Conversations from a Long Marriage won the Voice of the Listener & Viewer Award for Best Radio Comedy in 2020. Nominated for a Writers Guild Award 2023. Her writing break came when she interviewed singer-songwriter Scott Walker – difficult, as she confesses, she had an enormous crush on him – for Radio Times. After that, she began interviewing bands such as Police, 10CC, the Blues Band, Manfred Mann, writing for music papers such as Sounds, reviewing concerts and really enjoying it. Conversations From A Long Marriage is exactly that: following conversations that take them from the local café, to their kitchen table, taking in her resentment of new glasses - a symbol of ageing - and fury at being lectured by the dental hygienist. He has a dodgy knee and is on statins, and when they discuss the marriage break-up of their closest friends, Sally and Peter, there's jealousy and talk of affairs. She suggests there are advantages to single beds, separate holidays and wants to go clubbing in Ibiza for her imminent 'big' birthday. Sublimely funny, touching series. Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam have had illustrious acting careers but can they ever have done anything better than Jan Etherington’s two hander? This is a work of supreme craftsmanship.’ Simon O’Hagan. RADIO TIMES

Peppered with nostalgic 60s hits and especially written for the pair, it’s an endearing portrait of exasperation, laced with hard won tolerance – and something like love.’ THE GUARDIAN Conversations from a Long Marriage is a two-hander comedy, starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam, as a long-married couple who met in the Summer of Love and are still passionate about life, music and each other. We listen to – and empathise with - their dangling ‘conversations’ covering everything from health scares, jealousy and confessions, to TV incompatibility and sourdough bread. Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam have had illustrious acting careers but can they ever have done anything better than Jan Etherington’s two hander? This is a work of supreme craftsmanship.’ RADIO TIMES The show focuses on a couple who have been married for over 40 years. Children of the Sixties, they're still free spirits, drawn together by their passion for music - and each other. Last Christmas... Roger Allam and Joanna Lumley in Conversations from a Long Marriage by Jan Etherington. (Image: Tricia Yourkevich 2014)

Credits

Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam will return for Series 4 and Series 5 of Conversations From A Long Marriage, the Radio 4 comedy created by Jan Etherington. Talking to British Comedy Guide, Etherington says: " Conversations... is the show that keeps on giving - five series and a book of the scripts! Joanna, Roger, producer Claire Jones and I couldn't be happier that the listeners - and BBC Radio 4 - love it as much as we do." Oh, it’s all divine, delicious and lovely, including the music, and they are sweet company, though I was slightly brought up short when Barlow exclaimed: “I’m discovering so many things about you!”, in contrast to Lumley’s encouraging him to tell stories she clearly already knows. He’s been primed to excel throughout his life, while she has a tendency to put down her own knowledge, just to encourage him some more. “Stevie, this is what I wanted us to do in these shows,” she says. “Me being the average listener and you being the above-average musician, able to give answers.” Sitcom is what most marriages are really like – repetitive and ridiculous – and Jan’s words are some of the best ever written on the subject’ RICHARD CURTIS

I’ve always tried to write about what’s going on in my life, not necessarily telling verbatim stories from our lives but using them as a benchmark,” she says. “They say ‘write about what you know’, but I think it’s more ‘write about what makes you laugh’ because it’s very therapeutic, even if you’re going through a tough time, divorce or a trauma like Next of Kin. Most of the couples I’m writing about are bowling along, then there’s some huge trauma and they have to deal with it.”She has returned to Gower frequently with her sisters, to spend time and take part in the Macmillan charity walk. “It’s still the most beautiful part of the country, next to Suffolk, that I’ve come across,” she says. “Suffolk is similar – not on the way to anywhere, you have to know about it to go there. These are secret places where you’re away from it all, although much more discovered now, of course.”