Lesley Manville has offered hilarious insight into her friendship with fellow legendary actress Judi Dench, revealing that Judi once pranked her so badly, she wet herself on stage.
The actress opened up about this very unexpected side to Judi, during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The host lists some of the brilliant performers Lesley has previously worked with on stage, asking her, "Who is a trouble maker in a fun way?"
Without missing a beat, Lesley replies, "Judi Dench!" Adding that Judi "loves a prank," the actress shares that this memorable, pants wetting prank happened during a Chekhov play, The Cherry Orchard, not long after Lesley had given birth.
While Lesley performed on stage by herself, Judi was in the wings "doing something very rude." To begin with, she isn't sure whether she can reveal just what Judi was doing, on television.
"We'll bleep it if it's too rude," host Stephen Colbert urges, clearly invested in hearing the story.
Through bouts of laughter, Lesley manages to share, "She was pretending that she was being taken from behind!" She adds through audience laughter, "Picture it! Bearing in mind I've just had a child, and what that does to your anatomy."
Women who have given birth will know that Lesley is likely referring to the strength, or lack of, of her pelvic floor - and yes, the worst actually happened.
"I'm afraid I wet myself," she says candidly, to rapturous laughter. "She made me laugh so much," she added.
Asked whether the incident happened during a part of the play that isn't funny, Lesley cries, "It's Chekov, it isn't funny at all!"
If that's not bad enough, the actress explains that "the stage was raked," meaning it sloped towards the audience.
So not only did she wet herself in front of everyone watching the play, they then got to witness the further indignity of urine trickling towards them down the sloping stage floor.
That's not all, the further you delve into Judi's history, the more of the same mirth-inducing behaviour you find.
Matthew MacFayden once worked with her on Pride and Prejudice. According to The Telegraph, he recalls, "She makes these needlework embroideries on set in the tedium of filming, but they are all, ‘You Are a C---’. And she gives them as presents."
He adds, "And she is doing this beautifully, intricate, ornate [work]. You kind of see the work materialising as the shoot goes on. Like, 'You Are a F------ S---.'"
Keira Knightley weighed in on the discussion. She says, "She gives this fantastic air. She just sits there and she embroiders and you think: ‘Oh, that's so nice! It's Judi Dench. It's so quaint; she's embroidering a cushion.'"
The actress continues, "And you go, ‘What are you embroidering?’ And [it says]: ‘F---!’ Apparently she's got hundreds of them just covered in swear words or rude sayings."
We're not sure we'll ever look at Judi in the same way again!
