Dames winningly dish all the dirt
Tea with the Dames (M, 84mins) Directed by Roger Michell
Marvel and DC’s respective universes might have their starladen Justice Leagues and Avengers, but this West Sussex-set adventure is home to the screen’s real fantastic four.
They have a combined age of more than 340, have played everyone from Cleopatra to Desdemona, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Lady Bracknell, Professor McGonagall and M, and all possess a wicked sense of humour.
Friends for more than half a century and united in being bestowed with a Damehood by the Queen, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright meet every so often at the latter’s place in the English countryside to gossip, remember and laugh.
Seemingly reluctantly deigning to allow Notting Hill, Venus and My Cousin Rachel director Roger Michell and his cameras into their most recent gathering, the quartet, thanks to some gentle prompting from him (and goading from each other), offer their perspective on their lives, loves, memorable performances and modern things that annoy them.
But despite ‘‘Mags’’ and ‘‘Jude’’ sometimes living up to their cantankerous reputations, this isn’t an all-star episode of Grumpy Old Women. Instead, it’s an absorbing and fascinating look back at the last 60 years of British stage and screen.
Dirt is most certainly dished (especially about ‘‘unkind directors’’), embarrassing moments are recalled (Atkins confesses to initially being nonplussed as to why people sniggered at the KY School of Dance she attended), and pranks revealed (Dench admits that it was well known that if you didn’t like your landlady you nailed a kipper under the kitchen table before you left for good).
Punctuated by priceless stills and archival footage, our grande dames recall their formative years, struggles with stage fright, and skirmishes. In one particularly hilarious moment, Smith owns up to waging ‘‘a merry war’’ with Plowright’s former husband Sir Laurence Olivier, who endlessly complained that ‘‘her vowels weren’t right’’ and seemed to hit her a little too hard during a particular production of Shakespeare’s Othello.
‘‘It was the only night I ever saw stars at The National [Theatre],’’ Smith laughs.
Perhaps naturally, she and Dench dominate proceedings, with the Bond movies star admitting she only signed up to those because her husband wanted to live with a ‘‘Bond girl’’. The Downton Abbey dowager confessed that she’s never watched an episode of the muchloved period drama.
And as well as providing somewhat sad evidence that Dench’s eyesight is failing, Tea with the Dames also offers advice for our own, new inductees Jools and Lynda Topp.
‘‘Being a dame doesn’t make a bit of difference, you can still swear,’’ Dench reminds Smith.