Actress Joanna Lumley tells why she is looking forward to meeting the people of Hampshire

Now the world-renowned queen of Absolutely Fabulous is coming to a Hampshire city as part of a high-profile appeal.

Joanna Lumley will be in conversation with John Miller, former artistic director of the Winchester Festival, in the magnificent nave of Winchester Cathedral next week.

It is part of an appeal which hopes to save the medieval windows in the building.

The actress told the Daily Echo she was asked to come to the city by a good friend, and is looking forward to meeting new people.

“As I do love the cathedrals all across the British Isles I was really proud to do it,” she said.

“It’s lovely to become involved in what’s going on, you can do so much by doing something so small sometimes. The larger the city the more important it is, in far away country districts people look after themselves, but in cities you can quite often be next door to somebody in terrible hardship.

“I’m a great believer in finding out what you can do and doing it. It’s extremely good fun.”

On top of her many film and television roles, including The New Avengers, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, James and the Giant Peach, The Wolf of Wall Street, Coronation Street, and of course Absolutely Fabulous, Joanna is known globally for her tireless campaign work.

She was born in Kashmir, spending her early life in Hong Kong and Malaysia, and is considered a national treasure in Nepal for her support of the Gurkha Justice Campaign.

Her father served for 30 years with the 6th Gurkha Rifles, and was a Chindit in Burma.

In 2009 the campaign won the right for all Gurkha veterans who retired before 1997 with at least four years’ service to settle in the UK.

Joanna said she is most proud of the campaign.

“Things leap up at you all the time, but it would be ridiculous not to say that I was so proud to be involved with the Gurkha campaign because my father was a Gurkha all his life. The extreme injustice that was righted made me extremely proud.”

The 68-yearold also supports Survival International, which fights for the rights of tribal people, helping them to determine their own future.

Joanna said: “I have had the great privilege in my journey and when I was doing a programme in Borneo to travel in-land to rare tribes and could see how systematically they were being forced out of their home land by logging and being put in to camps where they were given sugary drinks, alcohol and cigarettes.

“From being lean, fit jungle people they were being turned into fat potatoes and I think that’s disgusting. These tribe people have a great link to their land, which I am terribly keen on, and they are more sensitive to how we are destroying the world.

“I’m incredibly behind Survival International, I love them and support them when I can.”

Her campaign work is just one of the many topics anticipated for the talk on Tuesday, October 21, and the actress says she will answer “anything”.

“People are interested in different things,” she said.

“They want to know about the Northern Lights and what that was like, or my different programmes.

“People might want to know what it was like working on Ab Fab, or future programmes, of whether I thought my life would change when I was on Coronation Street, and about the Gurkha campaign. People will just ask anything and through the nice interviewer I will just answer anything.”

Following the talk, Joanna will be travelling to Russia to continue filming Joanna Lumley’s Trans-Siberian Adventure – which documents a 5,000- mile journey on the railway.

She says she has already filmed in Hong Kong, Beijing and Mongolia, and will pick up the train to travel across Siberia in to Moscow for mid-December.

But for now Joanna says she is looking forward to visiting Winchester.

“I love Winchester,” she said.

“I don’t know it very well but I once took a godson out from Winchester College and I think the place and the cathedral is beautiful, which I am longing to visit again.”

Followed by a drinks reception, the evening will raise money for the Friends of Winchester Cathedral, who are putting the event on.

n An Evening with Joanna Lumley at Winchester Cathedral costs £15 a ticket or £10 for Friends.

To book call the Box Office on 01962 857275 or visit winchestercathedral.

org.uk.