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Dame Joanna Lumley has revealed she contemplates death "every day" in a candid health admission. The acting legend, who celebrated her 80th birthday on May 1, opened up in a new interview with Radio Times about her own mortality and the Assisted Dying Bill.

"I think about dying every day because I think about living every day, and I can't see them as separate," the Amandaland star shared. "It seems to me completely normal to be born, to live and to die. It doesn't seem like an insult or a loss or tragedy, it's just what happens."

She continued: "I don't think we should see it as this colossal enemy. I've thought it would be nice to see it as a friend who's waiting around, and you never know when the friend is going to come through the door, so you mustn't be cross or sad about it."

She continued: "You hope it won't be now, because you have lots to do and things you still want to see, but maybe you get to the time when you feel bloody awful and alone and hurting all the time, and then you might think, 'I'd like to go now.'"

Joanna also brought up her friend Dame Esther Rantzen, who has been advocating for the Assisted Dying Bill and has terminal cancer.

"I'd love to have it in the arsenal, should the time come that I just go, 'This is too bloody awful'," the actress shared.

Looking on the bright side, Joanna said she "shall clearly make 90" and cannot wait.

However, she said she would contemplate voluntary euthanasia if she could no longer be able to care for herself.

Addressing the Bill, which was passed by MPs last year but stalled in the House of Lords, she told Saga magazine: "When I get to the stage where I can't speak and have to be fed, that won't be me any more, and that's when I wouldn't mind saying farewell."

The full interview can be read in the latest edition of Radio Times.