Lumley shows a sweetie side at Trinity

ALL that was missing was a glass of Bolly and a fag in her hand.

Oh it was fabulous darling, absolutely fabulous.

The comical, playful and yet graceful Joanna Lumley strutted up the cobblestones of Trinity College Dublin (TCD) yesterday with an air of nonchalance. Amid a packed college room of wide-eyed students, she candidly spoke of her modelling, her spell as a Bond girl and her decadent television character, Patsy Stone, in the cult television comedy Absolutely Fabulous.

Visiting TCD’s Philosophical Society, the denizen of pop culture programmes was quick to assure listeners her biting wit still had teeth.

“I lied to people about (actor) training, as you go on, you fatten the lies.”

As a model in her early career in the 1960s, Lumley says she left exercise up to the gymnasts.

“If you had to get thinner, you simply stopped eating... it was the most ridiculous and happiest time of my life.”

However, the tall, thin blonde dispensed any illusions about modelling and acting as a career for attentive students: “If you’re going to get fat, don’t expect to be photographed.”

Playing a secret police agent, the British actress landed her first major role as the acrobatic and sexy Purdey in the revived 1970s series the New Avengers. Her bobbed hairstyle soon set a trend.

“After I cut the hair short, it caught on. Bloody every person passing me had it, it was bloody fantastic,” she said.

Her role as a Bond girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was “fabulous” and filming the blockbuster in the Swiss Alps had been “superb”.

“In the town, nine months later, there were lots of babies all from the visiting Bond crew,” she quipped.

When pressed by one fellow though about the recent suspension of TCD’s acting degree, Lumley replied: “If it’s cut, it’s cut. The arts are taking a cut everywhere.”

By the 1990s, Lumley’s traditional classy characters had been swapped for the boozing, drug-sniffing sexpot that was Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous. Teaming up with Jennifer Saunders, Lumley found a new generation of fans in the 30-minute classics which are now showing in Russia, Greece and Japan, according to the British actress. “It’s known everywhere now,” she said. “People approach me and say ‘my mother’s Patsy’.”

But celebrity status can bring other inspirations, explained the 60-year-old who campaigns for the charity Sightsavers.

“If all you can do as a celebrity is highlight that 10,000 children under seven in Bangladesh need cataract operations... that’s a good thing.”