I Try To Make Every Second Count!

Dame Joanna Lumley tells us about living life to the full, Patsy Stone, and how a certain subject should become less taboo...

- ALISON JAMES

Just how can Joanna Lumley possibly be 77 years old?

She is, of course, astonishingly easy on the eye but her beauty is far more than skin deep. She radiates such an aura of positivity, fun, enthusiasm and all-round good humour that being in her company feels rather like being bathed in sunlight! How does she do it? She flashes that wonderful smile.

"I feel it's so important to make every single minute count," she says. "We all only have a certain time on this earth. The first 20 or so years are taken up with growing up, then there's work and possibly raising a family.

"When you think about it, that doesn't leave an awful lot of time left. That's why you've got to get out there and explore while you can.

 

"Be curious and also a bit brave. Explore and meet different kinds of people. It beggars belief what you end up discovering as a result, and this can only enrich your life."

Joanna has an endless curiosity about - and a love for - her fellow human beings. Nowhere is this more apparent than in her famed TV travelogues. The most recent, Joanna Lumley's Spice Trail Adventure, was recently broadcast on ITV and is available to watch on streaming service ITVX.

"During my travels around the world, and also in this country, I have had the greatest good fortune to meet so many different kinds of people all ages, races, religions, shapes, sizes and colours," she explains.

"The older I get, the more I realise that we're all exactly the same - and yet completely different. The respect we should have for each other must extend beyond the initial knee-jerk reaction we may have.