A Conversation with Maureen Lipman

Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes approx without an interval

The much-loved and extraordinarily versatile actress who made a sitcom of a commercial and whose stage work has ranged from Olivier’s National Theatre and the musicals of Leonard Bernstein and Rodgers and Hammerstein to a now classic reincarnation of Joyce Grenfell appears in conversation with Edward Seckerson. Joyce will be there in spirit as will the infamous Florence Foster Jenkins whose fabled pitchiness inspired another celebrated Lipman turn.

Maureen Lipman has been acting on stage, screen and radio since training at Lamda in 1967. She is best known for her homage to Joyce Grenfell, ReJoyce, her Aunt Eller in Oklahoma, her Maggie in Outside Edge, Miss Skillen in the Theatre of Comedy’s See How They Run, Mme Armfeldt in Trevor Nunn’s ‘A Little Night Music and most recently, Ellie in the acclaimed play by Oliver Cotton, Daytona. The works of Alans, Plater, Aykbourn and Bennett and those of her late husband Jack Rosenthal (The Evacuees, The Knowledge, Bag Lady) and her series, About Face, Agony and Ladies of Letters, make up some of her TV profile alongside a memorable (to her) Princess of France in Love’s Labour’s Lost. Her film work goes from Up The Junction in 1969, Educating Rita and the Oscar winning The Pianist. A long time lover of Radio 4, she is frequently heard on plays, compilations and panel games and has written nine anecdotal books for Robson Publishers. After 14 years writing for Good Housekeeping and a year on the Guardian, she now has a monthly column in Standpoint and a quarterly health column in the Spectator. She has two writer children and a very powerful granddaughter of two, of whom she is very careful.

Formerly Chief Classical Music Critic of The Independent, Edward Seckerson is a writer, broadcaster, podcaster, and musical theatre obsessive. He wrote and presented the long-running BBC Radio 3 series “Stage & Screen”, in which he interviewed many of the biggest names in the business - among them Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury, Liza Minnelli, Stephen Sondheim, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. During his journalistic career he has written for most major music publications and is still on the panel of Gramophone magazine. He appears regularly on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and presented the 2007 series of the musical quiz Counterpoint. On television, he has commentated a number of times at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. He has published books on Mahler and the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

Edward conducted one of the last major interviews with Leonard Bernstein and his audio podcast Sondheim - In Good Company proved a significant contribution to Sondheim’s 80th birthday year. His ongoing series of on-stage conversations with stars of musical theatre have proved immensely popular and he continues to tour with Patricia Routledge in Facing the Music, a show chronicling her little known career in the genre.