Maureen Lipman on Edinburgh memories, Corrie, and staying busy

When she sits down for a Q&A in Edinburgh later this month, Dame Maureen Lipman will no doubt cast her mind back down the decades to her first visits to the city and its famous festival.

Before she became a household name, the actor, writer and comedian appeared alongside Tamara Ustinov in Kerry Lee Crabbe’s play The Burn at the Fringe in 1965, hailed as a masterpiece by the renowned drama critic Sir Harold Hobson.

Maureen, who says she still has that review in a ‘dusty scrapbook’ somewhere, would also, a year later, fill in for fellow young actor Annabelle Leventon in a sketch troupe with some ‘lads from Oxford’ who would also become mainstays on our screens.

A trip down memory lane

“It was Michael Palin and Terry Jones, so I was in good company,” she laughs as she reminisces. “I was at drama school at the time. I don’t think I even told them I was doing it.

“It was very exciting, although you sort of take everything in your stride when you’re 20.

“You don’t actually think: ‘my God, I’m at Edinburgh with somebody who will in the future write Monty Python, do travelogues and direct films!’

“There were late night drinks. I think I saw a bit of jazz. It was a much smaller festival then so there weren’t as many things to see.

“It was just an experience for a girl who’d never actually seen a revue in her life, let alone been in one.”

Maureen Lipman on stage in Rose last year.

Those memories and plenty more will be explored in Maureen’s Q&A, hosted by Christopher Biggins, in the glamourous surroundings of The Prestonfield.

“I think if you’ve got the gift of the gab and sat on enough sofas, then it’s very nice for an audience,” she says.

“They often feel like they know you because they’ve seen you for so many years doing the good, the bad and the ugly on TV and in theatre.

“I’m coming up with my chap and we’re going to have a few days and book a few shows if we can before I’m due back at Coronation Street.

“Everywhere I go is a whirlwind visit. Life gets in the way, doesn’t it?”

Corrie’s first Dame

Maureen, 78, continues to spin many plates in her long and distinguished acting career.

Now a soap mainstay, she became Weatherfield’s first Dame in 2020.

When asked what she’s using her new status for, she quips: “Getting better tables in the restaurant!”

She added: “I was quite surprised. I got a CBE and felt that was about my level.

“It’s good to see comedy being rewarded. I liked that because, although I’d have liked to have been a classical actress, it hasn’t really ever taken off in the same way.

“My mother’s grandfather was the cobbler of Kazimierz Dolny in Poland. It’s a rather neat thing to go three generations later to the cobbles of Coronation Street and be a Dame.

“This will sound pretentious, particularly in print, but it’s a true immigrant success story and that’s why we must always respect them.”

No stranger to politics, Maureen cites the recent ITV series Mr Bates vs The Post Office as highlighting the power of drama to make a difference.

“Just like Up The Junction or Cathy Come Home, drama gets things done in a way nothing else can,” she said. “The days when you could actually take a subject and make it humorous, interesting and moving at the same time… it actually changed society.

“I’ve been listening to the Post Office scandal on radio and reading about it in Private Eye for ten years, but it took the individualising of a character who’d suffered at the hands of this organisation and still is.

“There’s more to television than just dead naked women in ditches and bored alcoholic policemen.”

Maureen has long used her platform to speak out on a range of political issues, particularly around being Jewish in the UK.

While she’s happy with the work new PM Keir Starmer has done so far, she admits that it’s a struggle to watch grim headlines from around the globe.

“Since the war in Ukraine and over Gaza, I’ve stopped being a newshound,” she said.

“I voted, but I haven’t turned on the news for a very long time because it upsets me too much.

“I feel helpless against the rising tide right wing fascists in Hungary, Poland and Russia and shortly to be in the United States, and also the horrible, cyclonic recycling of antisemitism.

“If that narcissistic crook gets in in America, God help all of us. What does it say about our politicians if a criminal can get the top job in the world? It’s a frightening world to leave our grandchildren.”

‘I’m aware how lucky I’ve been’

Family is something very important to grandmother of two Maureen, who has recently found love again with partner David Turner.

She was married to writer Jack Rosenthal from 1974 until his death in 2004, and lost her partner of over 13 years, Guido Castro, in 2021.

“Even though I’ve lost two wonderful men in my life, the fates have dealt me kindly,” she said. “Life’s good for me, generally, so I don’t complain. I’m very aware how lucky I’ve been.

“Coronation Street goes on – I don’t know how much longer I’ll be there, but I love the camaraderie and being in the north.”

Her role as Evelyn – a character she believes her late husband would’ve written – still provides her with great joy and she’s looking forward to filming more episodes before taking a hiatus later this year.

“[Jack] would love Evelyn. He’d understand her. I grew up with a lot of Evelyns.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re from Hull, from Wales, from Fife… everybody’s got an Evelyn in their life. She’s impossible. She’s rude. She says what she thinks.

“Coronation Street is still the best soap there is. To be in episode 111,654 when my late husband wrote episode 13 is a wonderful completion of the circle.”

Evelyn Plummer, as played by Maureen Lipman, alongside David Neilson's Roy Cropper on Coronation Street. — Evelyn Plummer, as played by Maureen Lipman, alongside David Neilson’s Roy Cropper on Coronation Street.

It’s hard work on the cobbles and there’s a hectic filming schedule for Maureen to fit in alongside other projects and living the rest of her life.

“I’m overdoing it a bit for a woman of my years, but, hell, while I can walk and see, I might as well,” she says, adamantly.

“Last year I did a one woman show called Rose and it was the best thing I’ve ever done.

“What could be better than that fantastic part, a spot of writing, a long-running series in which I’ve been rewarded rather over-handsomely… and I’ve still got the use of my faculties.

“Coming up to Edinburgh is pushing me towards writing another book, just summing up – whilst I can still remember what I’m summing up.

“There’s always a reason to do things. It’s like being a potter, you’re breathing life into clay and that’s continually exciting. It keeps you young, so I shall continue to do it till I drop dead on stage.”

Dame Maureen Lipman In Conversation With Biggins, The Fringe at Prestonfield, August 17, 4pm, fringeatprestonfield.co.uk