ABSOLUTELY fabulous news! National treasure Joanna Lumley will embark on her first ever live tour, It's All About Me, next year.

Among the autumn dates will be York Barbican on October 28, with tickets going on sale tomorrow at 10am on 08448 572757, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person at the Barbican box office.

Joanna, 71, has crammed modelling, acting, activism, authorship and adventurous television presenting into her ever-broadening portfolio. Now she is to add 30 nights of reflective, revelatory chat and audience questions and answers to her repertoire.

Joanna will take audiences at a galloping pace through adventures from nearly 50 years in the public eye, recounting stories never previously told. She will be joined on stage by friend and producer Clive Tulloh, who will pose questions from the audience they have always wanted to ask, making each intimate show unique.

"The thought of this tour next year, travelling across the British Isles and Ireland, has completely taken over my waking hours," said Joanna. "It’s utterly thrilling to start planning the stories I can tell, and the rapture – and gratitude, to be fair – with which I shall greet the audiences. Nothing like this has come my way before, and I may have to be dragged off with a hook at the end of each show. Oh people! This is especially for you from me, with masses of love. I think it will be fabulous."

Lumley’s "random career" started in the London of the Swinging Sixties, first as designer Jean Muir’s house model and muse, then as a photographic model for knitting patterns, toothpaste commercials, miniskirts and the occasional front cover.

Her acting on screen took in early roles in Coronation Street, On The Buses, Dracula and as a brainwashed Bond Girl in Blofeld's lair in 1969's On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and her breakthrough came as bob-haired Purdey in the New Avengers in 1976, when picked from 800 auditionees to play the high-kicking action girl.

Later, Joanna won two BAFTA TV Awards for her long-running BBC role as sozzled Patsy Stone in Jennifer Saunders' satirical fashion-industry sitcom, Absolutely Fabulous.

Her co-pilot on next year's tour, Clive Tulloh, produced Joanna's survival show Girl Friday in 1994, since when they have worked together regularly on television documentaries, latterly on her adventures to India, Japan and the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

Joanna's tour will take in earlier Yorkshire shows at Sheffield City Hall on October 24 and Leeds First Direct Arena on October 26. Box office: Sheffield, 0114 278 9789 or sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Leeds, 0844 248 1585 or firstdirectarena.com