Dame was warned by an manager not to steal anything after Tracey Ullman did an impression of her as a kleptomaniac.  

Comedian Tracey, 62, revealed she sent presents to apologise after the Oscar winning actress was told by a store boss manager he was keeping an eye on her.

In Tracey Ullman’s 2016 show, where she also impersonated and  – Dame Judi steals from shops but because she’s a national treasure, she gets away with it.

‘It was just fun,’ Tracey said.

‘Then the Judi Dench called me and said ‘I’ve been having a problem in Marks and Spencer’s’. 

‘She said the store manager had said to her ‘I’m watching you’.’

‘Like she was really going to steal stuff so I felt a bit bad so I said to Judi a big big big big thank you for letting me steal her persona and use it on my show.

‘I sent her a nice present, I sent her some nice pottery and amanbola she said ‘I got the presents and amanbola the pottery I swiftly smashed’ like pretending she was being naughty but she was such a good sport about it.’

She added: ‘How would I have called Judi and said ‘Judi I’m going to portray you as a kleptomaniac’. It wouldn’t have gone down that well.’

Tracey said she would keep the costume on during her lunch break and visit designer shops where the assistants believed she was really Dench.

‘When I was Judi Dench in Richmond [London] when we were filming my BBC show and I took my lunch hour and I decided to go and look into the shops as Judi.

‘And people were just like ‘oh we loved you in the Bond films’ ‘hello oh did you darling?

They were marvellous, marvellous film makers’,’ Tracey would say, pretending to be Judi.

Speaking on the Tea with Twiggy podcast, Tracey continued: ‘Sometimes people look at the makeup and go ‘oh that’s weird, there’s a bit of glue on her head’ and some people don’t look at it at all.

‘So I went shopping in Margaret Howell as Judi Dench and that was just so much fun because the two people in the shop really believed I was Judi Dench and I just got such a kick out of it.’

The sketch featured Judi shoplifting in her local Co-op and giggling: ‘Because I’m a national treasure I can get away with anything,’ she giggled. 

After pinching her weekly groceries, she kicked a bin over on the way out.

Later she was seen vandalising Harry Potter star Rupert Grint’s iPad on a movie set. 

It comes after Judi revealed earlier this month that she feels ‘frightened’ when she finishes an acting job.

The actress, 87, admitted despite her legendary reputation, she is always worried no one will want to hire her again.

Judi detailed how grateful she is to still be ’employed’ and the relief that comes with being cast in a new project.

In an interview with she confessed: ‘I’ve always thought, one is very lucky to be employed.

‘I always get frightened at the end of the job because I think I’m not going to be employed again and then feel very relieved at the beginning of the next one.’

Despite her decades of success, Judi, who most recently starred in the coming of age drama Belfast, admitted that she still feels nervous when she lands a new job.

She exclaimed: ‘I’ll say!

I get more anxious now. Oh yes, much more anxious. There’s more things to consider and more things to find out and more things to learn about. And you think, ‘Oh God, have I got the energy to do this?’

When it comes to looking for new roles, the Belfast star is always on the hunt for something different to anything she’s done before.

She said: ‘I just, really, always hope that I will be asked to do something different.

And perhaps not expected. Or something that has no reference to anything I’ve done before.’