Joanna Lumley

Today in Entertainment, we meet well-known British actress, Joanna Lumley,who is best known as Patsy in the television comedy series, AbsolutelyFabulous. It’s also known as Ab Fab – shortened forms of the words‘Absolutely’ – Ab and ‘Fabulous’ – Fab.
　　Joanna Lumley also recently had a flower named after her - a fuchsia. So fromnow on, people will have Joanna Lumleys growing in their gardens!
　　Joanna started her career in the 1970’s. Her first acting role was as a Bond girl.
　　Yes, she played one of the women in a James Bond film.
　　Since then she’s been in lots of films and television series and in 1995, Joannawas awarded an OBE. An OBE is an Order of the British Empire. It’s given bythe Queen of England and is a very prestigious award that recognises people’scontribution to British society – be it as an actress or for charity work.
　　But, Joanna didn’t always live in Britain. Have a listen to what she says abouther childhood. Can you hear where she was born and grew up?
　　I was born in India in Kashmir in Srinagar. And um, I was born the year beforePartition so I don’t remember it, because I was born in ‘46 and by ‘47 all theBritish had to leave India. But, my father was with the Ghurkha regiment. Bothmy parents had been brought up in India. So Britain was always called ‘home’
　　but we didn’t have a home here. And so after India we went out to Malaya andMalaya is really my first sense of where home was. I felt I was, I thought I wasMalayan, I thought I belonged there.
　　Did you manage to hear where Joanna was born? Yes, that’s correct she wasborn in India. She talks about being born in ’46. What she means is 1946.
　　Sometimes in English people shorten the year – for instance, the 1960s areoften talked about as ‘the 60s,’ the 1970s – ‘the 70s’ and so on. Anyway,Joanna was born the year before Partition. That’s when India gainedindependence from Britain and Pakistan was created.
　　Joanna’s father was in the military. Both Joanna’s mother and father had beenbrought up in India. If you are brought up somewhere, you’ve grown up there.
　　Britain was always talked about as home but really, Joanna only felt at homewhen they moved from India to Malaya, now known as Malaysia. That was herfirst sense, her first feeling of home. Let’s take a listen to that clip again.
　　J.Lumley:  I was born in India in Kashmir in Srinagar. And um, I was born the year beforePartition so I don’t remember it, because I was born in ‘46 and by ‘47 all theBritish had to leave India. But, my father was with the Ghurkha regiment. Bothmy parents had been brought up in India. So Britain was always called ‘home’
　　but we didn’t have a home here. And so after India we went out to Malaya andMalaya is really my first sense of where home was. I felt I was, I thought I wasMalayan, I thought I belonged there.
　　Andrea:  So Joanna spent her childhood outside England. However, even as a young girlshe knew she wanted to be an actress. She even auditioned for RADA which isthe Royal Academy of Dramatic Art here in London. It’s one of the best dramaschools in the world. But unfortunately Joanna’s audition didn’t go too well.
　　J.Lumley:  When I was at school I auditioned for RADA. I did a fearful audition. So I justran away from acting at that point. I just can bear people saying ‘no’ or ‘you’rebad’. And eventually when I get to read critics who have written aboutperformances I have done, if there are bad ones I rip them up so that they don’texist in my mind. Of course they do but in history I look back and it says ‘aglorious, lambent performance - gleaming, shining’ and you go, well just savethat one’.
　　Andrea:  Joanna uses lots of very colourful language in that clip. There are lots ofadjectives. Her audition didn’t go very well – she says it was fearful, it wasdreadful. She also talks about ripping up bad reviews of her performances sothat she only remembers the good ones. Some of the words she’d like to heardescribe her acting are – ‘glorious’, ‘lambent’ which means glowing,‘gleaming’ and ‘shining’. They are all what we’d call superlatives - adjectivesthat describe something in the highest of terms. That’s the kind of actressJoanna Lumley hopes she’ll always be remembered as.