Her career may span five decades, but Dame Penelope Wilton is showing no sign of slowing down. The actress, 76, has national treasure status thanks to starring roles in 80s sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles and, more recently, period drama Downton Abbey and bittersweet sitcom After Life.
Now she’s set to delight cinema-goers in new film The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry, starring opposite another national treasure, Jim Broadbent.
Perhaps surprisingly, Penelope – who began her career on the stage in the early 70s – feels there are more opportunities for actors today than there were when she was first finding her feet.
“There were three channels on the television and none of these HBO or Netflix – these streaming things,” the star tells us. “I started in the theatre and that’s where most young people started. Then, if you were lucky, you got the odd television job. I was lucky enough to get Ever Decreasing Circles, with Richard Briers and Peter Egan.
“It was a different world,” she continues as she reflects on her early days. “It was much more theatre-orientated, certainly from my point of view. I didn’t come to film and television, certainly film, until I was in my late thirties.”
