‘There's no place like home!'

Joanna Lumley tells TV Times about exploring glorious locations in the British Isles

- Caren Clark

Joanna Lumley has taken us all over the world in her popular TV travelogues.

But, like us all, the national treasure’s globe trotting has been restricted by the pandemic, and so she’s now setting her sights more locally for her latest adventure for ITV, Joanna Lumley’s Home Sweet Home – Travels in My Own Land. The three-parter sees Joanna travel around Britain to explore a range of glorious locations, many of which have special significance for her.

TV Times joins the always delightful Joanna, 74, for a video chat to find out more...

What appealed to you most about a travelogue of the British Isles?

Although I was born in India and brought up in the Far East, we always talked about this country as home. When I eventually came here, I fell in love with it. So with all of us locked in, we thought this would be a lovely celebration of life in these islands. It was so touching to be in this country and realise how little I knew of it. I fell more deeply in love with the customs, people and countryside. There’s no place like home!

Some of the places you visit have been very special in your career. Have you enjoyed looking back?

Oh, yes, we didn’t want a long, unbelievably boring programme all about me, but virtually everywhere we went, I’ve been or worked there. So I drive a replica of James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 [at Silverstone, in homage to her appearance in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service] and we explore the legend of Dracula in Whitby [Joanna starred in 1974 horror film The Satanic Rites of Dracula]. I loved Whitby with all my heart; you see its ancientness and how they built the abbey with all that beauty.