Birds of a Feather star Lesley Joseph says sitcom ending is a ‘relief’ but denies rift with Pauline Quirke
LESLEY Joseph has said there's no hard feelings over Pauline Quirke refusing to take part in the final Birds of a Feather Christmas special last year.
The show returned for a festive comeback without Pauline, whose character was written out as "stuck on a COVID cruise".
Now Lesley - who played man-eater Dorien Green - confirmed the series has ended after 32 years, saying: "I don’t think it’s going to happen again to be absolutely honest.
"I think after 32 years, I need to do other things. Keeping your weight down to play Dorien is not easy."
But squashing rumours of a rift with Pauline, she added: "I missed Pauline a lot. I love her."
Last year, Linda Robson spoke about her long friendship with Pauline, saying: "We were friends from ten years of age."
The Loose Women panellist, 63, played Tracey, the sister to Pauline's character Sharon on the classic BBC sitcom from 1989 to 1998.
The show was rebooted by ITV in 2014 before finally facing the chop.
It was originally reported Pauline and Linda fell out, leading to "real and tense issues"; behind-the-scenes.
This was said to have caused Pauline to drop out of the 2019 festive episode.
However, Linda appeared to rubbish rumours of a rift earlier this month - insisting the pair are still pals.
Speaking to hosts Kate Garraway and Adil Ray on Thursday's Good Morning Britain, she said: "We haven't had a falling out, Pauline don't wanna act any more, she wants to concentrate on her academy.
"You've got to respect her wishes. We did the Christmas special, they asked us if we'd like to do it and we said yes."
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Linda also said she wouldn't want to do the show on her own.
Recalling their bond, Linda added: "We went to the same primary school and we started taking acting classes together.
"We were known as the real kids, or the cockney kids off the street. We've both been really good friends, and we're still working 52 years later."