Stay passionate and laugh a lot \u2013 Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam reveal the secrets of a happy marriage. <\/p>
This interview was originally published in\u00a0Radio Times magazine<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n If there\u2019s such a thing as on-screen chemistry, can there not also be such a thing as on-radio chemistry? If we\u2019d only ever heard Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart and never seen them, what would have been the effect? The answer might be something very like Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam in Conversations from a Long Marriage, the hit comedy two-hander that captures the essence of a relationship that\u2019s been through its ups and downs but has endured over many years. Every episode is half an hour of pure chemistry.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe our voices match,\u201d Lumley says. \u201cI\u2019ve always believed that when you see a couple, somehow they have to look right together. But they also have to sound right together.\u201d Allam agrees. He says that radio producers have said to him that \u201cradio drama is more like cinema than theatre, that a mic is the equivalent of a camera\u201d.<\/p>\n Lumley and Allam are at a studio in west London, taking a break during the recording of series four of Conversations, alongside the show\u2019s creator\/writer Jan Etherington. This family has been together since the show began in 2020, whereupon it quickly turned into one of Radio 4\u2019s most popular comedies of recent years.<\/p>\n As well as the series starting this week, Etherington has been commissioned to write a fifth, an almost unheard-of level of commitment on Radio 4\u2019s part, and an endorsement of her conviction that older people and their still very much alive marriages were an under-explored area in radio drama, with rich comic potential.<\/p> She wrote the show with Joanna Lumley in mind. \u201cI wanted to write about the type of older woman I know,\u201d she says. \u201cThe older women\u2019s parts I came across were all tetchy divorcees, bossy managers or wet grandmothers in their pinnies. Where were all the women who went to Glastonbury? Where was the humour?\u201d<\/p>\n Lumley says that when she read the script, \u201cit was like someone had been listening at my window\u201d. When Allam was sent it, he thought it was lovely. \u201cAnd it was working with Joanna. What\u2019s not to like?\u201d Lumley returns the compliment. \u201cRoger\u2019s done everything \u2013 Shakespeare, singing, shows. He\u2019s in a different class.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoanna does herself down somewhat,\u201d says Allam. \u201cNot only has she been a wonderful beauty and a sexy icon, she\u2019s also been incredibly funny. Absolutely Fabulous was a glorious comedy series, and Jo was brilliant in it. And also funny about getting older, I think, as well, about not being the beautiful young sex icon any more, but trying to be.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you admire the way people work, you know you\u2019re going to get on well with them,\u201d says Lumley. \u201cWe all have to bring an artifice to the work we do. We have to admire the scripts we actually think are pathetic, and work with actors whose eyes we can see glaze over as they reach their next line. But that could never be the case with Roger. He\u2019s top-notch. He\u2019s a legend.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a surprise to both of them to realise that, in spite of a combined acting experience of many decades \u2013 Lumley is 76, Allam 69 \u2013 they had never previously worked together. \u201cThere are masses of people we\u2019ve both worked with, but no, our paths had never crossed,\u201d Lumley says. She turns to Allam. \u201cI\u2019ve admired you from afar!\u201d<\/p>\n And what of their own long marriages? What\u2019s the secret? Lumley has been married to musician Stephen Barlow for more than 30 years, and says that what\u2019s important to her is that she feels thrilled to be with him. \u201cI admire my husband. I admire him because he\u2019s brilliant. I think he\u2019s fantastic. I feel lucky to be married to such a brilliant and amazing person. It\u2019s important that you don\u2019t look down on your partner.\u201d<\/p>\n Allam, long married to actor and writer Rebecca Saire, thinks laughing is the secret. \u201cMy wife makes me laugh so much, I sometimes think I\u2019m going to die laughing. I love that. Laughing, liking, loving, and giving each other room to not have to do everything together all the time.\u201d Surely, Roger, it works the other way round, and you also make your wife laugh? \u201cOh, yes, I make her laugh. We make each other laugh. But honestly, sometimes marriage is just about the silliness, the freedom with each other to be silly and ridiculous. And then also serious about things that are more serious, and also just about practical things that have to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n Allam\u2019s grown-up sons still live at the family home in south-west London. Lumley, whose home is in south London, has grand-daughters who visit. So the two stars are at different marital stages in their private lives, and neither of their situations bears comparison to \u201cJoanna and Roger\u201d in Conversations.\u00a0 Their characters, who never use each other\u2019s names, are childless.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, real-life experiences do find their way into the scripts. Lumley, Allam and Etherington collapse with laughter recalling an episode inspired by the arrival of a trampoline in the back garden of Allam\u2019s next-door neighbours.<\/p>\n Could Conversations perhaps be accused of idealising long marriages? That in truth, most aren\u2019t like that? \u201cNo, no!\u201d they chime. \u201cIt\u2019s amazingly truthful,\u201d Lumley says. \u201cJan has a very good ear and a very good perception of the tiny, tedious things that make up marriage \u2013 the niggles people sometimes get into, the fantastically petty things. And they usually get over them. And that happens in real life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, I\u2019d say Conversations is radical, because of this older couple having a very passionate life and love for each other. I think that\u2019s often patronised. But it\u2019s radical.\u201d<\/p>\n Conversations from a Long Marriage returns to BBC Radio 4 today (Wednesday 15th February) at 6:30pm. Series 1-3 are available now on Audible \u2013 sign up now for a free trial<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Conversations from a Long Marriage, the book of Jan Etheringto\u2019s scripts, is available to buy now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only \u00a31 with delivery to your home \u2014 subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Stay passionate and laugh a lot \u2013 Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam reveal the secrets of a happy marriage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":30138,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/joanna-lumley-roger-allam-on-return-of-radical-conversations-from-a-long-marriage.jpg",960,540,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/joanna-lumley-roger-allam-on-return-of-radical-conversations-from-a-long-marriage-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/joanna-lumley-roger-allam-on-return-of-radical-conversations-from-a-long-marriage-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/joanna-lumley-roger-allam-on-return-of-radical-conversations-from-a-long-marriage-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/joanna-lumley-roger-allam-on-return-of-radical-conversations-from-a-long-marriage.jpg",800,450,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/joanna-lumley-roger-allam-on-return-of-radical-conversations-from-a-long-marriage.jpg",960,540,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/joanna-lumley-roger-allam-on-return-of-radical-conversations-from-a-long-marriage.jpg",960,540,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Stay passionate and laugh a lot \u2013 Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam reveal the secrets of a happy marriage.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/30137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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