Joanna Lumley<\/a> does not want a “memorial service” after she dies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Dame Joanna Lumley does not shy away from speaking about death<\/p>\n
The 79-year-old actress – who turns 80 on May 1, 2026 – is “conscious of growing older”, and does not fear thinking about death.<\/p>\n
Despite insisting she does not want a ceremony that celebrates her life, Joanna’s 71-year-old husband, conductor Stephen Barlow, told her it will be his and her son Jamie’s decision to honour her wish, because she will be gone.<\/p>\n
Joanna told the new issue of Britain’s HELLO! magazine: “One’s conscious of growing older. And, therefore, I’ve got a lovely piece by Samuel Johnson, written in 1770, saying, ‘I’m an old man now, so hope I get through the year and granted the grace to behave properly.’<\/p>\n
“It’s that general feeling that life goes by, good or bad, and no matter how old or young we are, we’re all gonna die, so be ready for it.<\/p>\n
\n“I’ve spoken to my husband, and he said, ‘Look, your own funeral has nothing to do with you. You’re not even going to be at the funeral; you’ll be gone, so you can say what you like about whatever.<\/p>\n
\n“So I said, ‘But I don’t want a memorial service.’ And he said, ‘That’s going to be up to me and Jamie if we’re around. There’s no point in saying, ‘I don’t want one,’ because you’d have gone, darling, you’d have gone.'”<\/p>\n
\nThe Wednesday star added: “But I like the very last poem in the book by the great sage poet, Rabindranath Tagore, who says, ‘Death is not extinguishing the light, it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.’<\/p>\n
\n“And you think, ‘Oh, that’s just amazing.”<\/p>\n
\nJoanna is starring in a short film called My Week With Maisy.<\/p>\n
\nIt follows Mrs. Foster – a cynical woman about to start chemotherapy for cancer – and the titular character, Maisy Jones, a seriously ill yet optimistic child.<\/p>\n
\nThrough an unlikely friendship, Maisy teaches Mrs Foster to be grateful and hopeful, but to also respect the inevitability of death.<\/p>\n
\nSpeaking on the short movie, Joanna told My Weekly magazine: “We all own death. It doesn\u2019t discriminate. Good or bad, it will come to all of us. Just as we all are born. So, there is something within My Week With Maisy that makes us jump, that makes us sit up and take notice. <\/p>\n
\n“Maisy seems to be much more accepting of what is happening to her than Mrs Foster.”<\/p>\n
\nMy Week With Maisy will be shown at film festivals, but Joanna hopes it will be released for everyone to watch so its message can reach those undergoing chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
\nThe Absolutely Fabulous legend said: “I have obviously met people who have been through it \u2013 we all have.<\/p>\n
\n“Very, very fortunately I haven’t experienced it myself, but we are all surrounded by cancer \u2013 it’s everywhere. And the more we learn about it, the more it’s talked about, the more we understand it.”<\/p>\n
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