Celebrity
Actor Sue Johnston on her latest TV venture, family and keeping fit
It’s hard to believe that Sue Johnston is 80.
The star of Brookside, The Royle Family and Waking the Dead seems decades younger when we meet to chat about her life and career – she’s vibrant, funny and switched on.
Sue can hardly believe it herself. ‘It feels slightly unreal because I remember my mum and my aunties at 80, and they were old ladies,’ says Sue, who celebrated her birthday in December. ‘I don’t feel like an old lady, although I do when someone says, “Can I carry that for you?” But I’ve still got energy, and as long as I can learn lines and not fall over the furniture, I’ll be fine.’
Sue has never been busier, either, tackling four jobs in the past year, including C4’s recent drama Truelove and the upcoming zombie comedy Generation Z. And this month, she’s been starring in a rare role – as herself – in Ricky, Sue & a Trip or Two for More4, a travelogue in which she and her Brookside and Royle Family husband, Ricky Tomlinson, take a jaunt around parts of the UK, reminiscing about their friendship,careers and lives.
But for all Sue’s outward vivacity and ability to play larger-than-life characters, she admits rather poignantly that she lacks the self-assurance to just be herself on screen. ‘It’s pathetic, I know, but I’m just not good at being me,’ she sighs. ‘Really at my age, I should know better, but it’s a confidence thing and I’ve always had it.
‘I’ve never had therapy for it, but it’s like you think you’re not very nice or people won’t like you. Where does that come from? I’ve had it since I was a kid. I think a lot of actors have it – that’s probably why we act, because to become someone else is much easier than to be yourself.
‘When I’m working, I’m so happy,’ she says. ‘That’s why I dread drying up and not working again. That would just be tricky.’
It doesn’t look like that’s on the cards any time soon, especially because Sue keeps herself healthy by eating very well and staying active, although emphatically not at the gym.
‘Every so often I’ll think I should do a bit of a diet and go to the gym, but that only lasts a couple of days. I can’t be bothered,’ she laughs. ‘I’m just active. I worked very hard last year, and it helps mentally and physically just to go out and do stuff you enjoy. I’m very lucky in that respect.
‘But there is definitely a difference now I’m older. It’s no use saying everything’s the same. Things slow down. Trying to put on a pair of tights is like a wor
