Joanna Lumley bought champagne and wine for Finding Your Feet co-stars

20 February 2018

Joanna Lumley kept buying champagne and red wine for her 'Finding Your Feet' co-stars when they were shooting the comedy drama.

Joanna Lumley

The 71-year-old 'Absolutely Fabulous' actress stars alongside the likes of Imelda Staunton, Celia Imrie and Timothy Spall in the new feel-good movie, and Imrie revealed that the comedian would always provide alcohol to the cast to keep everyone smiling.

When asked on 'This Morning' on Tuesday (20.02.18), if Lumley kept the spirits high on set, Imrie said: "She always did wherever we were. Suddenly when the rain came down, we had to go in, she'd magic, as she always does, champagne for us all. And when we were in Rome at the end of the film, we'd finished our dance routine and suddenly she'd bought bottles of red wine in her bedroom. She's like a saint really. Saint Joanna. You've got to have a laugh and she always does."

The new film - which was helmed by Richard Loncraine - follows middle-class snob Sandra [Staunton] who takes refuge with her bohemian sister Bif [Imrie] after she discovers her husband is having an affair with her best friend.

Bif drags her along to a community dance class where she meets her sister's friends Charlie [Spall], Jackie [Lumley] and Ted [David Hayman].

Through the colourful group of third-agers, Sandra starts to see that retirement is only the beginning and that divorce might give her a whole new lease of life and love.

Imrie's character lives in a untidy council flat - a complete opposite to her on-screen's sister mansion - but the actress revealed that the set was a "complete recreation" of her own home.

She quipped: "Sandra, Imelda's character, lives in this great big, huge mansion where everything is perfect. I live in a council flat which is extremely untidy and Richard Loncraine, our director, came to rehearse in my house, I was actually doing 'King Lear' in the evening, both irresistible parts I wasn't going to give them up. He came to rehearse in my house. And while I was downstairs make tea for him, he went round my studio taking pictures of great big piles of paper, which is how I live and gave them to the designer. So my flat in the film is a complete recreation of my own home."