Joanna Lumley on the secrets of a long marriage, the Swinging Sixties and beauty

This week joining Kelly-Anne Taylor, in the studio, is the British actress, presenter and author, Joanna Lumley. Born in India, in Kashmir, Srinagar – she was brought up in the Far East, coming to the UK, aged 8, to attend boarding school. She went on to work as a model and actress, living in London in the Swinging Sixties – and made her name starring as Purdy in The New Avengers. She boasts a successful career – spanning over 6 decades – she had audiences in hysterics as Patsy in hit sit-com Absolutely Fabulous, has presented wonderful travel programmes – and, of course, captured the nation in Jan Etherington’s radio show, Conversations From A Long Marriage – in which she stars alongside Roger Allum. In this episode, she talks about why she doesn’t have a mobile phone and how difficult she found it to shed the ‘pretty girl’ stereotype when she moved from modelling to acting. Plus, she talks about raising a child as a single mother, how playing Purdy in The New Avengers changed things financially for her and why she wishes sex scenes would be cut from TV and film.

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