JOANNA LUMLEY praises all those who work behind the scenes. 

In what has been hailed the ‘speech of the night’, national treasure JOANNA LUMLEY used her BAFTA Fellowship acceptance speech to show her gratitude to those behind the scenes.

I’ve done nothing!

We as actors are dragged about in golden carriages which are laid on tracks over swamps at midnight by men in their underpants and we are lit and furnished with words and costumed and made up.

We have stunt performers to make us look better, we have people that drive us and dress us, we have people who feed us and caterers, who are so important.

We have all this and we arrive and sometimes people say ‘you are so funny and that’ and you say ‘yes, thanks!’”

She finished by celebrating tolerance and diversity within the arts;

I always wanted to be with people who leave race and religion and age and gender and shoe size and things outside the door when they came

People in our profession don’t have those discriminations.

What a diamond.