My friends and I are like the GOLDEN GIRLS

Dame Maureen Lipman on the humour and the sadnesses that come with growing older

- ANNA MATHESON

For the past five years, Dame Maureen Lipman has been walking the cobbles as Corrie’s waspish Evelyn Plummer. The actor, 76, says it ‘astounds’ her that it’s been that long already – but she has no plans to leave. ‘I really admire Evelyn,’ she explains. ‘She is malevolent. She’s grumpy and slightly salt of the earth – she’s a proper Coronation Street character, an old-fashioned matriarch. So for me, it’s a joy to come to work. I’ve been in London for 55 years and I’ve enjoyed coming home.’

Dame Maureen does certainly seem to enjoy putting some roots back down in the north. The star grew up in Hull, but moved down south to study at LAMDA before meeting her late husband, playwright Jack Rosenthal, who she married in 1974. As well as raising their two children – Amy and Adam, who are both writers for stage and screen – Maureen has enjoyed a successful stage and screen career. She starred in Oscar-winning film The Pianist, and tickled television audiences in comedies such as Agony and Plebs. But these days, there’s something that gives her more pleasure than any acting accolade – her grandchildren.

She says of her son Adam’s two kids, Ava and Sacha, ‘To them, I’m just Momo. If Ava rings me, as she did last week, to tell me that she’s designing a dress for Auntie Amy, I could not be more proud that she’s chosen me to ring to ask what I think. No award could be better than that. I’m very touched and overwhelmed by how much I love them.’