This year Linda is treading the boards alone, as Pauline’s dementia battle has forced her to retire from acting
19:00, 29 Nov 2025Updated 19:09, 29 Nov 2025
Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke have been friends for life
Pantomime occupies a special place in Linda Robson’s heart after years spent performing with her best pal and Birds Of A Feather co-star Pauline Quirke. But this year Linda is treading the boards alone, as Pauline’s dementia battle has forced her to retire from acting.
The pair were just 10 when they became best friends and went on to share a glittering career together on screen and stage, most famously as sisters Sharon and Tracey in their hit sitcom Birds Of A Feather, which also starred Lesley Joseph as their randy neighbour Dorien. So it’s no wonder Linda, 67, is determined to keep their friendship alive.
“I love her so much,” says Linda. “Fifty-seven years we’ve been best friends. We were both 10 when we met at primary school and we’re still friends now.”
Linda was heartbroken when Pauline was diagnosed with dementia aged 61 in 2021. Despite Pauline’s decline, Linda remains close with her pal and the pair recently enjoyed a pub lunch together with friends and family.
Linda and Pauline appeared in Birds of a Feather – and are still close(Image: Fremantle Media/REX/Shutterstock)
“We’re all still in touch and we were all still friends and it’s been really nice,” shares Linda. “I went to see Pauline about a week and a half ago. Her son Charlie picked me up at the station. We went to the house and her daughter Emily was there, her granddaughters were there, her husband Steve was there too and it was just really, really nice.
“We went to a little local pub and then they put us in a little private room so it was just us in there. And we had a really nice lunch, all of us.”
Despite the dementia, Pauline still recognises Linda and knows how to make her laugh, so they shared jokes and reminisced about their adventures in Birds Of A Feather and in panto. “She was giggling and happy. She’s being really well looked after and she did recognise me, which I was really pleased with as well. She’s doing well.”
Pauline’s son Charlie, who starred with his mum and Linda in ITV’s Birds Of A Feather reboot as Tracey’s son Travis Stubbs, is playing an active role in looking after his mother and will this month embark on a five-day trek to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK in honour of his mum. Linda hopes to join him for some of the way, if her schedule permits. “I’m hoping I’ll be able to go on the march,” says Linda. “Hopefully I’ll see Pauline again before Christmas.”
This festive season, Linda is playing Councillor Chigwell in Aladdin at the Orchard West theatre in Dartford. She’ll do two shows a day — with just Christmas Day off. But that’s not as punishing as the schedule she used to keep with Pauline.
Linda Robson is returning to panto this Christmas season(Image: OK! Magazine / Alex James)
“The first one that me and Pauline did at the Hackney Empire, we did three shows a day,” says Linda. “That was a killer. We’d leave home at eight o’clock in the morning, we’d have a 10 o’clock show, a two o’clock show, and a seven o’clock show. And it was exhausting. Pauline went to me, ‘I’m never doing panto again.’ But she did.”
It’s a gruelling schedule, but Linda’s keeping it relaxed by wearing her customised Skechers shoes to keep her feet comfy and having lots of banter in her back pocket in case she forgets her lines.
“I’m just going to enjoy it,” says Linda. “If I forget my lines, I’ll just say, ‘I haven’t got a clue what I was supposed to say here!’ The audience love it then!”
Linda is 67 now but she’s not feeling the desire to retire any time soon. “I don’t want to retire unless they get fed up with me and don’t ask me to do any more,” she says. “But hopefully I don’t retire. I’d like to work forever.”
The star made her Loose Women debut in 2003 and has been a regular on the panel since 2012. Now, with cuts looming for ITV’s daytime schedule, Linda fears for her future on the show. Bosses have already made changes to the programme, reducing it to just 30 episodes in 2026 and canning the live audience. “It’s hopefully back in January, if we’ve still got jobs,” says Linda. “We have to wait and find out. My first job was in a fish and chip shop so I might have to go back to the fish and chip shop!”
Linda recalled her time working with I’m A Celeb’s Martin Kemp(Image: OK! Magazine / Alex James)
She’s currently glued to I ’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! , which she started watching to support her old pal, actor and Spandau Ballet star Martin Kemp.
“He’s a really nice man,” says Linda. “I love it that he’s so family oriented as well. He loves his [wife] Shirlie, he loves his kids. I’ve met him loads and loads of times over the years and Gary as well, his brother, but more Martin because Martin was in about three episodes of Birds Of A Feather , and his character had sex with Lesley’s character Dorien in the back of a hearse!”
When Linda appeared on I’m A Celebrity in 2012, she managed to get news from the outside world via Joe Swash, who was presenting the ITV2 spin-off show Extra Camp . Linda is good friends with Joe’s mum, and has known Joe since he was a child. “Joe lost his virginity at mine,” giggles Linda. “I’m best friends with his mum, Kiffy. We had a big Georgian house and we had a party and Joe locked himself in the bathroom and all the kids were hammering on the door! We’re all very close.”
So while Linda was in the jungle, the mum-of-three asked Joe to give her a sign that her kids had arrived safely. “He’d shout down things to me,” shares Linda. “He’d go, ‘Lind! The kids have arrived!’ He kept getting into trouble because he wasn’t supposed to do that, but I just wanted to know that the kids were safe.”
After Linda’s finished her panto, she has another ambition, to get a spot on the Celebrity Gogglebox sofa. “I would like to do Gogglebox with Lesley,” says Linda. “We’d be really good together because we know each other so well.”
Linda Robson stars in the spectacular family pantomime Aladdin at Dartford’s Orchard West Theatre this festive season . Full of all your panto ingredients don’t miss this perfect Christmas treat for the whole family – find out more at orchardwest.co.uk.