The new run will see the long married loving couple dealing with a new, young rescue dog, a feisty old auntie, handing out advice to friends and godchildren - and "sailing away into the sunset". 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. Gorgeous is what Lumley does, and gorgeous is what she loves, as she explains in the first episode. When she was young, she loved the piano and wanted to play. But she struggled with reading the notes, so lessons went no further. Still, she and her family listened to classical records, and she heard music, too, when doing dance classes in Malaya, specifically Offenbach’s Barcarolle: “I can hear it to this day.” When pop came along, “I liked gorgeous music, so I loved the Everly Brothers… Elvis had a beautiful voice.” BBC Studios has commissioned the TV pilot, for which a script has now been written. But as the leads are busy bees, we might have to wait a while until their schedules align… When I look in the mirror, I want to shout 'OK, I know what it looks like on the outside but inside, I'm still Dancing in the Street, with Martha Reeves and the Vandellas'", she claims, insisting men aren't affected in the same way, until he recounts a poignant encounter, with a woman on a train.

An endearing portrait of exasperation, laced with hard won tolerance – and something like love.’ THE GUARDIAN Her couples are always equal partnerships. “I hate the idea of dozy husbands who can’t work the dishwasher. All the couples I write about are equally strong - they support each other. If there are jokes about cooking it’s about her incompetence rather than his. But that’s not where the laughs come for me – I'm interested in the emotional strength of the couples, or the people I’m writing about. Vulnerability comes in different ways.” Written for Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam by award-winning comedy writer and journalist Jan Etherington, who’s been married for 35 years to Gavin Petrie, with whom she created many hit radio and TV series (Second Thoughts, Next of Kin, Faith in the Future, The Change). Conversations from a Long Marriage is her first solo narrative comedy series. Ken Bruce will join Greatest Hits Radio after more than three decades at Radio 2. Photograph: Bauer Media/PA

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.

Humourless boyfriends aside, she had a “lovely life” growing up in Kingston upon Thames. Her father, a wartime Lancaster bomber pilot, of whom she is tremendously proud, was from Swansea, so holidays were spent on the Gower Peninsula. Here she found an early comedy influence in her grandmother, a St John Ambulance volunteer at Langland Bay, where she had a beach hut. 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.They’re a very clever couple – they work off each other feed off each other,” says Jan. “There’s a real strength in their relationship.” As well as clever, insightful writing, a large part of the magic of Conversations comes from the casting of Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam. Joanna, says Jan, agreed to do the part immediately she read the script, saying it was as though Jan had “listened at her window”. When Jan asked her who could possibly play her husband she suggested Roger – the man all her friends want to be married to. Jan spends just a few days each year with them, recording in a studio, but she says it’s clear they have fantastic chemistry and love working together. Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam play 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. Conversations from a Long Marriage won the Voice of the Listener & Viewer Award for Best Radio Comedy in 2020.