VIDEO: Iconic comedic actress Joanna Lumley speaks to 7.30

SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER:  Joanna Lumley, welcome to 7.30 and we're delighted to have you back.

JOANNA LUMLEY, ACTOR AND PRESENTER:  Thank you so much Sarah.

SARAH FERGUSON:  Now, you're coming to Australia on tour and I'm told that you are coming here to talk about your long career with its many highlights. Now many of those highlights are familiar. What do you think are the elements that people won't be so aware of?

JOANNA LUMLEY:  I'm planning to wrap in quite a lot of travel stories on this one and sometimes it will be travel stories, that bits which went wrong when we were filming just because it is quite entertaining and I think that when you see the polished version of things on the screen, and that goes for acting as well as presenting documentaries, you just imagine it is an ideal world and of course, you get there, as you well know, Sarah, I didn't mean that in a critical way. What I meant is that things go wrong, and it is quite nice and funny to see them.

My life has been so long. I'm obviously going to have to lock the doors and keep the audience in for about five-and-a-half hours, I hope they won't mind.

SARAH FERGUSON:  You've thrown me straightforward into, I was going to do this neatly in a line, but you've thrown me straightforward into your travel documentaries and I know that so many people love those. But what is it you think that is the appeal of those shows?

JOANNA LUMLEY:  I think some of it is that some places we go are familiar. It might be Italy or France or something like that where people have been to, but quite a lot of the places like Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and things like that, Mongolia, people have never been to nor will they ever go to necessarily.

The Banda Islands, Southern India - places that people maybe dream of going to, haven't got the money to, haven't got the time to, haven't got the inclination but would love to know more about it.

And I think that we're so lucky because we're usually following stories that we've researched, that we hope will be unusual and different. We're not just sightseers or tourists, we're trying to find different bits and pieces. They will access all areas with me that when you go on holiday, you might not.

SARAH FERGUSON:  I heard you describing your work on the series and you said that you travel without hair and make-up. Is that really true and if so, I salute you, Joanna Lumley.

JOANNA LUMLEY:  You don't travel with hair and make-up, Sarah.

SARAH FERGUSON:  Well, I'd like to.

JOANNA LUMLEY:  I'm not saying from observation. Look at you, girl.

What I'm saying is that the thing is we like to travel light and so we have a crew which is literally two cameras and sound, producer, director, and maybe an executive producer and I just have to do my make-up.

Quite often hotel rooms, I don't think I'll find this in Australia because you're a very cultured and brilliant country, but what we hate, what women hate, oh hoteliers around the world, is a top light in the bathroom. You can't do your make-up.

SARAH FERGUSON:  The horror.

JOANNA LUMLEY:  So sometimes I come out looking a bit weird because I've been doing make-up either by candlelight or torchlight or top light. So it is interesting, it is a challenge and I'm very grateful to the viewers who say nice things because they can't see the crumples.

SARAH FERGUSON:  Let me just go back to, I said that you were coming to talk about all the parts of your career. When I was reading about you, there was a thing I didn't know. I was personally stunned to learn that you'd been on Coronation Street. So, just take me back. What was the lure of the soap opera in your early days?

JOANNA LUMLEY:  Well, the lure of the soap opera in my early days was literally, I had about three weeks before I got Coronation Street. I was so destitute, so unable to be employed. I was just out of work.

And then suddenly this chance to play Ken Barlow's girlfriend came up and it was only ever going to be eight episodes, but I thought this is going to be magic because I will be so good in it, Sarah, they will want to keep me on for years.

When I came to the deathless words, "No, Ken, I can't marry you because I don't want to stay in Coronation Street." I said, "Oh please, don't make me say these words, why are you making me?" They said, "Well, because your part is over.” I said, "Oh, please let me stay on."

Anyway, they didn't but it was just, it was magic. It is lovely to have a character who you can rely on.

I have had a couple of those in my career, three really. One was Purdy in the New Avengers and to be in 26 episodes of something means you don't have to keep on proving yourself. You can just be that person.

The other was in Sapphire and Steel and the other, of course, was Patsy in Ab Fab. Once you get to know the character, they are yours and you can do what you like.

SARAH FERGUSON:  You have had a repudiation as a young actress. You were turned down by RADA, one of England's snootiest and best drama schools. Did you send them a photo of yourself in the Avengers after you got the part?

JOANNA LUMLEY:  No, I did not but then I just joined the ranks of astonishing actors around the world who also were turned down. People like Antony Sher, also discarded.

I never felt sad about it, but what I didn't want to do, Sarah, was to keep on going around all the drama schools. I was 16 at school when I applied for RADA - completely unsuitable. I'd done nothing except school plays where I always played a man with a beard because I was tall.

I was not an ideal candidate, but I thought if I tried other drama schools, and they hate me as well, then they might just be telling the truth, and I shouldn't be an actress. So I thought, lah, lah, lah, shan't listen to that. Okay, I'll do something else, and I'll get into acting in another way.

So I thought, there is always, in a big ruined house, think of it, there is always a door left open and I thought somewhere I'll keep walking around the door of acting and I'll find a little window that's open and I'll jimmy it open and I'll get through another way.

And so although I was a model which was fine, I didn't really mean to be a model, but everyone was a model in those days. Literally, literally, if you didn't look actually like a horse, you could be employed as a model.

But I didn't want to be a model so I just thought I will take any work. I will take commercials or small parts, or I'll play people's girlfriends, it doesn't matter, I'll just get in there and I'll watch and I'll learn and I'll understand it and one day, one day it will be great.

SARAH FERGUSON:  Let me talk about one of the big doors that swung open which was, of course, to Absolutely Fabulous. Now you were working there with comedians with very serious comedic chops, particularly in the person of the writer of Absolutely Fabulous.

JOANNA LUMLEY:  Jennifer.

SARAH FERGUSON:  How long did it take them, the wonderful Jennifer Saunders. How long did it take them to realise that you were also someone with extraordinary comedic chops.

JOANNA LUMLEY:  Well, I think the thing is that Jennifer Saunders, okay I love her, but literally she doesn't think terrifically far ahead.

So she just said, we can make something work out of this and she developed this character called Patsy who she hadn't really thought of but she knew she would be a best friend, but in the writing of the first script, she hadn't described actually described what Patsy was like.

So I invented a bit of Patsy. I thought she would always have her hair up, she would always have red lipstick, she would always start the day looking pretty fabulous until everything went a bit wrong.

She, I'm hitting this bloody microphone again.

Until the day unravelled and she unravelled with it and got a bit, but she was a staunch friend of Eddie who, of course, paid for everything and they were very close friends and I think what was bliss about the show, was that Jennifer had spotted a hole in entertainment which was a dysfunctional family of such ghastliness that you couldn't believe it.

I mean the two women were so ghastly, when we were rehearsing, we used to just lie on the floor and cry with laughter, but then we did it live in front of an audience. Nobody seems to know this.

We did it live in front of an audience of about 300 people at the BBC Television Centre on a Friday evening and it was desperately important to get it right. So we were really adrenalin flying along and Jennifer would come along with extra lines and we knew where everything was. There were five cameras following us and great screens and the audience behind it. It was pretty buzzy stuff, it was wonderful, it was wonderful

SARAH FERGUSON:  I had no idea that it was done live. I wanted to ask you about something about Patsy. The question is why we still love her so much. Is it because she is apart from being incredibly funny, but she is so unapologetically Patsy.

JOANNA LUMLEY:  I think so. I think also because the gay community loved us quite early on, they got it very fast. In New York, the gays just got it and it became a cult viewing. It is nice for chaps to dress up as Patsy because I'm tall and they put their hair up and they have get a fag and a glass of something and go, "Oh sweetie."

And they've always got very good legs so they look great.

But I think the other thing was that is that Patsy is sort of indestructible. She is sort of gender fluid. She is almost a cartoon character. No matter how bashed or beaten down or useless she is, the next day she springs up looking okay. Had to put self-administered Botox during the morning. They were just ridiculous.

SARAH FERGUSON:  It is the most, it is the most enduring comedy. We could obviously talk to you all night long, but I think I'm obliged to stop at some point.

We're looking forward very much to seeing you in Australia. Thank you for all of the wonderful characters that you've created, and we'll keep watching them until the end of time. Thank you.

JOANNA LUMLEY:  Thank you, Sarah. You're fabulous.