Actress Joanna Lumley has declared she "won't be celebrating her 80th birthday" next year. The 's Amandaland and 's Wednesday actress has said she isn't planning to mark the big occasion, because she hates birthday parties, and instead hopes that she will be working on the big day.

She told Closer: "The idea of birthday parties repels me. Not because of anything, I just don't know why you would ever do it. I love having birthdays. But the idea of doing a big party to say, 'Me, I'm 112.' Why would you do that? Or, 'Me, because I'm 57.' Why have that, why have a party?"

She continued: "On my big special day, fingers crossed I'll be working. It's always good luck to be working on your birthday." Joanna then opened up about the need to keep working as she discussed her new ITV show, Joanna Lumley's Danube.

She added: "I think we need [to work], which is why in this lovely show I'm doing, you see something which is a café in Vienna run by old age pensioners. Because they're suddenly sitting at home, and they can all do stuff.

"And all the grannies, of course, have got something to do, and they've got a purpose in life. So, the thing is to keep doing stuff and being wanted and doing stuff other people need. Do it."

Joanna's birthday confession comes as she said she "doesn't have much time left" in a poignant confession. She said to Vernon Kay on his BBC Radio 2 show: "As you nearly the top of the hill, you suddenly think, 'Gosh, there's not all that much time left.

"My time must be coming quite soon, and I don't want to have wasted a minute of being on this beautiful planet. I used to panic when I was young, but as I've got older, I've started to live day to day. With age, you work out what matters. I always knew that good stuff would come along when I was older."