The former Absolutely Fabulous star gave a number of speeches while championing the Gurkhas' campaign to secure the right to settle in Britain - a fight which was won last summer.
More recently, the 63-year-old held a press conference to defend herself after a Labour MP claimed that she had kept a "deathly silence" over Gurkhas' rights since winning the battle. She later received an apology from Prime Minister Gordon Brown over the matter.
Despite her success, Lumley told Yours magazine: "I get nervous when I have to give speeches.
"So beforehand I psych myself up by saying, 'I'm longing to be out there to be talking to my darling friends - as yet unmet - whom I know I'll like, on a subject I'm longing to talk about. I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing. Let's go!'."
Lumley is currently appearing in her own ITV1 travel show Joanna Lumley's Nile.
