![\"Linda](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_MAIN-Linda.jpg\")
Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke have been friends for life<\/p>\nThis year Linda is treading the boards alone, as Pauline\u2019s dementia battle has forced her to retire from acting<\/p>\n
19:00, 29 Nov 2025Updated 19:09, 29 Nov 2025<\/p>\n
Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke have been friends for life<\/p>\n
Pantomime occupies a special place in Linda Robson<\/a>\u2019s heart after years spent performing with her best pal and Birds Of A Feather co-star Pauline Quirke<\/a>. But this year Linda is treading the boards alone, as Pauline\u2019s dementia battle has forced her to retire from acting.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, which also starred Lesley Joseph as their randy neighbour Dorien<\/a>. So it\u2019s no wonder Linda, 67, is determined to keep their friendship alive.<\/p>\n \u201cI love her so much,\u201d says Linda. \u201cFifty-seven years we\u2019ve been best friends. We were both 10 when we met at primary school and we\u2019re still friends now.\u201d<\/p>\n Linda was heartbroken when Pauline was diagnosed with dementia aged 61 in 2021. Despite Pauline\u2019s decline, Linda remains close with her pal and the pair recently enjoyed a pub lunch together with friends and family.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all still in touch and we were all still friends and it\u2019s been really nice,\u201d shares Linda. \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n “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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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. \u201cShe was giggling and happy. She\u2019s being really well looked after and she did recognise me, which I was really pleased with as well. She\u2019s doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n Pauline\u2019s son Charlie, who starred with his mum and Linda in ITV<\/a>\u2019s Birds Of A Feather reboot as Tracey\u2019s 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\u2019s Research UK in honour of his mum. Linda hopes to join him for some of the way, if her schedule permits. \u201cI\u2019m hoping I\u2019ll be able to go on the march,\u201d says Linda. \u201cHopefully I\u2019ll see Pauline again before Christmas<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n This festive season, Linda is playing Councillor Chigwell in Aladdin at the Orchard West theatre in Dartford. She\u2019ll do two shows a day \u2014 with just Christmas Day off. But that\u2019s not as punishing as the schedule she used to keep with Pauline.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first one that me and Pauline did at the Hackney Empire, we did three shows a day,\u201d says Linda. \u201cThat was a killer. We\u2019d leave home at eight o\u2019clock in the morning, we\u2019d have a 10 o\u2019clock show, a two o\u2019clock show, and a seven o\u2019clock show. And it was exhausting. Pauline went to me, \u2018I\u2019m never doing panto again.\u2019 But she did.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a gruelling schedule, but Linda\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just going to enjoy it,\u201d says Linda. \u201cIf I forget my lines, I\u2019ll just say, \u2018I haven\u2019t got a clue what I was supposed to say here!\u2019 The audience love it then!\u201d<\/p>\n Linda is 67 now but she\u2019s not feeling the desire to retire any time soon. \u201cI don\u2019t want to retire unless they get fed up with me and don\u2019t ask me to do any more,\u201d she says. \u201cBut hopefully I don\u2019t retire. I\u2019d like to work forever.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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. \u201cIt\u2019s hopefully back in January, if we\u2019ve still got jobs,\u201d says Linda. \u201cWe 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!\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s currently glued to I \u2019m A Celebrity\u2026 Get Me Out Of Here! , which she started watching to support her old pal, actor and Spandau Ballet star Martin Kemp.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a really nice man,\u201d says Linda. \u201cI love it that he\u2019s so family oriented as well. He loves his [wife] Shirlie, he loves his kids. I\u2019ve 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\u2019s character Dorien in the back of a hearse!\u201d<\/p>\n When Linda appeared on I\u2019m A Celebrity in 2012, she managed to get news from the outside world<\/a> via Joe Swash<\/a>, who was presenting the ITV2 spin-off show Extra Camp . Linda is good friends with Joe\u2019s mum, and has known Joe since he was a child. \u201cJoe lost his virginity at mine,\u201d giggles Linda. \u201cI\u2019m 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\u2019re all very close.\u201d<\/p>\n So while Linda was in the jungle, the mum-of-three asked Joe to give her a sign that her kids had arrived safely. \u201cHe\u2019d shout down things to me,\u201d shares Linda. \u201cHe\u2019d go, \u2018Lind! The kids have arrived!\u2019 He kept getting into trouble because he wasn\u2019t supposed to do that, but I just wanted to know that the kids were safe.\u201d<\/p>\n After Linda\u2019s finished her panto, she has another ambition, to get a spot on the Celebrity Gogglebox sofa. \u201cI would like to do Gogglebox with Lesley,\u201d says Linda. \u201cWe\u2019d be really good together because we know each other so well.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Linda](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_Birds-of-a-Feather-TV-Programme-1998.jpg\")
Linda and Pauline appeared in Birds of a Feather – and are still close(Image: Fremantle Media\/REX\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n![\"Linda](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_OK-05-01-2420757_R.jpg\")
Linda Robson is returning to panto this Christmas season(Image: OK! Magazine \/ Alex James)<\/p>\n![\"Linda](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_OK-05-01-2421526_R.jpg\")
Linda recalled her time working with I’m A Celeb’s Martin Kemp(Image: OK! Magazine \/ Alex James)<\/p>\n