I’m not afraid of being old... I love the wisdom that it brings
Ab Fab star Joanna Lumley talks to HANNAH STEPHENSON about doing more comedy with Jennifer Saunders and why she’s not planning to retire any time soon
IT’S hard to believe Joanna Lumley has turned 75 this year when we meet on Zoom, her bright eyes, huge smile and youthful get-upand-go attitude shining through.
But when asked how she stays so young-looking, she brings her face closer, pulling both cheeks back with her hands, as if she’s demonstrating some over-the-top facelift, and says it’s lashings of make-up and good lighting.
“I’ve been a vegetarian for more than 40 years and I’m never ill,” she adds. “The diet I love best is: eat stuff, mostly vegetables, not too much. And exercise? I have a tall thin house and I run up and down the stairs a lot!”
Typically self-deprecating, swishing away compliments with elegant aplomb, part of Joanna’s charm is that she is really good at focusing on others, remembering people’s names, not a sniff of an ego in sight.
The former model has been described as a national treasure – an accolade which fills her with equal measures of sheer delight and disbelief – having appeared on our screens for so many decades, from Purdey in The New Avengers, to Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous.
She doubts if there will be any more Ab Fab, though.
“I don’t think Jennifer (Saunders) and I will stop working together,” she says. “We are always talking about what we might do together, but I don’t think it will be Ab Fab.
“Secretly, it’s quite sensible of her – because she’s the writer – to leave it where it was when people just adored it. And June Whitfield’s gone now (the actress died in 2018) and we all felt that that was it.”
She’d love to do more comedy with Jennifer, though.
“I love comedy. I read that one school has started to give girls laughing classes. They do that in the Far East. You feel better for laughing. A lot of the focus quite recently has been on how sad we feel.
“We must stop this because it’s very contagious.”
Aside from acting, Joanna has also made a name for herself in travel broadcasting, with documentaries on India, Japan, and along the routes of the River Nile and the Trans-Siberian Railway, and as a campaigner for the Gurkhas, animal welfare and human rights.
Most recently, in a vocal stand against climate change, she called for a return to ‘wartime rationing’ to help reduce consumption.
She has fingers in a lot of campaigning pies. Somehow, you can’t imagine her ever putting her feet up and having an afternoon nap.
“The truth is I never stop working, so my leisure time is spent reading, gardening and I adore the natural world,” she says.
“I’ve two grandchildren, Alice and Emily, who are 18 and 17. They live in the north of Scotland so I don’t see as much of them as I’d like.”
In her latest project she is focusing on royalty with A Queen For All Seasons, a book which celebrates the Queen on her Platinum Jubilee (which takes place next year).
At 95, the monarch has 20 years on Joanna, who chuckles when we discuss the Queen’s recent decision to decline the ‘Oldie of the Year’ award, saying that ‘you are only as old as you feel’. Does she agree?
“I’m not afraid of being old. I’ve never minded it. For some reason I’ve always wanted to be older.
“I love the company of old people. I find it fascinating. When I was 12 I wanted to be 18. When I was 18 I wanted to be 30 and when I was 30 I wanted to be 45.
“Gradually I found myself looking forward to being the next age, longing for it almost, not because I want to be grown-up but I just love the wisdom it brings, the lack of anxiety. You understand things more.
“I don’t really count birthdays. Sometimes I forget [my age]. I know it’s an old adage to say ‘you’re as old as you feel’ but keep going!
“You’ve only got one chance, so it would be a pity to waste it by giving up or not trying your hardest or losing interest in this fantastic, beautiful world that we live in with all its extraordinary glories – and horrors – and being interested in seeing how you can make things better or kinder or happier.”
She lives in London with her husband, musical conductor Stephen Barlow, and has a son, James, from her brief first marriage to actor Jeremy Lloyd.
Joanna has enjoyed various encounters with the Queen, receiving an OBE from Her Majesty in 1995, and meeting her during several other occasions connected with her charity work.
She is clearly a huge fan and won’t be drawn on the current troubles within the royal family or how the Queen must feel about them.
Joanna is far too savvy to make rash proclamations.
“I said right at the beginning of the book that this is not about the rest of the royal family. I’m not a historian or a parliamentarian or a biographer. I just wanted to gather from other people how she would perhaps treat all these things, which I don’t go near in the book.
“But you can see she has great faith. You get a feeling that she would always have forgiveness in her heart, always be slow to judge and quick to bless, never to make hasty decisions. She would be very measured in her response.”
The book offers interesting insights from those who have met the Queen, including Tony Blair, Norman Hartnell, Cliff Richard and Noel Coward, as well as accounts from diarists and courtiers, family members and even those who have had fleeting encounters with her.
On meeting the Queen herself, she says: “You are stricken dumb with awe, terror that you’ll do the wrong thing, because there’s always quite a strict protocol – which I’m sure the Queen wouldn’t mind if you didn’t do – but you must say ‘Your Majesty’, you must say ‘Ma’am (pronounced Mam), do a little curtsy, not a big curtsy...”
She can’t remember what the Queen said to her when she received her OBE.
“You’d be waiting your turn and then you’re brought up and you stand in a certain place, then you must take ‘X’ amount of steps forward, then you must turn around.
“I haven’t the smallest idea what she said.”
Joanna says she can’t imagine herself ever becoming a dame.
“I don’t deserve a damehood!” she exclaims. “I’ve got an OBE-Wan Kenobi and that’s good enough.”
But like the Queen, she has no thoughts of retirement.
“In my job, it’s time to retire when no one wants you any more,” she reflects. “There’s still so much to do – reading, travelling, things to make, stuff to absorb. I want to cram myself full of this world and this life before I clock out.”
In the meantime, she’s sent her new book to the Queen (or at least to her assistant private secretary).
“He said very nicely that he would place it before Her Majesty. I like that wording as much as anything in my life. I don’t imagine that she need open the cover.”
I don’t deserve a damehood! I’ve got an OBE-Wan Kenobi and that’s good enough Joanna on the prospect of more royal honours
Partnerships is a word that we hear often in the higher education sector.
It’s a crucial part of how HE operates – working with others to create, innovate, and develop our teaching and research so that we can provide the best experience and outcomes for our students and all who work with us.
Collaboration is one of our core USW values, and all parts of the university can demonstrate how they successfully work with others.
The theme of partnership is key to our USW 2030 strategy, and our focus is on being a trusted partner, who others can turn to for long-term mutual benefit and success.
At USW we have known the value of partnership working for some considerable time, indeed, our founding institutions were set up by industry to educate workers, and that close, focused working with a range of sectors has developed over the years.
Working with partners can help us creatively, getting new ideas and essential insights to enrich what we do.
It can bring additional or current expertise to our work. It can increase capacity, extending our reach to wider audiences. It can provide opportunities for our colleagues and students to impact outside the walls of the university.
It is also hugely beneficial to those who work with us, gaining access to expertise through collaboration, innovation, and research, helping to ensure that future USW graduates have the skills that the workforce of the future need.
We have already seen the many benefits that the co-creation of our courses with industry at the design stage can bring, and it is something that we will be doing more of as part of our curriculum design principles.
Since starting as the Vice Chancellor of USW at the start of September, I’ve been delighted to see the fruits of new partnerships and to also have discussions where stronger partnership working might deliver more.
Our partnership with QAHE has recently begun – our new pathway provider who is
delivering foundation level provision to international students who will progress onto USW degrees, adding to the diversity of our student population.
QAHE works with a range of UK university partners already, and they have been very impressed by the quality of partnership working at USW, with the new venture getting off to a good start.
A few weeks ago, it was fantastic to see Newport shine for the Newport Marathon, which was sponsored by USW.
Despite the rain, thousands of people took part and cheered on their friends and loved ones, directly outside our Newport Campus.
It was just wonderful to see so many people enjoying themselves together.
Just last week, I had the pleasure of attending an event to mark the re-launch of our partnership with the Football Association of Wales. This partnership is perfectly aligned to our core purpose to make a positive impact on the communities we serve, whilst also ensuring students have the skills for success.
The partnership covers developing coach education, community engagement, research,
growing the girls and women’s game and performance football, and ultimately employability.
FAW has co-designed the BSc Football Coaching and Performance and MSc Advanced Performance Football Coaching courses with USW, with the UEFA B and A licences embedded into them – the only degree courses in the UK to integrate these qualifications.
Significantly, during the last five years, more than 400 students have completed their FAW C Certificate, first-aid and safeguarding awards, more than 150 students have completed their UEFA B licence and our first cohort of USW students have enrolled onto our MSc Advanced Performance Football Coaching and are undertaking their UEFA A licence.
The impact of football on society and the economy is clear to see, with UEFA recently reporting that grassroots football in Wales generates more than £550m to Wales through the economy, social benefits and savings for the Welsh NHS.
We are very proud to be working with the FAW to play a role in this and helping to train
future graduates to further develop football in Wales.
We have also recently published an analysis of our own economic and social contribution.
The report, compiled by independent consultancy Biggar Economics, concluded that USW contributes £1.1bn to the UK economy every year, based on data from the 2019/20 academic year, which includes the university’s two wholly owned subsidiaries, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and The College Merthyr Tydfil.
For every £1 that USW receives in income, £5.30 is generated to the wider economy.
The report also found that the university supports 10,600 jobs across the UK and that every person employed by USW supports a further 3.2 jobs throughout the UK.
A crucial strand in our USW 2030 strategy, impactful partnership working at USW will continue to develop in order to provide our students, graduates, colleagues, organisations and businesses that we work with, the very best opportunities in and beyond our region. ■ Dr Ben Calvert is Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Wales