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BBC comedy legend, 79, reveals she doesn't have ‘much time left' as she makes candid confession about ageing

BBC comedy legend, 79, reveals she doesn't have ‘much time left' as she makes candid confession about ageing

Scottish Sun06-05-2025

She was one of the main stars for a legendary sitcom in the 90's
STONE COLD BBC comedy legend, 79, reveals she doesn't have 'much time left' as she makes candid confession about ageing
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A BBC comedy legend has revealed that she doesn't have 'much time left' as she makes a candid confession about ageing.
The star has been front and centre of major projects at the publicly funded corporation for six decades.
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Dame Joanna Lumley made a candid confession about her age
Credit: Getty
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The legendary TV icon celebrated her 79th birthday last week
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She is known for her long-running partnership with Jennifer Saunders (right)
Credit: PA
Dame Joanna Lumley, 79, has had a varied career in showbiz and is known for a variety of huge productions.
She celebrated her birthday on May 1 and she made a candid confession about how she feels about her mortality.
She told Vernon Kay on his Radio 2 show: "As you nearly the top of the hill, you suddenly think, "Gosh, there's not all that much time left."
"My time must be coming quite soon, and I don't want to have wasted a minute of being on this beautiful planet. I used to panic when I was young, but as I've got older, I've started to live day to day.
"With age, you work out what matters. I always knew that good stuff would come along when I was older.
"When I was 18, I longed to be 30. When I was 30, I longed to be 50. We mustn't be led into thinking getting old is bad. Growing old is good."
Dame Joanna rose to prominence when she played a Bond girl in the 1969 flick, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
In the 70's she was known for playing the role of a spy named Purdey in The New Avengers.
Two decades later, she won critical acclaim and a global fanbase for her role as drunken fashion mogul Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous.
Recent projects have included a high-profile cameo in the Wolf Of Wall Street and starring alongside Michelle Keegan in Harlan Coben's Fool Me Once.
Watch as Amelia Dimoldenberg teaches Dame Joanna Lumley how to be 'down with the kids'
The British national treasure is also set to appear in the highly-anticipated second installment of the hit Netflix smash-hit series, Wednesday.
Dame Joanna also spoke to the former I'm A Celebrity finalist about her health struggles that she's faced over the years.
She opened up about living with prosopagnosia, which is a disorder that makes her unable to recognise faces that she has seen before, even with family and close friends.
The famous actress previously joked that she greets 'everybody' with kisses because she cannot tell exactly who she actually knows.
My time must be coming quite soon, and I don't want to have wasted a minute of being on this beautiful planet
Dame Joanna Lumley
Last week she said: "I've got this weird thing with faces, I've got a face blindness. It's called Prosopagnosia."
"I have to know who people are, I have to know in advance. I always say 'please tell me who's going to be there' then I can match the name to the thing.
She added: "I mean, lots of people say "oh but you meet so many people", but it's not to do with that, it's completely different."
"It's followed me and I never knew what it was. I'd try a test. I'd look at somebody and then I would shut my eyes and see if I could see their face in my head. And I couldn't."
And just like her character in Ab Fab, Joanna admits that she loves smoking and she will puff on anything between one cigarette and 40 every day.
The star joked: "I am unbelievably fit. Despite, or probably because of smoking, I am never ill. I have these extraordinary procedures."
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The star has had many notable roles in recent years working with huge directors and for global streaming giants
Credit: Getty
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For ITV she has fronted a number of fascinating documentary series
Credit: ITV
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She rose to fame in the 1960's playing a Bond Girl and she starred in the 70's spy series, The New Avengers
Credit: Alamy
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She then grew a cult following playing Patsy Stone in Ab Fab
Credit: Alamy
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Fans loved her iconic character who was a chain smoking drunken fashion mogul
Credit: Alamy

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