Joanna Lumley, 78, admits she 'knows she's going to be cast as grannies or aunts now' due to her age after starring as acid-tongued Felicity in Amandaland

Joanna Lumley has revealed she 'knows she's always going to be cast as grannies and aunts now' due to her age.

The actress, 78, has earned critical acclaim for a string of roles, but in a new interview on the Dish Podcast, revealed that she's starting to land more parts as 'vicious, horrible and snobby' family matriarchs in the latter stages of her career.

Joanna made the comparison while discussing her role as the 'snooty' mother Felicity in Amandaland, where Lucy Punch plays her titular on-screen daughter.

The show is a spin-off of the BBC comedy Motherland, and sees recently-divorced Amanda adjusting to life in the 'lesser' borough of Harlesden after being forced to relocate from her home in Chiswick.

Speaking to Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett OBE, the Absolutely Fabulous star said: 'What it was, was when Motherland was running and such a huge success, they had a scene where Lucy Punch's character, Amanda, had tea with her mother or something, so I was, it was an afternoon, you go, "Yeah, be her mother."

'And then I think there was another thing where I did something else, slightly longer scene, but I was hardly in it. 

'So, when Motherland stopped and they were going to focus on Amanda, Lucy's character, the mother is now going to feature a bit more. 

'How simply lovely. How nice. You know, I'm always a cruel granny, a savage old aunt - a wicked old stepmother. I am.'

'But it's lovely. Look, as you get older, of course you're going to be cast as grannies and aunts. They're always evil, they're always vicious and horrible and snobby.

'Anyway, this, my- Felicity, my character in Amandaland, is lovely because of course she's a snob, you can tell that, and she's very disappointed that Amanda's moved into a rather shabby part of London which she doesn't approve of. 

'The children are going to a sort of local school which she doesn't, so everything she's a bit snooty about. 

'But during the episodes you can see she's kind of getting the horribleness rubbed off her edges a bit. She's also getting slightly gaga, I think, actually.'

Discussing her first scene in the show, she added: 'I arrive on the doorstep, for a start, I used to say, "Let me in, it smells of buses," but they changed, they changed the line to, "Let me in before I get mugged," because Felicity's so snooty about the area. 

'And she comes in carrying a Waitrose bag to say, now that you've only got whatever it is, something horrible, another supermarket. 

'There are many supermarkets. Less good than Waitrose. She comes in with a Waitrose bag with all the things you can get in Waitrose.'

During the interview, Joanna, who has been a vegetarian for forty years, also discussed her favourite cuisines.

She added: 'I think Middle and Near Eastern cuisines are pretty hard to beat. Because they seem to have all the flavours, all the spices, all the… Obviously I'm pretty much leaning towards Indian anyway because I adore all those sorts of curries and things.'

'But I think that Turkey and places like that have the most fantastic food, beautiful food, brilliant wines, which they seem to make, Angela, quite differently. 

'They put them, they just take all the wines, put them into a great barrel in the ground, put the lid on, stomp them about a bit, leave them, and then take it out again. 

'So, they don't do any of the things that we do, but they've been making wine for 8,000 years. 

'I think they taught the Romans how to make wine in Georgia. They did. They don't export it or it doesn't export well, but I mean, the best Georgian wines are out of this world.'

The star, who married her husband Stephen Barlow in 1986, also shared her secret to her long-lasting relationship.

She added: 'Adrian Edmondson gave the answer to that. He said "Don't get divorced." A long marriage is that, exactly that. But actually, bless - I think a lot of it starts, rather boringly, on respect. You've got to respect your partner. 

'You've got to love what they do; you never feel contempt. If you have contempt in your body at any stage, don't even start going out with them. You've got to pretty much adore them. Have a bit of a crush on them, I think. 

'And you've got to be endlessly forgiving about things, ‘cause knowing that you've got as many shortfalls as you think they may have. Don't spend too much time together all the time. Don't be together on top of each other all the time.

'Some people do, and Angela, fit like that. And other people work better when you've been away for two or three, tell me what it was like, and so on… Be truthful. I made a promise, you know, when I got married, I said, I will be truthful and faithful to you, so I am. 

'Try to be good and try to treat that person as a special person all the time. Like mad, make them precious and loved and so on.'

After Amandaland's first episode hit screens last week, some viewers took to social media to say they felt it lacked the same charm as the original and questioned why the BBC didn't just continue the beloved series instead.

Taking to X, they shared: '#Amandaland not ringing the bell at the moment, not sure the character is strong enough to carry a series - makes you realise what a good ensemble #Motherland was,'

'#AmandaLand it doesn't quite have the edge of motherland but that's more tricky with a single main character,'

'It's just not the same is it #Amandaland,'

'#Amandaland Yeh, I'm missing Julia,'

'I know it's episode 1 but it ain't the same #Amandaland,'

'This is rubbish, nowhere as good as Motherland #Amandaland,'

'Not sure I can even watch another one! #awful #dontbother #amandaland.'

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