We’ve always thought that Dame Judi Dench had a naughty twinkle in her eye, and the veteran actor’s mischievous streak has been confirmed by one of her former co-stars.
During an appearance on this week’s Graham Norton Show, actor Lesley Manville reminisces about sharing the stage with the James Bond star back in the 1980s.
And just because the two performers were starring in a very serious theatre production of The Cherry Orchard by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, that didn’t stop Dame Judi from having as much fun as possible off-stage.
In fact, she was so naughty one night that it caused Lesley to pee her pants on stage.
“We were in the Cherry Orchard and I was on stage on my own and she was in the wings trying to make me laugh,” Lesley explained.
“She was pretending she was being pleasured from behind. I laughed so much I wet myself.
“Luckily I had a long dress on but the stage was raked and I could see my pee trickling down and over the edge into the stalls. She is so naughty!”
Earlier this year, Dame Judi recalled the sexism she had faced when she first tried to break into film, revealing a director once criticised her looks.
“He was perfectly nice,” Judi said an interview published in the Sunday Times. “But at the end he said, ‘You’ll never make a film. You have the wrong face.’ And I said that is fine, I don’t like film anyway. I want to go back to the theatre.”
The acting legend went on to prove the director wrong with countless nominations for her work in film, including a whopping eight Oscar nods.
She later took home an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in 1998’s Shakespeare in Love.
The Graham Norton Show, BBC One, Friday 7 th October, 10.40pm. Also available on BBC iPlayer.