Nothing Like a Dame (film) Nothing Like a Dame (film) Nothing Like a Dame (released in the United States as Tea With the Dames) is a 2018 documentary film directed by Roger Michell. The film documents conversations between actresses Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith interspersed with scenes from their career on film and stage. "Nothing Like a Dame" was released in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2018. The film was shown on television in the United Kingdom a few weeks after its initial theatrical release. Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave the film a five out of five star rating,
Emma Thompson specialises in playing "a good woman in a frock". She also plays many haughty characters, with a "bracing, nanny-like demeanour", but she is noted for her ability to win the empathy of audiences. Thompson belongs to a group of highly decorated British actresses including Judi Dench, Kate Winslet and Helena Bonham Carter who are known for appearing in "heritage films" and typically showing "restraint, rendering emotions through intellect rather than feelings, and a sense of irony, which demonstrates the heroine's superior understanding". Projecting a typically "British image", Thompson's often dogmatic and tight-jawed manner has also been compared to Maggie Smith.