Felicity Kendal wants to live life to the full
The Good Life actress Felicity Kendal is determined to live life to the full after seeing a number of friends die in recent years.
Felicity Kendal is determined to live life to the full after seeing a number of friends die in recent years.
The 79-year-old actress admitted her address book has got "completely and utterly" smaller as time has passed but through her grief, she has recognised she is lucky to still be alive and is keen to make the most of the time she has left.
She told Go Explore Radio: “Two things happen. Your address book gets smaller.. completely and utterly.. not useless... but much smaller. The new one is a smaller version.
“And I think (when friends die) what it does do when you get over the grief of losing someone, which can be like waves... everybody has different timings and sometimes the tsunami hits you again and you thought it was a summer day… but when you get more used to it.. on a wet day the thing is that you do is give yourself a bit of a nudge and say, ‘Now look here, stop whinging about plumbing and about whatever.. maybe somebody's been slightly off with you because the sun is shining and guess what? You're here.
"And the alternative is not any fun - as far as we know’. I have seen a lot of people not living and I wish they had had longer. Don’t waste it.”
Felicity found fame in 1970s sitcom The Good Life along with Richard Briers, Penelope Keith - who died last week aged 86 after battling cancer - and Paul Eddington, and she always cherished the friendship she shared with her co-stars.
She said: "On The Good Life, we were that close, we would go round to each other’s house in rotation, having dinner, on the Sundays we had off.
“To be honest we were close like a family, like a company that has been together for years because we worked together We laughed a lot. It just gets you through and you see the other side of things, and I think that our thing together... we had more humour than than it was probably legal.
But things changed when Paul died aged 68 in 1995 and Richard passed away in 2013 at the age of 79.
She reflected: “And then Paul died very early, very young, and that was the beginning of it. We didn't go to each other's house regularly any more because there was this gap and I think all three of us went into incredible depression... upset, I don't mean clinical depression.. We were just heartbroken.
And then when Dickie died, that was just another one. So Penny and I were the two girls left, and you know, to me, I find it's a real leveller.
“Suddenly there's no Penny and now I'm the sort of last one of the group which is a bit of a responsibility I think.. well no it isn't .. but on the other hand, you know, she was wonderful and I think by the time we get to our age that's okay!"
Felicity heaped praise on "lovely" Penelope and the quiet life she led.
She added: “Penny was very private. She absolutely appreciated recognition and people telling her she's ‘good’ and she did a lot of charity and she was a funny, lovely woman and one brilliant cook but she didn't go on social media and show off about what she was doing or anything. She was quite private.”
