'I will celebrate my 80th while on tour'

DAME Maureen Lipman will start a nationwide tour of her new play in the week she turns 80 in May — and says she is determined to keep working for as long as she can.

- BY JULIA KUTTNER

The veteran actress will star in the touring production of Allegra, which opens just days before her birthday on May 10, with dates across the country including Brighton, where she plans to return home immediately afterwards for a party.

“It will be a wrench to leave home,” she admits. “But the show is good and the cast is nice, and Britain is not a bad place to have a look at - I've never even been to Aberdeen.”

The tour coincides with one of the happiest periods of her life as she married gym entrepreneur David Turner last September after proposing to him on a train.

Their wedding hit the headlines when the government’s emergency alert test sounded on mobile phones during their nuptials, leaving the bride stunned but guests including Gyles Brandreth highly amused.

“I am very, very happy,” Dame Maureen says. “I really am. I’m as happy as Allegra but she’s got nothing to be happy about and I have.”