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Linda Robson

Linda Robson, who starred in BBC TV's Birds of a Feather, appeared live on a special Foxy Radio show on Thursday November 18th.

Just like birds of a feather, Foxy roomies stick together, which is why we tracked down bingo fan and all round good egg Linda Robson to see what she’s been up to since she last popped up in our chat rooms.

What are you up to at the moment?

I’m doing the Vagina Monologues again, in Wolverhampton, in October, with Jessie Wallace who’s in Strictly Come Dancing this year.

Have you never been tempted to go on Strictly Come Dancing?

Honestly I just know I wouldn’t improve. I’d be exactly the same on the last day as I was on the first. I’ve got two left feet and have to count everything. There’s no way I could learn all those routines and that.

You’ve been on some reality cooking shows. Are you a keen cook?

Well obviously not because I’ve not done very well on any of the cooking programmes I’ve done. I’ve gone on hoping to improve, but on Come Dine With Me, that’s where five celebrities go to each other’s houses and cook, I came last. And I was the first one off Masterchef as well. I mean I try, I try really hard, but.

How about cooking at home?

I have the best intentions but then there’ll be an ingredient missing and I’ll try and substitute it with something but it never quite works. I get myself into a state and either cook too much or not enough, so I end up opening a tin of something to try and fill the plates up.

How old are your kids?

My daughter Lauren is 25, my son Louis’s 16 and my daughter Bobby’s 12. Lauren lives with her boyfriend now, but she’s still nearby so that’s nice.

And how long have you been married?

We can’t remember. We know it’s about 20 years, it was either 20 or 21 on September 16th just gone. My sister Tina’s been married 30 years though and she’s younger than me, and my youngest sister’s been married 15 years.

What’s your secret?

Well it’s not all plain sailing of course, you have to work at it. It’s so easy nowadays to just say we’re splitting up or getting divorced or whatever. We’ve had some tough old times over the years but you’ve just got to work through them.

You’ve been on the Grumpy Old Women series a few times. What did you moan about?

When they first asked me I was quite upset really. I was 45 and thought ‘I’m not a grumpy old woman’. But then you have a think and there are so many things that annoy you. Stupid things like my husband saying, “I’ve washed up for you’ or ‘I’ve hoovered for you’ and I’ll go, “For me? What about every time I cook dinner, or make the bed or hoover, do I say anything?” I mean they make such a big deal if they do something. And about the fact that the streets aren’t safe enough to put our kids on busses and tubes. And about getting older, how everything takes so much longer to do and how no one wolf-whistles at you any more. You used to get the hump if builders whistled at you and now you get the hump because they’re not whistling.

What about other reality shows – are there any that you’d like to go on?

My family love watching ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’. We watch it every year, but I wouldn’t do it because I just know I wouldn’t do the tasks. I mean I wouldn’t eat any of the bugs, I’m petrified of rats. The only thing I might be able to do is roll down a hill. That looks quite good fun, but the rest I couldn’t do. And they obviously set people up to do the things they hate most. I guess you could say “I love kangaroo testicles and I love rats”. But honestly there’s no way. I’d be the first one back to the hotel before I’d even jumped out the aeroplane.

What do you think made Birds of a Feather such a big hit?

A mixture of things. Obviously the writing and the characters and the fact that the three of us got on so well. I mean me and Pauline go back a long long way. We’d done Shine On Harvey Moon together which is why they wrote Birds for us, because they liked the chemistry we had.

Do you all keep in touch now?

Yeh. I saw Leslie about two weeks ago and Pauline over the summer. Normally, when the kids are back to school we meet up every couple of weeks and have lunch.

Is there any chance of Birds being resurrected?

Now and again the question comes up and I don’t know quite what happens. It’s a bit political I think. We’ve all said that we’d be interested if there was a one off special or a ‘see what they’re up to now’ type episode, but who knows. I walk down the street and every day people ask me when it’s coming back.

How do the public respond to you otherwise?

People feel like they know you and are just like, “Oh hello. Where’s your sister?” It makes you realise with Birds that the public really liked the characters. I think it’s the same with most sit-coms though. I mean you can’t help but like Del Boy and Rodney can you?

And I hear you’re a keen bingo player.

Well it’s all down to my Mum really; she’s the biggest Bingo fan ever. She marks 10 bingo cards at once and watches everyone else’s. She loves it. I’ve been with her quite a lot over the years. It used to be an older, middle-aged thing, but it’s much younger now. I’ve got quite a few friends who go and my daughter’s twenty-five and lots of her friends go now.

We went to Cyprus this year and played Bingo every week. All the kids and the mums and that. I won 300 euros. It’s pretty exciting and when you get down to the last numbers. I can’t imagine what it feels like when you get down to one on a really huge jackpot, Oh my god can you imagine?

Have you ever played online?

No but I did join an online chat on Foxy once, as part of a night in aid of Leukaemia. There was a really lovely atmosphere. Everyone seemed to be friends. If someone was down everyone in the chat rooms was cheering them up and people have their nicknames and that. It was really nice. It’s great for people who can’t get out of the house, whose kids are in bed or whatever. Even in the couple of hours that I was there, I got to hear people’s stories. It was a really nice night.