Winner's acceptance speech by Joanna Lumley in the Fellowship category
JOANNA LUMLEY: Jennifer, stay here. Jennifer, stay with me. Jennifer, just stay with me. The thing is, I had sorted out a really fantastic speech which started off -- no, just don't go! -- which started off saying how unbelievably honoured I am to get this fellowship from the academy. It honestly isn't something you even dream of. You don't even dream of it, Jimmy. You don't even dream of it. You don't even think of it. The letter comes and you can't believe it. But looking at that, even looking at that, I realised that everything I am -- I am like a piece of cellophane, laid over the industry. I have done nothing. We as actors, we are dragged about in golden carriages which are laid on tracks over swamps atmidnight by men in their underpants, and we are lit and furnished with words and costumed and made up and addressed. We have stunt performers to make us look better. We have people who drive and dress us. We have people who feed us -- and caterers are so important. We have all this, and we arrive and sometimes people say, "You are so funny in that". And you say, "Yes, thanks!" It's all somebody else. And I am here to say that this is, for me, paradise, because I am here, where I wanted to be. What I mean to say by that is that I am in the company that I wish to keep, ever since I was young. I wanted to be with people who have left race and religion and age and gender and shoe size and things outside the door when they came. People who are in our profession don't have those discriminations. I wanted to be with those people. I wanted to be -- I wanted to hang out with, you know, the boys in the band. I wanted to be part of the sisterhood. I wanted to be in this great circus, in this fellowship. And now I am standing here with my gorgeous family, my beloved friends, and I couldn't be happier. So all I really want to say is: Jennifer, you write it. I just do it. I just want to say, actually, to you all, you know: so yeah! Erm ... Yeah, cheers, sweeties! Thanks a lot!
(Laughter and applause)
