The Amandaland Christmas particular will air tonight
Joanna Lumley is likely one of the nation’s favorite actresses, with a TV profession spanning over six many years. The 79-year-old will return to our screens this night for the Christmas particular of Amandaland.
The award-winning star lately shared her ideas on rising older, disclosing that being acutely aware of time passing truly energises her extra. The celebrated 79-year-old actress and entertainer additionally confessed she often displays on her personal loss of life. “As you close to the highest of the hill you out of the blue assume, ‘Gosh, there’s not all that period of time left’,” she mentioned in a dialog with My Weekly earlier this 12 months.
“Every kind of my beloved buddies are starting to go away. My time have to be coming fairly quickly and I do not need to have wasted a minute of being on this lovely planet.” Joanna’s zest for all times is obvious as she continues to pack her work schedule with thrilling tasks.
This 12 months, she shone within the comedy collection Amandaland, a spin-off of the award-winning sitcom Motherland, produced for the BBC. Its Christmas particular is ready to air on BBC One from 9.15pm tonight (December 25), whereas season two will arrive in 2026.
Joanna has additionally lately appeared within the Netflix drama Idiot Me As soon as, and a three-part ITV journey documentary during which she explores Europe’s Danube River. But, issues have not at all times been straightforward for the actress.
The star beforehand revealed to Vernon Kay on BBC 2 that she’s battled with prosopagnosia for years, which makes recognising faces extraordinarily tough.
“I’ve obtained this bizarre factor with faces, I’ve obtained a face blindness,” she mentioned a number of years in the past on the Tracks of My Years podcast, the Specific reviews. “It is known as prosopagnosia.
“I’ve to know who individuals are, I’ve to know prematurely. I at all times say, ‘Please inform me who’s going to be there’, then I can match the title to the factor. I imply, numerous individuals say, ‘Oh, however you meet so many individuals’, it is to not do with that, it is fully totally different from that.
“It is adopted me and I by no means knew what it was. And I might attempt a check. I might take a look at any individual after which I might shut my eyes and see if I might see their face in my head. And I could not.”
The NHS explains that prosopagnosia usually extends past recognising faces, inflicting challenges in figuring out gender, age, and distinguishing between objects comparable to automobiles or animals. Sadly, no remedy exists for this situation, although noting distinctive options could assist make it extra manageable.
Official on-line NHS steering explains: “You may nonetheless see the components of a face usually, however all faces could look the identical to you. It impacts individuals in a different way. Some individuals could not have the ability to inform the distinction between strangers or individuals they have no idea nicely. Others could not recognise the faces of family and friends, and even their very own face.”
Regardless of these struggles, Joanna hasn’t let prosopagnosia to restrict her success. The 79-year-old’s distinguished appearing profession spans quite a few memorable performances throughout tv and cinema, together with The New Avengers and Sapphire & Metal, in addition to Completely Fabulous, Discovering Alice, and Motherland.
Within the ’60s, she was notably one in every of Ken Barlow’s first girlfriends in Coronation Road. And, on the large display screen, she even labored alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Road.
Joanna is married to Stephen Barlow, a conductor. She additionally enjoys a wealthy household life because the proud mom of Jamie, and is a grandmother to 2, Alice and Emily.
