On tour: British actress Joanna Lumley satisfies her curiosity for northern Africa in her travelogue ‘Joanna Lumley’s Nile’
It’s hard to imagine how Joanna Lumley ever became 64 years old. One minute she was the star of The New Avengers, and soon after, the drunken, stoned Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous; the next she was old enough to be our grandmother.
She certainly doesn’t look her age in Joanna Lumley’s Nile (TV1, Sundays, 7.30pm), a fascinating travelogue that tracks the longest river in the world from Alexandria in Egypt to its source in Rwanda, taking in some spell-binding sights along the way.
Marketed as a documentary but in reality more of a travel show, JLN last week visited the people of northern Sudan and this Sunday explores the capital city Khartoum, complete with a visit to the famous “whirling dervishes”.
Born in 1946 in Srinigar, India, then under British rule, Lumley has always been curious about northern Africa after spending much of her childhood travelling to and from the Far East via the Suez Canal.
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Her loyalty to the people remains as keen as ever. She’s protested on behalf of Tibetans, she’s stood up for indigenous rights in India and has supported a campaign to assist and fund Burmese students.
Only last year, Lumley almost single-handedly led the eventually successful campaign to allow all Ghurka veterans who served in the British Army before 1997 the right to settle in the United Kingdom.
It’s this strong sense of empathy; her ability to retain an undisguised common touch despite the plum-in-mouth-accent, that creates such goodwill during her journey along the Nile, even when it comes to the war-torn southern Sudan.
Given the dubious sanitation, the complete ban on alcohol and temperatures apparently reaching 53degC, you half expect the old “Patsy” to rear her head at some stage and start throwing the toys out of the cot.
But it never happens; not even when the Nile crocodile, which Lumley last week gave a huge introduction, proves to be far too elusive for the production crew, leaving them only with a few scratches in the sand, and a distant glimpse in the river.
Maybe it’s true what Lumley told reporters recently when asked about the Nile project; that she’s finally reached an age where she only worries about things worth worrying about.
Certainly, despite the cattle-class transport arrangements, she was fairly well catered for. During an overland trip her convoy consisted of four trucks and drivers, two cooks, one guide, a translator and a policeman.
Lumley discovers a land of people with long memories.
There was the local man who remembered her as a “Bond girl”, a reference to the time she played a small part in the 1969 film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Then there was the elderly woman who, until Lumley, hadn’t seen a white face since being terrified by the British occupation some 50 years earlier. The pair had a great laugh over that.
It made for a fascinating spectacle; one woman looking as ancient as the land itself – the other looking like, well – she still just looks like Patsy.
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