started going through the menopause I got a bit depressed because I thought: ‘That’s it – I won’t be able to have any more kids’. But I’ve got my granddaughters – Lila and Betsy – they’re the loves of my life now.
and are there things you’d still like to achieve career-wise?
I’d really like to do some more acting, particularly drama. When you do a show like Loose Women or reality shows like Gone to Pot, which I did recently, people see you as more of a celebrity than an actress and you stop getting offered those jobs. I’d really like to be in something like Marcella or Victoria – I could be one of the servants!
Loose Women celebrates Linda’s 60th birthday and 50 years in showbusiness on Friday 9 March from 12.30pm on ITV.
Loose Women is previewed on pages 84-85
I always say what I think – whether it gets me into trouble or not!
Linda Robson