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'I'm awaiting my May day call,' Lipman tells UJIA

July 25, 2016 13:05
Maureen Lipman with UJIA supporters

ByJohn Fisher, John Fisher

1 min read

Maureen Lipman has identified a professional positive to going grey. "Now I'll be able to play Theresa May," she told 200 guests at Leeds UJIA's women's appeal lunch, before launching into a wicked impersonation of the new PM.

As for Mrs May's new cabinet, "it is beyond my comprehension that Boris [Johnson] got the Foreign Office," Ms Lipman said. "You create havoc and you get rewarded with a top job."

In a long career, the actress had never encountered antisemitism until portraying Joyce Grenfell in her one-woman show, Re:Joyce! Audiences loved Grenfell but not necessarily her, so "they came with a little bit of scepticism".

She received many letters along the lines of "keep your hands off Joyce, she was English". Although she adored Grenfell's work, Ms Lipman said the comedienne was capable of the "casual antisemitism of the upper class".