If you ever come across Dame Joanna Lumley, do not do this… (Picture: Daniel Loveday/Comic Relief/Getty Images)

Dame Joanna Lumley dubbed it ‘creepy’ when fans take secret photographs of her.

The Absolutely Fabulous star, 77, is always happy to get a picture with a passer-by – as long as she knows about it.

What she can’t stand is when people film or take pictures of her without her permission.

She also has a brilliant reaction when she notices people doing just that.

‘I never mind doing photographs with people, but what I don’t like is when they steal them,’ she explained to Sky News.

‘They don’t ask, you can just see them quietly at a dinner table, going like that [gestures taking a photo] across the restaurant.

Dame Joanna doesn’t like it when fans take secret photos of her (Picture: Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

She’s more than happy to pose with fans if they ask (Picture: Victoria Jones-Pool/Getty Images)

‘I walk over and say, “Shall we do a proper picture?” And they get a bit flustered and say, “Oh, I didn’t want to disturb you,” you know? But that’s creepy.’

Dame Joanna finds the constant use of cameras on phones ‘intrusive’ and said it gives her the feeling everyone is being watched to some extent nowadays.

But it’s not just fans this certified national treasure has a problem with in this respect – she doesn’t even like supermarket CCTV cameras.

‘There’s a feeling of being watched, if you’re in a room where there’s a camera – you know you’re being watched… it’s odd,’ she explained.

Dame Joanna is stars in the hit Netflix show of the moment, Fool Me Once, alongside Michelle Keegan.

The Harlan Coben thriller follows Maya Stern (Michelle) as she tries to come to terms with her husband Joe’s murder.

Enter mother-in-law Judith Burkett, who is expertly portrayed by Dame Joanna with her trademark wit and feisty character.

Dame Joanna stars in Netflix’s Fool Me Once alongside Michelle Keegan (Picture: ishal Sharma/Netflix)

The thriller also stars Utopia actor Adeel Akhtar, the BBC’s His Dark Materials actress Jade Anouka, and The Hobbit trilogy star Richard Armitage.

Judith and Maya have a fractured relationship in the series, and Coronation Street star Michelle previously said it was difficult saying some of her lines to such an iconic actor as Dame Joanna.

Speaking on The One Show, Admitted admitted she dreaded having to fire expletives at Dame Joanna, as she said: ‘Honestly, when I read the script, I was like, “Oh no, oh no!”‘

‘We had a bit of a laugh, didn’t we, when we were rehearsing? I don’t think I said it when we were in rehearsals, I was like, “I can’t! I can’t!”‘

Dame Joanna admitted it was a shock, as she added: ‘When it’s not used very often, bad language comes… it slaps out of the screen at you, it does.’

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She’s spoken, people.