While many might consider slowing down when they turn 80 years old – or even earlier – Dame Joanna Lumley isn’t counting candles or numbers. Instead, she’s doing what she’s always done and delightfully getting on with life.
An icon for decades, from her breakout role as ingenue Purdey in The New Avengers to her hilarious turn as chain-smoking fashionista Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous, Joanna is still glamorous and in hot demand, often held up as the perfect example of positive ageing, a prospect she finds hilarious.
“They mean becoming decrepit and being quite jolly about it,” she snorts.
“I do feel positive about ageing because it’s inevitable. I’m jolly lucky to be alive, still be working and still learning.”
An 80th birthday surprise
The actress, admired for her documentaries and years of charity work, confesses she’s a little bewildered by how much fuss people made about her milestone birthday on May 1.
“People are making a big hoo-ha about this 80, as if I’m somehow going to be different, as if some huge precipice is reached,” she smiles.
“But I’m thrilled, and touched that people have remembered and think about it more than I do.”
Celebrating on set in Ireland
In the end, she marked her big day in the most Joanna way possible – filming in outlandish make-up and a colossal wig in Ireland, playing Wednesday Addams’ formidable grandmother in Tim Burton’s Netflix hit Wednesday.
“It’s completely normal for people like me to be 80 and still working, apparently fit and not having lost too many of my marbles,” she reflects.
“When I was very young, people over 60 were pretty much past it.”
A quiet celebration
But even if she wasn’t working on her birthday, there was no chance she’d be throwing herself a big bash.
“I think birthdays are completely lovely, but they always fell at school in term time when I was a boarder,” Joanna shares.
“I got birthday cards, but it was never sort of my day. So I’ve never thought, ‘Oh, I must have a birthday party where people think of me.’”
Home is where she’s happiest
When she’s not filming, Joanna is happiest at home, spending time with those closest to her. She lives in London with her husband of more than 40 years, Stephen Barlow, 71, a conductor and composer who also shares the mic with her on their Joanna Lumley and the Maestro podcast.
“We love travelling, seeing people and going to our little cottage in Scotland,” she tells.
“When I feel overloaded, my mind flies away to the hills and the valleys there, the sound of the river and great hawks flying in the sky.”
Family ties in Scotland
Heading to Scotland also affords her the chance to see her son, Jamie, 58, who is based there with his wife, writer Teresa Gibbs. Joanna is also a doting grandmother to their two daughters, Alice, 23, and Emily, 22.
Her approach to ageing well is disarmingly simple: keep smiling and never miss the chance for a well-timed nap.
“Sometimes I catch myself in a shop window and think, ‘Holy smoke, you look dreadful,’ but if you smile, you don’t,” she laughs.
“And it’s nice now that I’m granny age as I can smile at anybody. In the olden days, if you smiled at everybody, you’d get into a few scrapes.”
Family ties in Scotland
Naturally, at 80, thoughts about her mortality do cross her mind, but she’s not afraid of death.
“I think about dying every day because I think about living every day, and I can’t see them as separate,” she explains.
“It seems to me completely normal to be born, to live and to die. It doesn’t seem like an insult, or a loss or tragedy, it’s just what happens.”
A close friend’s difficult battle
She has spoken candidly about her friend, journalist Esther Rantzen, 85, who is living with terminal cancer and has been campaigning for assisted dying laws in the UK. It’s an issue Joanna feels strongly about, believing there should be compassion – and choice – at the end of life, rather than fear or legal consequences for loved ones.
Joanna says she would consider assisted dying if life became unbearable, calling it “a nice thing” to have available.
“I’d love to have it in the arsenal, should the time come that I just go, ‘This is too bloody awful.’”
However, she’s very positive she’ll be around for a long time yet. “I shall clearly make 90 and I can’t wait!” she chuckles.
