Inundated with scripts from directors desperate to cast her in lead roles, doyenne of our screens Sue Johnston is struggling to believe she has just turned 80. Looking at her – beautifully coiffed with highlighted hair and expertly applied crimson lipstick – I can’t believe it either.
However, she certainly celebrated her big 8-0 in style last month, spending the evening watching the virtual Abba Voyage concert in London with friends before being joined by her family at her home in Cheshire at the weekend.
‘Me turning 80 just seems bizarre,’ says Sue, shaking her head, incredulously. ‘It’s just a number, but I remember my mum was an old woman at 80. I think attitudes have changed so much. I don’t feel like an old woman.’
Sue has been a household name for decades, thanks to her iconic role as Barbara, the doting mother of the late Caroline Aherne’s character, Denise, in The Royle Family as well as stints in Coronation Street, Downton Abbey and Brookside. In her ninth decade she realises that, while she doesn’t feel elderly, younger people probably see her that way. However, her overwhelming thought about growing old is that it’s a true privilege, sadly denied to many.
‘I remember Caroline [Aherne, who died in 2016 from lung cancer, aged 52] and other friends who I have lost along the way, in their forties and fifties, and think, “How dare you moan? They would have given anything to grow old and have wrinkles”.’