Dame Joanna Lumley
The Travel Diaries
Holly Rubenstein
4.6 • 758 Ratings
🗓️ 20 June 2023
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s season finale we're joined by a national treasure, and a name synonymous with travel, Dame Joanna Lumley. Joanna's appetite for adventure was deeply engrained from childhood. She was born in Kashmir in the last days of British India, the daughter of an army officer who served with the Gurkhas. Throughout her childhood her parents lived in Asia, moving to Hong Kong and Malaysia, while she spent term times at school in England.
From her early days as a fashion model, gracing the covers of magazines and strutting down runway, Joanna Lumley was destined for greatness. But it was her iconic role as Patsy in the hit TV series "Absolutely Fabulous" that truly catapulted her into the hearts of millions. I love Wikipedia’s description of Patsy - “an alcoholic, a chain smoker, and a frequent recreational drug user. She carries drugs with her at all times, storing joints in her trademark beehive."
After surviving solo on a desert island, on the groundbreaking show Girl Friday, Joanna soon became as synonymous with travel as she was with Ab Fab, setting off on epic journeys that would make even the most seasoned globetrotter green with envy, from Japan and India to the Caribbean and the Silk Route. What makes her so remarkable is not just her fearless spirit but her genuine love for the people she meets along the way. She champions causes close to her heart, advocating for the rights of the Gurkhas, supporting endless charities, and shedding light on the important issues affecting our world.
So, fasten your seatbelts and get ready as we embark on a journey through the extraordinary life and awe-inspiring travels of Joanna Lumley, from Malaysia to Uzbekistan, Italy to Indonesia.
Destination Recap:
- Kashmir, India
- Hong Kong
- Malaysia
- Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia
- Madagascar
- Delhi, India
- Uzbekistan
- Tash Rabat, Kyrgzystan
- Sienna, Italy
- Banda Islands, Indonesia
- Sudan
- Romania
Joanna Lumley’s Spice Trail Adventure starts on 5th July at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
Thanks so much for listening today. If you'd like to hear more from the podcast don’t forget to hit subscribe, or if you use Apple Podcasts to press follow so that a new episode lands in your podcast app each week. If you want to be the first find out who is joining me on next season come and follow me on Instagram I’m @hollyrubenstein, and you’ll also find me on Twitter and TikTok as of a few weeks ago, also @hollyrubenstein - I’d love to hear from you. And if you can't want until then remember there’s the first nine seasons to catch up on, that's over 100 episodes to keep you busy there. Don't forget that all the destinations mentioned by my guests are included in the episode show notes here on your podcast app, and listed on my website, thetraveldiariespodcast.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the season nine finale of the Travel Diaries podcast. |
| 0:11.9 | I'm your host, journalist Holly Rubinstein, and here each week I'll be speaking to a very special guest about the seven chapters in their life's travel diaries. |
| 0:22.2 | From their earliest childhood travel memory and the first place they fell in love with to their |
| 0:27.3 | hidden gem and what's at the top of their travel bucket list, we'll be uncovering their |
| 0:32.4 | adventures around the world and the travel experiences and destinations that have shaped their lives. So today's a day, |
| 0:40.9 | everyone, the day lots of you have been waiting for since the podcast began, myself included. |
| 0:46.9 | Dame Joanna Lumley, a national treasure and a name synonymous for travel joins us on the podcast |
| 0:53.1 | today. I feel like so many of you have |
| 0:57.1 | been invested in this. You've asked me each season if I could make it happen. And so now that it has, |
| 1:02.4 | I want to tell you all about it, all the details, because it was everything I could have hoped for |
| 1:06.8 | and more. I met Joanna at the Kensington Hotel in London. The Kensington's my go-to |
| 1:12.8 | meeting place when I head into town. I love its restaurant townhouse. They've been really |
| 1:16.9 | supportive of the podcast over the seasons. And I met Joanna in one of its gorgeous sweets. |
| 1:23.1 | She greeted me as though she was greeting an old friend. She invited me to sit down and chat over a |
| 1:29.0 | cup of tea before we got started, which is such a lovely thing to do before you get going on a big |
| 1:34.7 | interview. She talked about her experience a few days beforehand as a guest at King Charles's |
| 1:40.4 | Coronation and how much she was moved by the music in Westminster Abbey. |
| 1:45.4 | And she also just took a real genuine interest in asking about my life too and my family, |
| 1:50.9 | which really put me at ease with someone who has such, you know, an aura about her. |
| 1:56.4 | I'll tell you about what happened after the interview, which still makes me chuckle at the end of the episode. |
| 2:05.1 | And of course, you know, Joanna really doesn't need a lengthy introduction from me. |
| 2:09.5 | I'm sure you know all about her, but I'll fill you in on the highlights just in case. |
... |
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