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.”
Penelope started out with roles in Shakespeare classics at the Nottingham Playhouse and in the West End, before branching out into TV in the early 70s. It was in 1984 that she landed the part of bored housewife Ann in Ever Decreasing Circles, which ran until 1989.
Since then, she’s taken the TV and film industry by storm, with starring roles in Calendar Girls, Doctor Who and Downton Abbey. And in recent years, she’s gained a whole new fanbase thanks to her role as grieving widow Anne in Ricky Gervais’ Netflix smash After Life.
For The Office creator Ricky, it sounds like getting Penelope on board for his black comedy was a dream come true.
“We’d never met before but he loved Ever Decreasing Circles,” she tells us. “The character of Martin [played by the late Richard Briers] amused Ricky terribly, because he was a sort of anti-hero, like in The Office. A lot of people thought I should go off with the neighbour [Paul, played by Peter Egan] and it never happened. So he got Peter into After Life. We don’t go off together, but we certainly become good friends.”
Ricky and Penelope, who share some of the series’ most poignant scenes, struck up a strong rapport during filming. “He’s very gallant and charming with women, and I really enjoyed working with him,” the star tells us. She also liked the fact that Ricky was a stickler for time-keeping, adding, “He finishes early, which is always a treat!”
Because most of her scenes are played out on the park bench in the cemetery she and Ricky’s character Tony both visit, Penelope says she didn’t get a chance to mingle with the rest of the After Life cast.
“I never met anyone really – I was just on the bench with Ricky,” she tells us. “But I see Peter because we’ve known each other for a very long time. We’re still friends.”
Despite her many accomplishments, Penelope’s acting career hasn’t been without hiccups, she tells us.
“I found the change from being a young person to playing a mother quite difficult,” says the actress, who has a 45-year-old daughter, Alice.
“One minute you’re playing the daughter and the next you’re a mother. That was a difficult transition – from the middle thirties to the middle forties. But after that things seemed to cheer up a bit, which was good.”
As well as her achievements in the world of acting, Penelope has been honoured with a number of off-screen accolades. In 2016, 12 years after she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, she was appointed Dame Commander by the Duke of Cambridge.
“He’s very tall and very nice looking and very easy to talk to,” she says, giggling as she recalls meeting the now Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace. “The Queen was lovely too – she was charming. It was an enormous shock when she died.”
Given her history with the royals, it’s no surprise Penelope is looking forward to next month’s coronation.
“I think it’ll be a wonderful event,” she says. “We do those things so well. When Queen Elizabeth died it was a sad event, but she was given a wonderful send-off. I think these occasions are very important because they mark times in people’s lives. You remember what you were doing when the Queen died and when the King was crowned.”
On to Penelope’s latest acting project, The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry, which is in cinemas this Friday, sees her give yet another in a long line of standout performances.
In the film, based on Rachel Joyce’s novel of the same name, she plays Maureen, the wife of the title character, portrayed by Jim Broadbent. The story follows Harold as he travels 600 miles across England on foot in an attempt to save an old friend who is dying in a hospice.
While Penelope was initially attracted to the movie’s “very good script”, she also found that the testing relationship between her character – who is grieving the loss of her son – and husband Harold “rang true”.
“She certainly has a very difficult journey,” Penelope tells us. “She’s become a frightened woman and an angry woman. Her grief has taken her in a very angry way. She blames Harold, of course, because she’s lashing out at someone to hurt, because she hurts.”
Working with Jim, who she’s “extremely fond of”, was a positive experience for Penelope, who admits filming took her on an “emotional journey”.
“He’s a wonderful actor,” she says of the Oscar-winning Paddington star. “His face, without saying anything, can tell you a lot of things.”
When talk turns to her future plans, Penelope reveals she’s returning to her theatrical roots, with a top-secret project in the pipeline.
“I think when you do theatre, you use a lot of muscles you don’t use when you’re in front of the camera,” she says. “You have to fill a theatre and play with other actors on a stage and keep the attention of the audience over a period of time.”
With all she’s accomplished, does Penelope have any dream roles she’s keen to tackle?
“It’s a bit like wallpaper – if you really set your sights on something, you never find it,” the star explains. “Mostly, I wait until something comes through the door – or these days, comes over email.”
