International award winning actress, Dame Joanna Lumley, started her professional life as a photographic model and became a house model for the late Jean Muir. She is probably best known for her roles on television as Purdey in the Avengers and Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous. Other television includes Class Act for Carlton and Coming Home and Nancherrow (both two part dramas) for Portman.  She has also presented a three-part factual series for ITV called Joanna Lumley’s Trans-Siberian Adventure. The series saw her travel 6400 miles from Hong Kong to Moscow, along the Trans-Siberian Railway.  This was followed by Joanna Lumley’s Japan, a three-part documentary series for ITV.  Other series include Joanna Lumley’s India for ITV and Joanna Lumley’s Silk Road Adventure, a four-part travelogue covering eight countries which were part of the ancient trade route.

Joanna is the author of the autobiography Stare Back and Smile; Forces Sweethearts, a collection of wartime love letters; Girl Friday, in which she described how she coped with life alone on a desert island – based on the BBC film she made; and In the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon, an account of a journey through the Kingdom of Bhutan again based on the BBC film. Her memoir was entitled, No Room For Secrets.

In 1995 Joanna was awarded an OBE. She was awarded an honorary degree from the University of St Andrews in 2006 and also received an honorary doctorate from the Queen’s University Belfast in July 2008. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) and has a particular interest in environmental issues. She sponsors the Joanna Lumley Fellowship in Environmental Science at the University of Oxford. Joanna was made a Dame in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to drama, entertainment and charity.  She is an advocate and human rights activist for Survival International and the Gurkha Justice Campaign. Joanna supports charities and animal welfare groups, such as Compassion in World Farming and Vegetarians’ International Voice for Animals.

Joanna is an excellent live host and recently co-hosted the 60th Anniversary of the BAFTAs with Michael Parkinson. She is in high demand for prestigious corporate events and recently hosted the prestigious annual innovation awards for Medical Futures.

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