Joanna Lumley is determined to live her life to the full and says she is “not afraid” of getting old.

Dame Joanna Lumley
Joanna still looks fabulous at the age of 78 (Image: Getty)

At 78, Dame Joanna Lumley exudes vitality, attributing her boundless energy to the realisation that time might be running out. Unstoppable, the actor and comedian has revelled in roles across the BBC comedy series Amandaland and is set to shine in the Netflix drama Fool Me Once in 2024. Her latest venture with ITV takes her down the sprawling Danube rivera testament to her appetite for life. Buoyed by the pleasures of seniority, Lumley shared with readers of My Weekly why fear of aging is misplaced.

Pondering over mortality, she confided: “As you near the top of the hill you suddenly think, ‘Gosh, there’s not all that amount of time left,” and added thoughtfully, “All kinds of my beloved friends are beginning to leave. My time must be coming quite soon and I don’t want to have wasted a minute of being on this beautiful planet.” Filled with hindsight wisdom, she stated: “I used to panic when I was young, but as I’ve got older I’ve started literally to live day to day. With age, you work out what matters.

Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lumley opened up about her mortality (Image: Getty)

“I always knew that good stuff would come along when I was older. When I was 18, I longed to be 30. When I was 30, I longed to be 50,” reports the Mirror.

“We mustn’t be led into thinking getting old is bad. Growing old is good.”

Lumley even spared a moment to address concerns over the younger generation’s dependency on digital communication, cautioning that today’s teens might lose the art of conversation due to social media’s pervasive influence.

She expressed concern for today’s youth, stating: “My big message to the young that you need time in your head. I’m so afraid we’re going to breed a generation who don’t know the world and don’t know how to talk.”

Joanna Lumley

Dame Joanna Lumley attends a photocall (Image: Getty Images for University of S)

The iconic actress has captivated audiences in roles across The New Avengers, Sapphire and Steel, Absolutely Fabulous, Finding Alice, and Motherland, earning her place as television royalty.

Her early acting ventures in the swinging 60s earned her a spot on the cobbles as one of Coronation Street’s memorable characters, romancing Ken Barlow, and she later dazzled the silver screen sharing scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street.

Off-camera, Lumley cherishes family life with her maestro husband Stephen Barlow, aged 70, and dotes on her son Jamie, 57, and her granddaughters, Alice, 22, and Emily, 21.