INTERVIEW
As she takes on the controversial subject of assisted dying for her latest role, actor Sue Johnston talks about getting older, life as a single mum and the joy of grandchildren
Inundated with scripts from directors desperate to cast her in lead roles, doyenne of our screens Sue Johnston is struggling to believe she has just turned 80. Looking at her – beautifully coiffed with highlighted hair and expertly applied crimson lipstick – I can’t believe it either.
However, she certainly celebrated her big 8-0 in style last month, spending the evening watching the virtual Abba Voyage concert in London with friends before being joined by her family at her home in Cheshire at the weekend.
‘Me turning 80 just seems bizarre,’ says Sue, shaking her head, incredulously. ‘It’s just a number, but I remember my mum was an old woman at 80. I think attitudes have changed so much. I don’t feel like an old woman.’
Sue has been a household name for decades, thanks to her iconic role as Barbara, the doting mother of the late Caroline Aherne’s character, Denise, in The Royle Family as well as stints in Coronation Street, Downton Abbey and Brookside. In her ninth decade she realises that, while she doesn’t feel elderly, younger people probably see her that way. However, her overwhelming thought about growing old is that it’s a true privilege, sadly denied to many.
‘I remember Caroline [Aherne, who died in 2016 from lung cancer, aged 52] and other friends who I have lost along the way, in their forties and fifties, and think, “How dare you moan? They would have given anything to grow old and have wrinkles”.’
She also really appreciates the company of others who have been around the block a few times, which is one of the reasons why filming her latest role in the series Truelove with a bunch of septuagenarians has been a refreshing experience. Among her fellow cast members in the six-part Channel 4 drama are the veteran actors Lindsay Duncan, 73, Peter Egan, 77, Clarke Peters, 71, and Karl Johnson, 75.
‘It’s very movingly written but then there’s a thriller element to it too,’ says Sue of the drama, which features late-life romance and sets out to challenge ageist clichés. ‘The humanity is extraordinary and the acting is pretty damn good as well. If younger viewers are put off by the major characters being in their seventies, it’ll be their loss.’
That’s not to say the cast’s advanced years didn’t cause some issues during filming. ‘We had fun off-set because none of us could remember names, and it made us all laugh,’ Sue recalls. ‘The conversations would go: “Oh, do you remember whatshisname, he was in that, you know, with the other on
