BBC comedy legend, 79, reveals she doesn't have ‘much time left' as she makes candid confession about ageing
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, 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 LumleyBBC Radio 2
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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But, just like Jeremy, he's also acquired a pub — The Bugger Inn in River Haven, near Nelson on the South Island. Noel explains: 'The key difference between our Kiwi Adventure, and Clarkson's Farm is that ours is more of a lifestyle narrative. 'Liz and I allowed the cameras into our lives. 'The filming followed what we did in September, October, November of 2024, right up to Christmas. "It documented our lifestyle - two people deciding to leave the UK and start over in New Zealand. 'And yes, everyone says it: 'Oh, New Zealand, that's a long way away.' And we just say, 'Exactly, that's why we're here.' 'In 2016 we decided to explore our options to move away from the UK and our first holiday was to New Zealand. 'We got a real feel for New Zealand and began to understand the Kiwi way of life. 7 7 'At the same time, Deal Or No Deal was coming to an end — 3,000 shows over ten years. 'It was a punishing schedule. 'This show tells the story of the challenges we've faced, the joys we've discovered, and all the fun we've had. 'I really hope the fun element of our Kiwi Adventure comes through, and maybe it will make people curious about New Zealand.' The series also shows them enjoy some of the country's hot spots, including a helicopter flight above the South Island's glacier and some fun on a boat in the balmy north. But it is not all fun and games and the series will show the brutal side of farming. He said: 'We have a fair amount of land here and we practise what I call ethical farming. 'Some call it regenerative farming, that's the buzzword. 'For me, ethical farming means treating livestock with respect. 'We know why we're farming them and what the final outcome is. 'I don't like that part. "I really don't. 'I'm a hypocrite. 'I'm a coward. 'I don't want to be involved in that final journey. 'But we try to give them the finest feed, structured water, and as much dignity as possible.' Making his name as a DJ on Radio 1 in the early Seventies, he went on to host kids show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top Of The Pops, cult quiz show Telly Addicts and Noel's House Party which inspired Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, and turned the lesser celebrated Mr Blobby into a TV juggernaut. 'Hippies in yurts' Later he presented Channel 4 gameshow Deal Or No Deal from 2005 to 2016 — which was recommissioned in 2023 with Stephen Mulhern taking over as host. It was thanks to Deal Or No Deal that Noel met Liz, his wife of 17 years, as she worked as a make-up artist on the show. Aside from his I'm A Celebrity appearance, for which he bagged a £600,000 fee, British audiences have barely seen father-of-four Noel over the past decade. It's so beautiful here that I'll walk my land and just stop for an hour, admiring the view and not get any work done. The landscape is sensational. Noel on his New Zealand home Noel and Liz, his third wife, were initially based in Auckland but Noel decided the city was too busy so they moved to the remote Tasman region instead. He laughed: 'It was so busy it began to feel like the UK or Europe. 'I even called it Euro Zealand. 'It's so beautiful here that I'll walk my land and just stop for an hour, admiring the view and not get any work done. 'The landscape is sensational.' However, it's not all peace and tranquillity, and that's mainly down to the extreme weather they experience. He added: 'The weather here has attitude. 'I lived in Devon for 20 years and there you'd get grey days with drizzle drifting in from the Atlantic. But here? 'When it blows, it really blows — trees come down. 'When it rains, it's tropical stair-rodding rain. 'You get landslips. And the sun? 'It'll burn you within ten minutes in peak season. 'Oh, and earthquakes. 'We've had three. 'During the first one, we were sitting outside with a glass of wine, and I noticed the surface of the wine rippling. 'That was a mild one. 'The biggest one really shook the house — the cutlery drawer rattled, and Liz and I each grabbed a dog and ran outside. "No structural damage, thankfully. 'But yes, earthquakes - and a dormant volcano just up the way. 'At least, we hope it's dormant.' Another big factor as to why Noel has settled so well in New Zealand is the people. He said: 'They love a good time, a good laugh and they don't take themselves, or their politicians, too seriously. 'I love that. 'Especially here, in this area, which became a kind of haven for the hippies in the Sixties and Seventies. 'There are still people living in yurts up the valley, and good on them. 'What we found was overwhelming kindness. 'We were living in Matakana during the flu outbreak and, suddenly, our mailbox was full of avocados, chocolates, home-cooked things - little gifts from locals who wanted to look after 'the two Brits up the way'. 'It was heartwarming. 'If a Kiwi invites you to their home, you always say: 'Thanks, what can I bring?' In the UK, you might show up with a bottle or a bunch of flowers from the petrol station. 'Here, it's expected that you contribute.' But if anyone knows how to throw a good house party, it's Noel. Noel Edmonds' Kiwi Adventure airs later this month on ITV1 and ITVX. 7 7
