I could recommend this film – all day long – to everyone I’ve ever met. People would have to ply me with alcohol to stop me talking about it. I would not complain. But then, I’d keep talking about it because I’m a little devil that way.

In ’Nothing Like A Dame’, you’ve got four of the finest actresses this country has ever produced, who have been friends for donkeys years, talking about their lives, their careers, husbands, reviews, all the things that have stayed with them across the years and along the course of their extraordinary friendship. The Dames are Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright.

It’s completely lovely and it’s put together beautifully. Really, I suppose the reason that it’s my kind of thing is because it’s more chat than film or documentary. It doesn’t appear to be heavily directed, because you’ve got four friends, having a chat. They’re pretty much set loose with or without a subject, and they just get to talking. And there’s a lot of laughter.

One of my favourite lines comes from Eileen Atkins, remembering a time when a teacher brought in an actor to look at her. Her teacher was worried that, even though she could be rather a good actress, perhaps she wasn’t really pretty enough.

And Eileen Atkins, who was listening, overheard the actor’s reply.

“No,” he said. “No, she’s not conventionally pretty, in any way, but do you know what? She’s sexy.”

We should all hear such things about ourselves.

Go on, it’s right here: https://amzn.to/2jOUxjJ