Dame Maureen Lipman: Older actresses have to contend with ‘invisibility’

Dame Maureen Lipman says actresses have to contend with “invisibility” as they get older.

The 74-year-old, who joined Coronation Street as battleaxe Evelyn Plummer in 2018, said she wants to keep on working.

But she told Radio Times magazine that older actresses have less work.

“Though Maggie Smith and Judi Dench have done all right, there’s not a lot of drama work out there for older actresses,” the star said.

“And you have to understand that every older actress still thinks that she’s 34. Look at Joan Collins.

“And just because you’re 74, it doesn’t mean that you believe it.

“Whenever I talk to young people, I can never understand why they don’t invite me out clubbing…”

Lipman said there is “a certain amount of invisibility” at her age.

But she told the magazine: “I don’t sit around thinking about my absence from society, because I’m too busy getting on with life.

“Yes, maybe we do get thrown on to the scrapheap after a certain age, but that’s fair enough, isn’t it? The same thing happens to a leaf on a tree.”

The full interview is in Radio Times magazine, out now.