Katherine MacAlister speaks to Lesley Joseph, who continues to show her remarkable versatility

It’s all too easy to mix Lesley Joseph up with her best-known characters, namely Dorien Green in Birds Of A Feather or her current role as Myra in Hot Flush.

But delve deeper and try to discover who Lesley really is, and you get short shrift, the heads of journalists who have dared littering our streets. So interviewing her was a challenge I approached with trepidation, only to be disarmed by her chatty, articulate and reflective demeanour as well as her passion and dedication for her craft.

In short she’s an institution who is still managing to land plum, diverse roles in her later years while maintaining a private life. But more than that, she’s content: “You can’t worry about what people think, which is why I don’t read reviews,” she says.

“We are who we are and your body is your instrument. If you are the product it’s hard not to take a knock personally so you need to develop a thick skin, because some will love it and some hate it and there’s nothing you can do about that. You can’t be everyone’s cup of tea.”

So instead of getting bitter and twisted when Birds Of A Feather ground to a halt after nine years, Lesley decided to diversify by presenting Wish You Were Here, taking part in Family Fortunes, winning Come Dine With Me and getting back to her first love: theatre.

“It was good to have a rest for a bit and was the right time to finish Birds because we all had other things we wanted to do. And you have to embrace the new reality culture and think outside the box, although I wouldn’t go in the Jungle or do Strictly. Not with this old body — I don’t think it would cope,” she says in a most unDorien fashion.

Instead she went travelling, something her sitcom work had curtailed, and relished every second. “Wish You Were Here was wonderful — we travelled all over the world; Italy, Jamaica, Miami, Australia, Vegas, always hitting the ground running. I really, really enjoyed it. I’m still hoping they might resurrect it,” she says wistfully.

She is also happy to discuss appearing on Family Fortunes with her children; normally a no-go area. “I was so excited we got all the right answers,” she smiles. “I was thinking of my dad that day because it was Remembrance Sunday and he always used to walk down Whitehall. The whole audience got quite emotional when I told them my charity was Age UK because my mother is 101. So yes, you can set yourself up to be pulled down, but it doesn’t matter. It’s so arbitrary.”

Lesley’s parents cannot have been surprised by her theatrical aspirations, considering Lesley’s headmistress in Northampton told them to put their daughter on a stage. She also went to elocution classes, which might explain those wonderfully tight, clipped tones that Dorien executed so expertly.

“It was what I did,” Lesley says. “I call them ‘the innocent days’ when we didn’t have to be a success, we just went where the work was. Everything was accessible. But then after Birds my career changed.”

Does that mean the 69 year-old became stereotyped after that? “Birds was a huge launching pad so if people ask if I mind being typecast, I always say no, because it gave me a lift and opened lots of doors. I didn’t have anything to prove because I had done so much other work as an actress already, some glorious stuff; straight theatre, Shakespeare, Checkhov, so I dip in and out. But comedy is perhaps what I’m best at. I think humour is my forte.

“I love comedy, because people leave their problems at the door for a few hours, and there’s nothing better than seeing people wiping away tears at the end. If I have a choice I always go comedy.”

It’s one of the reasons Lesley is relishing getting up on stage every night in Hot Flush! the musical, an all-singing, all-dancing part which is keeping her trim. “It’s going very well. I’ve done it twice before and have a photographic memory so it’s not hard learning my lines.

“And this is close to the knuckle so people are in hysterics. It’s a show of extremes; music, stand-up, singing, a bit of everything, which I like.”

Right bang in the middle of the tour, Birds was reincarnated and went down a treat on TV. So was Lesley surprised by its success? “We did the stage show first so saw how the audience reacted. We were nervous, though, texting each other to say ‘four more sleeps’, even though we knew people loved it and we knew it was a good show, and that the fans would stay with us.”

Lesley can’t resist the lure of the theatre. “I love working with an audience, which is why I’m such a keen panto fan, it’s a real art, talking to your audience, pulling their strings and moving the story along a notch when you need to. Lots of comedy is about rhythm and if you understand that you can duck and dive.”

Does Lesley ever consider a career other than acting? “If I hadn’t got into drama school I would have gone into rep and worked my way up. But then I’m from an artistic family, my cousin was in a Sicilian circus so there’s lots of diversity.”

I ask if she minds the celebrity lifestyle which seems to go hand-in-hand with acting these days. “I love the red-carpet stuff, pottering off to things like the television awards. You can dip in and out but no one wants to live like that all the time.”

My conclusion then is not that Lesley is a diva but rather that she has maintained her dignity during a wonderful acting career, maintaining not only her privacy but her reputation at the same time. A class act, then, in this fame-hungry era, and a hard one to follow.

Hot Flush!
New Theatre, Oxford
Tonight (Thursday) only
Call 0844 8713020 or see atgtickets.com/oxford