Sue Johnston is on cracking form. There are three Christmas trees twinkling away in her house, she\u2019s in a brand new thriller on TV and she\u2019s just celebrated a milestone birthday.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a big one. The sort of birthday that would make some people consider themselves properly old. Not Johnston. She\u2019s continuing a 40-year run of work that began in the summer of 1982 with a minor part in Coronation Street<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since then, her career has encompassed a huge number of roles, including stints on TV staples such as Downton Abbey, Jam and Jerusalem, Brookside and playing matriarch Barbara Royle in BBC comedy smash The Royle Family.<\/p>\n She\u2019s rarely been off our screens, and that\u2019s before we include things like Celebrity Gogglebox. So, she doesn\u2019t seem like someone who\u2019s about to hang up her coat.<\/p>\n \u201cI am very lucky,\u201d she smiles. \u201cI think it\u2019s because I still work. It\u2019s a great discipline. I\u2019m determined not to start shuffling about. I don\u2019t take easily to growing old, but I have lost several friends, through cancer and suicide. I think they would give anything to grow old. To see their grandchildren and have wrinkles. I feel privileged that I\u2019m still here. Life is good.\u201d<\/p>\n Truelove<\/a>, her six-part thriller on Channel 4, radically reframes the familiar notion of old age. Johnston plays Marion, one of a group of old college friends, all played by actors who are in their 70s.<\/p>\n These \u201coldies\u201d laugh, dance, get drunk, flirt and generally love life \u2013 until health and intrigue catch up with them. Johnston is joined in the cast by Lindsay Duncan, Clarke Peters, Peter Egan and Karl Johnson, and none of the characters they play are in any sense an \u201cold person\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved the whole script,\u201d says Johnston. \u201cThe story is so different. I loved the twists and turns. It\u2019s an adventure. And so beautifully written [by Iain Weatherby] that when I got the script, I felt like saying, \u2018Yippee!\u2019 There\u2019s a lot demanded of me in the role. And that\u2019s what I like. It\u2019s great to be demanded a lot of. You don\u2019t always get that, not at my age.\u201d<\/p>\n She agrees that creating characters who aren\u2019t grey walk-ons is very unusual in contemporary TV drama. This cast drive too fast, drink too much and take way too many risks. \u201cLook around!\u201d Duncan\u2019s character Phil says plaintively at one point. \u201cWe\u2019re invisible. Nobody suspects pensioners.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnston agrees, with a certain amount of frustration. \u201cYes, it feels different to be cast in a drama like this. But, you know, this is normal life! We live lives like young people do, and always have done.\u201d<\/p>\n She shakes her head. \u201cOld people on screen are often pigeonholed into characters who are always on their own, either lying in bed dying, or struggling up the road bent over a walking stick. Life isn\u2019t like that! Traditional productions say that when you\u2019re in your 70s, you don\u2019t have thoughts and feelings or relationships, but you do.<\/p>\n \u201cTo get a script where your character isn\u2019t a granny sitting in the corner all cranky, or someone lying in bed, is very good. And also not to be the only old person on set.\u201d<\/p>\n Having said that, Truelove is about the end of life, how to do it and when. It takes a clear-eyed look at euthanasia, mercy killing and consent, and then twists it on its head in a properly gripping plot.<\/p>\n Has Johnston had these thoughts about herself? \u201cI think people should have a right to end their own lives. I know there is a delicate line here, so the temptation to bump someone off is removed. But I have had beloved dogs and cats put down if they are suffering.<\/p>\n \u201cYou think of yourself in that condition \u2013 everyone sitting round the bed while you\u2019re lying there, zoned out on morphine \u2013 and you think, \u2018I hope I don\u2019t go like that.\u2019 Although, I don\u2019t think I would have the courage to go to Switzerland. And it would be so awful for my son to take me there and come back on his own. I don\u2019t think I could do that to him.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnston was also on our screens this Christmas in a one-off BBC Two special, a tribute to the comedy actor and writer\u00a0 Caroline Aherne, creator of The Royle Family, who died of cancer in 2016, aged 52.<\/p>\n Johnston admits she has only recently been able to watch the sitcom again. \u201cIt was very hard, because there are so many people in it who are no longer with us, but The Queen of Sheba [the landmark 2006 episode] is my favourite, and I watch it with a lot of pride.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first series was rerun the other day, and do you know, little kids now ask for selfies with me because they love it as much as the older generations did.<\/p>\n \u201cI think how proud Caroline would have been to know it\u2019s still loved. It was one of the happiest jobs I have ever done. And yes, I miss her. All the time. She\u2019s another one who would have loved to have got old and grown wrinkles\u2026 Although maybe she would have had Botox!\u201d<\/p>\n Johnston and her oft on-screen husband Ricky Tomlinson (they played a married couple in both The Royle Family and Brookside) have recently been reunited on the sofa watching TV in Celebrity Gogglebox. \u201cWith Ricky, it\u2019s so easy. All I need to do is ask a question, and off he goes. He tells the right story and makes me laugh. But it\u2019s not like we are Barbara and Jim.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve also just done a programme with Ricky in which we explore our DNA, and that was so interesting. I discovered that I\u2019m 30 per cent Scottish, 50 per cent English and 20 per cent Norse. But I didn\u2019t find out where I got my nose from, which is big and round and horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n I tell her (truthfully) that I\u2019ve never noticed her nose. \u201cWell, you will now,\u201d she sighs. \u201cI also didn\u2019t find out where I got my desire for acting from. All I know is that it started when I was in the school play. We were doing the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Tinderbox and I was the Witch. You know, because of my big nose. I was lying on stage and I just thought, \u2018I love this.\u2019 That\u2019s when I knew.\u201d<\/p>\n So, life for the now 80-year-old Johnston is indeed good, as she explained just before the festive period. \u201cMy friends will come over to me on Christmas Eve, I will cook roast goose, as I always do, and they will stay over, as they always do, and then we\u2019ll all go off to our respective families.<\/p>\n \u201cMy son is a great cook, and he has two little boys, so I\u2019ll be with him and his wife on Christmas Day. Then everyone will come back to me on Boxing Day. I like to feed and water my friends and family.<\/p>\n \u201cNew year? Well I used to love New Year\u2019s Eve \u2013 everyone would snog everyone else at midnight. I don\u2019t do so much of that now, so I\u2019ll just toast it in quietly with some friends.\u201d I bet it was fun, though. Sue Johnston is a force of nature, and totally unlikely to be \u201csitting all cranky in a corner\u201d any time soon.<\/p> Looking for something to watch? Check out more of our\u00a0Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a> to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only \u00a310 \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Johnston talks about Truelove and looking back fondly on The Royle Family. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":42921,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/sue-johnston-i-watch-royle-familys-the-queen-of-sheba-with-a-lot-of-pride.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/sue-johnston-i-watch-royle-familys-the-queen-of-sheba-with-a-lot-of-pride-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/sue-johnston-i-watch-royle-familys-the-queen-of-sheba-with-a-lot-of-pride-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/sue-johnston-i-watch-royle-familys-the-queen-of-sheba-with-a-lot-of-pride.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/sue-johnston-i-watch-royle-familys-the-queen-of-sheba-with-a-lot-of-pride.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/sue-johnston-i-watch-royle-familys-the-queen-of-sheba-with-a-lot-of-pride.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/sue-johnston-i-watch-royle-familys-the-queen-of-sheba-with-a-lot-of-pride.jpg",620,413,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":"Johnston talks about Truelove and looking back fondly on The Royle Family.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/42920"}],"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\/42921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sue](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/TrueloveChannel41-ed404f2.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412\" "\\"Truelove_Channel4_1\\"\/")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Truelove](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/TrueloveChannel4cast-88daf08.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Truelove_Channel4_cast\\"\/")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"