London - Patsy Stone is the last woman you would expect – or indeed want – to dispense motherly advice, particularly when it comes to alcohol.
But Joanna Lumley, who plays the perennially drunk Absolutely Fabulous character, is more than happy to dole out wisdom to the younger generation.
Lumley, 66, recently urged young women to stop behaving badly and take more responsibility for their actions, warning them that binge drinking and dressing ‘like trash’ made them vulnerable.
She said: ‘I promise you it is better to look after yourself properly, which means behave properly, be polite, be on time, dress properly – I don’t mean dully – but don’t be sick in the gutter at midnight in a silly dress with no money to get a taxi home, because somebody will take advantage of you, either they’ll rape you, or they’ll knock you on the head or they’ll rob you.
‘Don’t look like trash, don’t get drunk, don’t be sick down your front, don’t break your heels and stagger about in the wrong clothes at midnight. This is bad.
‘It’s not me being a snob about it. It’s not me being an old woman talking to young women, it’s just standard practice for how our species should behave. Don’t behave badly.’
Lumley said she had never got so drunk that she wandered the streets at night looking dishevelled and without knowing how to get home.
But she conceded there was now ‘something in our society’ which caused young women to behave badly.
‘It could be to keep up the laddish thing which makes you look funkier,’ she said.
The actress added that she did not approve of raucous behaviour in boys either, but that girls were more vulnerable and had to be aware of ‘predators’.
She added: ‘Girls used not to get legless and now they do, and so I think that’s a trend which we should pull back from.’
Lumley, who in recent years has become known for her charity and human rights work, gave her advice as she backed a Marks & Spencer campaign to encourage people to donate their old clothes each time they buy new ones.
She added that women often fail to dress appropriately – and usually buy clothes a size too small.
think often it’s about wearing the wrong size or the wrong age and I’m very guilty of this myself,’ she said.
‘I often wear things that are clearly mutton dressed as lamb and I go “why have I got this? Why am I even holding this?”.’ - Daily Mail