Stephanie Beacham injects a touch of glamour into retirement comedy Boomers. Being a grandparent is a hoot, but youngsters today have it harder than her generation, she tells Jeananne Craig

I’M not a granny, I’m a Glamma,” purrs Stephanie Beacham, bringing some showbiz stardust to a rain-battered catering van on the set of her new comedy, Boomers. She takes out her iPad and proudly shows off some photos of her 14-year-old grandson, Jude. “That’s what he calls me; I’m a Glamma,” she adds.

And while she’s fresh-faced in most of the snaps with her grandson (“I don’t bother with make-up much”), the 67-year-old star can ramp up the glamour when she needs to, both off and on screen.

She’s played shoulder-padded Sable Colby in hit Eighties series Dynasty, and Ken Barlow’s impeccably turned out love interest Martha in Coronation Street. And now Maureen, her character in Boomers, a BBC One series about three newly-retired couples.

The show features an impeccable cast which includes Alison Steadman, June Whitfield, Paula Wilcox and comedian Russ Abbot, who plays Maureen’s ex-plumber husband John. For Maureen and John, 60 is the new 40, and Beacham appears to feel the same. When the phrase “older people” is mentioned, the actress exclaims in mock offence: “What is this ‘older people’ business? All of us are centre stage in our own lives, yes? Well, these people are centre stage in their own lives, and in this particular drama.

“Normally I would be the granny or the dowager ruining everybody’s lives. But this is a friendly set-up, we are friends.”

She’s clearly relishing the chance to play someone open and straightforward.

“We’ve all got a friend who’s a Maureen.

She’s the one that brings two bottles of champagne to the party, you know? The overgenerous one, the one who’s going to arrange the jolly, the one who’s already bought the tickets. She’s lovely.”

She is enjoying the chance to work with comic Abbot, and Whitfield, who plays Maureen’s boozy mother Joan.

“Beacham studied drama at London’s Rada and landed the role as Mary Queen of Scots in The Queen’s Traitor. The big screen beckoned three years later, with Michael Winner’s drama The Games.

The actress, who was born partially deaf, also appeared in Dynasty spin-off series The Colbys, and ITV prison drama Bad Girls.

It’s Dynasty and Bad Girls that Beacham gets recognised most for, but for all her star turns on screen and stage, being a grandmother is her favourite role to date.

She admits to worrying for her grandson’s generation. “They all know too much and they know it so fast,” Beacham explains.

“Last year I took Trollied [the Sky1 supermarket comedy] just so I could be in Bristol, which is where he [Jude] was. He comes and spends a month with me every summer and half the holidays,” she says with a smile.

“He watched me in [the Noel Coward play] Hay Fever and at the end, apparently he slapped the seat in front of him and said, ‘That’s my Glamma’.”

  • Boomers is on BBC One on Fridays