The actor talks about ‘keeping herself busy’ in her eighties, from Last Tango in Halifax to a new series of Sanditon and a new play at London’s Menier theatre
“I hated turning 70,” the wildly prolific 87-year-old television and stage actor Anne Reid tells me, “but suddenly, life took off! When you’re young, there are thousands of girls for every job. But it’s not as competitive when you get older, because most people have given up.”
We are sitting in the chilly green room of London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, in what feels a bit like a convalescent home for old sofas (all equally uncomfortable). Outside, a thunderstorm rages. But Reid can make herself at home anywhere, as you’d expect from someone who has spent most of her career playing cosy, domesticated roles.