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Andrea: Hello, I’m Andrea Rose and you’re listening to bbclearningenglish.com.

Today in Entertainment, we meet well-known British actress, Joanna Lumley,

who is best known as Patsy in the television comedy series, Absolutely

Fabulous. 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 from

now 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, Joanna

was awarded an OBE. An OBE is an Order of the British Empire. It’s given by

the Queen of England and is a very prestigious award that recognises people’s

contribution 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 about

her childhood. Can you hear where she was born and grew up?

J.Lumley: I was born in India in Kashmir in Srinagar. And um, I was born the year before

Partition so I don’t remember it, because I was born in ‘46 and by ‘47 all the

British had to leave India. But, my father was with the Ghurkha regiment. Both

my 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 and 

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Malaya is really my first sense of where home was. I felt I was, I thought I was

Malayan, I thought I belonged there.

Andrea: Did you manage to hear where Joanna was born? Yes, that’s correct she was

born 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 are

often talked about as ‘the 60s,’ the 1970s – ‘the 70s’ and so on. Anyway,

Joanna was born the year before Partition. That’s when India gained

independence from Britain and Pakistan was created.

Joanna’s father was in the military. Both Joanna’s mother and father had been

brought 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 home

when they moved from India to Malaya, now known as Malaysia. That was her

first 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 before

Partition so I don’t remember it, because I was born in ‘46 and by ‘47 all the

British had to leave India. But, my father was with the Ghurkha regiment. Both

my 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 and

Malaya is really my first sense of where home was. I felt I was, I thought I was

Malayan, I thought I belonged there.

Andrea: So Joanna spent her childhood outside England. However, even as a young girl

she knew she wanted to be an actress. She even auditioned for RADA which is

the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art here in London. It’s one of the best drama

schools in the world. But unfortunately Joanna’s audition didn’t go too well. 

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J.Lumley: When I was at school I auditioned for RADA. I did a fearful audition. So I just

ran away from acting at that point. I just can bear people saying ‘no’ or ‘you’re

bad’. And eventually when I get to read critics who have written about

performances I have done, if there are bad ones I rip them up so that they don’t

exist in my mind. Of course they do but in history I look back and it says ‘a

glorious, lambent performance - gleaming, shining’ and you go, well just save

that one’.

Andrea: Joanna uses lots of very colourful language in that clip. There are lots of

adjectives. Her audition didn’t go very well – she says it was fearful, it was

dreadful. She also talks about ripping up bad reviews of her performances so

that she only remembers the good ones. Some of the words she’d like to hear

describe her acting are – ‘glorious’, ‘lambent’ which means glowing,

‘gleaming’ and ‘shining’. They are all what we’d call superlatives - adjectives

that describe something in the highest of terms. That’s the kind of actress

Joanna Lumley hopes she’ll always be remembered as.

So let’s recap the language we’ve heard in the programme today.

 

Partition

regiment

brought up

my first sense

fearful

glorious

lambent

gleaming

shining

superlatives

 

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