One of Britain’s much loved, all-around entertainers, Joanna Lumley, has been awarded a damehood by Princess Anne during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace for her services to drama, entertainment and charitable causes.
Following the ceremony, Dame Joanna, in a fuchsia pink ensemble designed by Laura Green London, described the honour as “absolutely huge” and was thrilled to have received her award from Princess Anne; they are both strong supporters of charities like Farms for City Children. She called the Princess a “wonderful sort of figurehead for women in this country; I think she is courageous and active and modest and brilliant.”
The Royal Family took to their official Instagram account following the ceremony, congratulating Dame Joanna on her achievement. The post read: “Congratulations Dame Joanna Lumley! At today’s investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, the Princess Royal awarded Dame Joanna with her honour for services to drama, entertainment and charitable causes.”
This is the second royal honour that the Absolutely Fabulous actress has received throughout her long-standing career. The first was her OBE, presented to her in 1995.
She said that honour differed from her damehood ceremony: ‘It was in the Throne Room, which is much smaller and much more intimate. And instead of an actual military band, playing very softly up, there was this beautiful bass and string quartet, and it was so charming and so moving.”
Lumley also went on to joke about the trouble she got into at school as a teenager when she was caught smoking – something that stuck with her. She said: “I mean, these are things that, as a child being ticked off and having my prefect badge taken away for smoking, something that you would never dream of is that you would be honoured in Buckingham Palace to become a Dame.”
Dame Joanna has no intentions of slowing down or plans to stop acting. She has a new travel series set to be televised within the next month and says she will know when the time comes to stop as “the phone will stop ringing.”
