Judi Dench told paramedic to ‘F off’ after he asked if she had a carer

Don’t mess with Dame Judi Dench! She’s known for her cheeky demeanour, quick wit and charm, but we pity the fool who treats the revered actress like an old lady.

Like most over-60s, Dench has received her fair share of ageism and patronising comments over the years and is loathed to be viewed as a hopeless old lady who can’t fend for herself – as one young paramedic learned the hard way!

The hilarious actress, 83, has revealed she once told a patronising young paramedic to “f*** off” after they asked if she had a carer while treating her for a hornet sting on her bum.

In a preview clip for new documentary Tea with Dames (called Nothing Like a Dame in the UK) seen by The Sun, Judi Dench tells her co-stars Joan Plowright, 88, Maggie Smith, 83, and Eileen Atkins, 83, she snapped at the poor young ambo after they asked her the seemingly innocent question.

She said: “A paramedic walked into the room who was about 17 and said ‘What’s our name?’ So I said ‘Judi, and he said ‘Have we got a carer?’

“And I’m afraid I completely blew my top. I said ‘You f*** off!

“I’ve just done eight weeks of The Winter’s Tale at the Garrick Theatre. I was so angry.”

Thankfully, the paramedic didn’t seem to take too much offence!

The revelation came in Dench new project with her long-time friends, and fellow dames, Smith, Atkins and Plowright.

The four women regularly join forces for catch-ups in the English countryside when they’re not busy on movie projects and for the first time, they’ve let cameras record everything that happens at one of their meet-ups for a unique new documentary.

Early footage shows the women getting their hair done and hilariously cracking jokes with one another as the cameras roll. While they’re all big names in the industry today, it wasn’t always so easy for the four ladies to find work. In fact, they discuss how they started off as struggling actors in the 1950s before making it bigtime in the United Kingdom and around the world.

Atkins explains how she did her first ever play at the age of 10, while Dench recalls forming a strong friendship with Smith in 1958. She remembers performing at the Edinburgh Festival, something 83-year-old Smith can’t quite recall.

“Were we good?” she asks Dench, who is in fits of laughter that her pal can’t remember what happened. “Too long ago.”

Read more: Judi Dench pens emotional farewell to her ‘first true love’

Directed by Roger Michell, the film sees each actress talking about their own career and how their lives changed as they made it big in theatre, television and movies. With their ages combined, the four are 342 years old and have been working in the industry for more than seven decades.

“I wanted these amazing women to do what they are all world champions at doing: talking: yacking, gossiping, reminiscing, reflecting, cursing, loving, praising and laughing,” Michell says. “I wanted the film to make us feel like we’re eavesdropping, that nothing’s been rehearsed, or is being presented to camera. My ambition was to create something that felt like anthropology, like journalism, like a privileged intimacy, not reverential, not polite, not hovering deferentially around Grand Dames.

Tea with the Dames will be released in Australian cinemas on June 7.

Are you a fan of Judi Dench? Would you like to see this film?