Joanna Lumley talks to TV Times magazine about new ITV drama The Making of Lady (Sunday, December 16)... This is a period drama. How have you found the costumes? “This black dress I’m wearing is agony. It’s too short. It has to go in at the waist, but with not enough space at the shoulder. So it’s as though you’re carrying really heavy bags all the time because it drags down and it’s pinched in, so you’re kind of 'Hurrrgh!' When you take it off you can breathe. Corsets are quite fine, though!” You describe the look of your character, Lady Maria, as 'ghastly'... “If you want to be a movie star, you’d have it all done differently. But we’re not in the movie star business. We’re actors and this is how people were. They had frizzy hair because it was fashionable at the time, which is difficult to think of when we now have the idea of glossy, shiny and conditioned hair.” How did being in this drama come about? “They sent me the script and I just loved it because it’s a cameo, Lady Maria’s over and done with in the first 20-30 pages. And it’s three days of filming! If it had been longer, I couldn’t have done it because I’ve got a lot going on.” Is it a good tale? “It’s a rattling good yarn. It’s really melodramatic: 'Oh my God, they’re going to catch her, they’re going to poison her, they’re going to kill her! He won’t come back!' It’s great excitement!” Is Lady Maria a good character to play? “Lady Maria is a terrific character. It seems important to her that the family keeps good blood and that he marries someone suitable. The usual sort of snobbish old aunt!”
