‘Retirement has never once crossed MY MIND'

Dame Maureen Lipman on working through grief and why she’s still as ambitious as ever

- SUE CRAWFORD

Dame Maureen Lipman is one of Britain’s best-loved and most hard-working performers. Sharp, warm and funny, she was a successful stage and television actress, and after being cast as grandmother Beattie in a series of British Telecom adverts in the 1980s, her career hit the stratosphere.

She appeared in films including Educating Rita and The Pianist, and is just as busy today. She filmed at Coronation Street throughout lockdown, and also starred in Rose, a one-woman play telling the story of an 80-year-old looking back over her life.

And Maureen, 75, intends to work for as long as she can.

‘The thought of retirement has not ever once crossed my mind,’ she says firmly. ‘Inside I don’t feel any different. As long as I can walk and talk and remember my lines, then I’m not going anywhere.’

Her latest venture is a new cookbook entitled This Book is Toast, offering a variety of toast-based recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.