Joanna Lumley is almost an octogenarian but is still at the top of her game with two hit TV shows on the go and a reunion with her old pal Jennifer Saunders
Joanna Lumley will turn 80 next year – but the Absolutely Fabulous legend says she definitely won’t be planning her own funeral.
Though the actress admits she’s “conscious of growing older” and isn’t afraid to shy away from the subject of death, she revealed she doesn’t even want a memorial service.
However, her husband Stephen Barlow, a symphony and opera conductor she has been married to for 39 years, has other ideas. And he’s apparently told her the funeral arrangements will be a matter for him and their son Jamie, as she will be gone.
Seemingly, he thinks Joanna might die first – and he might have a point, as at 71, he is almost a decade younger than her. While their only child, Jamie, is 58.
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Opening up on her funeral ‘plans’ to HELLO! magazine, Joanna shared: “I’ve spoken to my husband. And he said: ‘Look, your own funeral has nothing to do with you. You’re not even going to be at the funeral, you’ll be gone, so you can say what you like about whatever.'”
Joanna continued: “So I said: ‘But I don’t want a memorial service.’ And he said: ‘That’s going to be up to me and Jamie if we’re around. There’s no point in saying, I don’t want one, because you’d have gone, darling, you’d have gone.”
But if she did have to have a poem read at her funeral, Joanna – who has just released a book featuring lines from some of her favourite authors titled My Book of Treasures – says she’d like one by Rabindranath Tagore.
She remarked, “Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has done. It is only extinguishing the light.” And you think, “Oh, that’s amazing. ‘ ‘
You wouldn’t believe it because Joanna is still very much at the top of her game, even though she is almost octogenarian. She is currently starring in two massive TV shows while continuing to produce her travel documentaries.
In the most recent season of Tim Burton’s highly successful Addams Family spin-off show, Wednesday, which is executive-produced and directed by the legendary Tim Burton, she appears as Grandmama Hester Frump on Netflix.
She’s also returning for the upcoming second season of Motherland’s Amandaland, which is currently being filmed. Joanna is fantastic as ever as Lucy Punch’s cold-hearted mother Felicity, who plays the lead character Amanda Hughes.
And fans won’t have to wait too long for their Amandaland fix as it’s been confirmed there will also be a Christmas special airing in a few weeks’ time – and a familiar face is joining the cast.
It’s none other than Joanna’s Ab Fab co-star Jennifer Saunders, who will play Felicity’s sister and Amanda’s Aunt Joan in the hit BBC show. Her character is described as “a ball of country-living, enthusiastic upper-class bluster – very, very different from Felicity”.
Jennifer stated in a statement that she was “delighted” to be making a Christmas special with the fabulous Amandaland gang. Joanna’s on-screen sister is undoubtedly a laugh, she said. Who doesn’t enjoy a family reunion in the traditional way?
After being forced to leave Chiswick following her divorce, Amandaland follows middle-class Amanda and her two children as they adjust to life in South Harlesden, which she pretentiously refers to as “SoHa.”
Source: Mirror
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