"I'm a sitter" - Helen Lederer on walking 300km for BBC2's The Pilgrimage

“I’m a sitter,” comedian Helen Lederer admits.“I could never understand why someone would walk when they could drive. So trekking hundreds of miles through the Alps is the last thing I thought I would ever do."

The actor, best known for her roles in the TV comedies Absolutely Fabulous, Bottom and the Young Ones, laced up her walking boots for the 12-day trek for the BBC2 series The Pilgrimage which airs on April 22.

She joined six other celebrities, of differing faiths and beliefs, to tackle the challenging 300km pilgrimage and explore their own spirituality and beliefs.

The comedian spoke to Saga Magazine about the trek, how she’s looking forward to joining the cast of Fawlty Towers - The Play this summer and the release of her book Not that I’m Bitter, in paperback.

Helen Lederer on The Pilgrimage

“No I was definitely a sitter,” Helen laughs when she remembers being asked to join the new series.

“But I agreed to do it and I practised. I bought my boots and a Fitbit-type thing. I didn’t get totally obsessed to the extent that I kept announcing how many steps I had done, but I started with 1,000 steps a day every day and built them up.

"I began to walk faster, my body moved differently and I found I really enjoyed it."

So was the trek still physically tough?

“It was hard,” she admits. “And I wasn’t shy about asking for help. I didn’t just go no, no, I’ll soldier on, instead I was going, thank you for taking my rucksack on this very steep bit.

“I accepted it with huge gratitude, especially from Jay McGuiness and Harry Clark, the winner of The Traitors.

She admits she was nervous, not about the walking but about opening up in public.

"I'm quite a private person and when you walk alongside people you reveal a lot more to them because you are walking, you're in the fresh air and in a rhythm. It just makes you open up.

"We were all quite exposed and it wasn't something I hadn't predicted and looking back now I learned a lot about myself."

Helen joined Jay, Harry, Jeff Brazier, Daliso Chaponda, Stef Reid and Nelufar Heday. They all have differing faiths and beliefs and all wanted to explore their beliefs.

Helen's father was born into a Jewish family and although her Czechoslovakian grandparents were cultural Jews they never talked about faith. Her mother came from the Isle of Wight and Helen was told she was christened.

"She says, "My faith is that I believe in God but I'm not sure what the God is. I was born in Wales, in Llandovery, and then brought up in South East London, so this walk was a chance to reconnect with my past and my heritage.

"The whole thing was full of surprises. There were tears. And I look absolutely awful, you know, hardly any makeup, unwashed hair.

"But I discovered a very interesting thing you can actually get hair wipes. I never knew such a thing, and everyone commented that my hair got bigger and bigger."

Why she will keep walking?

Now the trek is over, Helen admits she's been bitten by the walking bug.

"I haven't been out today, but I know that I have to do it for my just my whole joints and everything. I had never realised that something as simple as walking could have such an effect on your body," Helen said.

"It's so much easier than going to the gym, its right there on your doorstep. I really genuinely, have learned that how I want to feel my body carry on moving like this.

"Saying that I still like my glass of wine in the evening and that isn’t going to change."

Joining Fawlty Towers on stage

Helen will be joining the case of Fawlty Towers - The Play this summer at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, from June 24 to September 13.

She starts rehearsals in May and will be playing Mrs Richards, the hard-of-hearing guest who stubbornly refuses to turn her hearing aid on.

"These things come along, don't they, when you're not looking," she says. "It's the same with romance. It's a bit like my second husband. I wasn't looking, he wasn't looking. We both say, and then six months later, we're married.

"So I wasn't looking but then I was offered the part and I thought that I had to say yes as its Mrs Richards, the one who wants the room with the view. If you remember, she's the old battle axe.

"So that's me at 70, the thought of doing it it filled me with fear, but its the right thing to do so I couldn't say no."

'Not That I'm Bitter'

Her memoir, Not that I'm Bitter, is now out in paperback.

"I was talking to a friend about what to call it and they asked what it was about," Helen tells us. "I reeled off what was in the book, and then I went through all the names. And then I said, 'not that I'm bitter'...  And then we both laughed. And that had to be it.

"So it is entirely truthful. And I suppose the 'not that I'm bitter' thing is that it shows I really do not take it myself too seriously."

The book charts Helen's career, starting as a stand-up comedian in the 80s and her rise to fame with her Sloaney girl at the bar in the BBC Comedy ‘Naked video’, Saturday Night Live, The Young Ones, French and Saunders and Bottom with Rik Mayall. She’s still best known as Catriona the dippy journalist in the TV series Absolutely Fabulous.

Helen shares stories about her famous co-stars and the paperback includes chapters on her experiences on The Pilgrimage and also about her best friend comedian Tony Slattery, who died this year.

She says: "I talk about the funeral, but I wanted Tony to find that funny and it was the best way I could think to do it, to talk about the loss of a very special funny man and to celebrate his humour.

"My life hasn’t been the adventure I thought or hoped, but it's been amazing in other ways and now I am older I'm braver because I think the worst has probably happened and I've come through it. So I feel I can deal with anything now."