Dame Joanna Lumley opens up about mortality

Dame Joanna Lumley has opened up about her own mortality.

The Absolutely Fabulous star declared "there's not all that much time left" with her next birthday her 80th, but added she felt positive about growing older.

"As you nearly reach the top of the hill, you suddenly think, 'Gosh, there's not all that much time left,'" Joanna, 79, told Vernon Kay on BBC Radio 2.

"My time must be coming quite soon, and I don't want to have wasted a minute of being on this beautiful planet. I used to panic when I was young, but as I've got older, I've started to live day to day."

The former Bond girl explained she had always appreciated the value of ageing.

"With age, you work out what matters. I always knew that good stuff would come along when I was older," she said.

"When I was 18, I longed to be 30. When I was 30, I longed to be 50. We mustn't be led into thinking getting old is bad. Growing old is good."

The actress, set to star in the upcoming second season of Netflix's Addams Family spin-off, Wednesday, also confessed she suffered from a neurological condition that left her unable to recognise faces.

"I've got this weird thing with faces, I've got a face blindness. It's called prosopagnosia," she said.

"I never knew what it was. I'd try a test. I'd look at somebody and then I would shut my eyes and see if I could see their face in my head. And I couldn't."