Nothing Like A Dame

Dame Helen: One Loves Drummers, Just Not Outside A Theatre

Helen Mirren has defended telling a crowd of street drummers to be quiet after the noise disrupted a performance of her new play The Audience

Dame Helen Mirren has admitted that her choice of language when confronting a crowd of street drummers who were disrupting her performance of the play The Audience was more suited to the Duke of Edinburgh than the Queen.

Facing TV cameras when arriving for work last night, Dame Helen defended her actions, saying she would do the same again' but said she was a big fan of drumming and would attend the drumming festival that was beign promoted.

She wore a handmade T-shirt showing a drum with two drumsticks, drawn in black marker pen. On the back was the message: “Yes please! Just not outside a theatre!”Dame Helen told waiting reporters: "I was very upset, I was very cross. I had just spent 10 minutes on stage trying to allow the audience to hear what I was saying, which was sort of impossible. I was steaming."

When asked abotu her language - she reportedly told the drummers to "shut the f*** up", she laughed and said, "I was more Duke of Edinburgh than the Queen."

Organisers of the As One In The Park event have now invited Dame Helen to officially open the festival, which begins on May 26 alongside the drummers.

“We want her to appear with the Samba band and come on and say ‘Shut the ---- up’,” one of the organisers explained.

In return they said they would make a donation to a charity of her choice.

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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