Sweetie, this is Louis.
What's the parrot's name? Sweetheart.
Hello.
GRUFF VOICE: What are you doing? Sweetie, what are you doing?
This is Louis. Does it help if you use that tone of voice?
Well, that is the tone of voice she uses.
Aren't you... Who's a pretty girl then?
Boy or girl? Girl. Girl. Sweetheart,
Louis, Sweetheart. Well...
GRUFF VOICES: Hello, Sweetheart. Hello, Sweetheart.
All right, lovely?
How you doing, sweetheart?
I'm told that there was an incident during lockdown
when she was concerned about your well being.
This carpet was turned back, and I walked along here, tripped
on that and fell into that corner.
Ancl nobody was in the house.
Ancl I couldn't get up.
Ancl all the time, the whole time,
and I was there for exactly half an hour,
She said, "What are you doing?
"What are you doing?
"What are you doing?" Like it was some game.
I wouldn't be without her for the world.
Shall we go into the other room?
What are you doing? What are you doing?
Well, look at this.
What have they done? Have they done something to your room?
Well... Got weird umbrellas.
Damejudi Dench is one of the most admired and most garlanded actors
of her generation.
You have a larger crew than Bond has.
Do you know that?
An icon of both stage and screen,
she'd allowed me into her home in Surrey to talk about her long life
and legendary career.
So have you grown quite fond of the parrot?
I've grown very fond of the parrot, actually.
I've had a lot of pets.
We had 17 cats during the war.
During which war?
Well, the Second World War.
Louis! Well, I didn't mean the First World War. Ouch!
I didn't mean it like that.
Bloody hell! I was just confused, it seems...
Am I the only person who heard that?
Well, I didn't mean... Which war, which war?!
I thought you might mean that,
I thought you might mean the Vietnam War.
Oh, no.
The Second World War.
Did I recover?
I want to see those awards over there. Oh. Oh, my word.
That's my whole phalanx of BAFTAs.
One, two, three, four, five.
There's five BAFTAs.
That's, that leaves a couple unaccounted for, at least.
They used to have wooden bases.
Yes, they used to. My three BAFTAs. Did you catch that, judi?
What? My three BAFTAs have been like this one.
Did YOU catch that?
Honestly. My three BAFTAs are like this one.
Not like these.
This, you feel the weight of it.
Ancl now try smiling and standing up.
The Oscar. Being a slip of a girl.
WOW!
Now. That weighs a ton.
Shakespeare in Love. I won it for. Eight minutes.
Eight minutes of screen time? About that.
You were so accomplished by that time.
Having won tons of other awards and having done most
of your important work in theatre, was it a big thrill
winning the Oscar?
It was a big surprise.
It was a big, big surprise.
Ancl that beautiful man.
Oh, see, I'm hopeless.
Robin Williams?
Robin Williams.
There is nothing like a dame.
The Oscar goes to Damejudi Dench!
Ancl he gave it to me.
He curtsied.
I think I fell up the stairs.
It's the first Oscar for Damejudi Dench...
Heaven.
To many, judi is best known for her performances
in film, her regal turn as Elizabeth I
in Shakespeare in Love.
I know something of a woman in a man's profession.
Yes, by God, I do know about that.
And a ground-breaking re-imagining of the MI6 chief M in seven
James Bond films.
Because I think you're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic
of the Cold War, whose boyish charms, though wasted on me,
obviously appeal to that young woman I sent out to evaluate you.
Point taken.
But her first love has always been theatre,
and especially Shakespeare.
Yet...
...here's a spot. Out.
Damn spot, out, I say.
I was hoping to understand the source of her remarkable talent.
I think I'm conscious during this interview of, as much
as I've tried, how under prepared I am because of the body of work
that you have. You've done... That's the best way though, isn't it?
I hope so. The closest I could get to experiencing you on stage
was watching a TV adaptation of a production of Macbeth.
I was watching it last night and one... Last night?
Well, on YouTube... You're so sly.
I was trying to catch up with my homework. You're so sly.
I was trying to catch up with,
I was feeling very under prepared. Do your bloody homework.
Do you like playing Lady Macbeth? I mean, how did you find...?
Yeah, I loved it.
Absolutely loved it.
The intensity of it was very, very exciting.
Because the audience were where you are.
I often think about the theatre and in some ways in competition
with cinema and special effects and everything that Hollywood
can throw at a production.
But when you feel that the space between you and the performers
is dissolved and they come among you and you feel that charge,
then it's something really special, something that... There's nothing
like it at all.
Ancl Monday night is different from Tuesday,
and Friday and Saturday,
and none of them are ever the same.
Work in progress is what the theatre is, entirely to do with not only
you on the stage, but the audience watching you and people coming
in late and somebody forgetting a prop or dropping something
or all those things that keep you
absolutely, you know, they, they affect you here.
I mean, it's extraordinary performance and you're, I'm not
going to spare your blushes,
you're an acting genius and you generate a very palpable
sense of despair or rage or laughter or whatever it may be.
Are you accessing something inside?
I've read a quote of yours where you were asked if you were "method"
and you said, "Well, I suppose all of us are a bit method."
Well, of course we are.
Because if you draw on yourself, which you have to...
...| suppose that's...
...that's method.
That's why I think that I always say to every young actor, what you must
always have is...
...without consciously knowing it, you must have a kind
of camera here just set in your head, because you should
just always be aware of very small,
small and large things that happen.
Be aware. just be aware of things because sometimes you're going
to have to draw on it.
But you did brilliantly well at drama school at Central,
and you were discovered and cast as Ophelia straight out of drama
school, which, for those who don't know, is Hamlet's girlfriend,
isn't it? Oh, it made the papers. It made the papers. Why?
Well, because they said, how dare the so-called National Theatre
of Britain get a complete newcomer
to play Ophelia?
They were very cross. So it was taken away from me at the end.
Well, that's not quite right, is it?
Because Kenneth Tynan, who was probably the most famous theatre
critic of his time, thought you were brilliant, didn't he?
He gave you a good review. Did he? Didn't he?
That's what you said on Desert Island Discs.
Oh, I don't believe that.
I think you got some good reviews.
I mean, I get bad reviews.
Believe it or not, I know you're shocked. But we all do.
We all do. And I think one of the things I enjoy about you is that one
of the ways I think you process those very rare occasions
where someone says something silly or unappreciative, you sort of see
the funny side of it and... You have to keep your sense of humour.
...talk about, I don't know, is there a critic called Charles Spencer?
Yeah. Do you remember what you wrote to him?
Remind me. You said, "Now| know what CS stands for -
"complete shit."
Imagine writing back to a critic.
He probably loved it.
And then he wrote back to you saying, "Well, I can tell you my
"wife and children don't think I'm a complete shit. Neither does my cat."
Do you know, I'd forgotten that.
I'd forgotten. You keep a notebook of weird things that people
have said to you... Not any more, because I can't see to read. ..after performances?
Yes, I have clone that.
Like a great sweet, el...
I'm not going to say his name.
...sweet, elderly friend of mine brought his mother once to Stratford
and I thought I'm, for her,
I'm going to give the performance of my life.
Ancl when they came in afterwards,
she walked in and I went...
She said, "We had the most terrible time getting here."
LAUGHTER You know...
It's wonderful.
And then one of the examples you give is people saying
you must be exhausted.
But then I read that and thought, well, is that, presumably that's
intended as... Many people, the majority of people say
you must be exhausted.
Is that, does that not feel like a compliment?
No! A compliment? Why not?
That's not what you're getting.
They say, "Look, you were out there busying around." "You must be exhausted."
LAUGHTER
It's a good, if nothing else comes from this program me, if everyone now
realises that that's not a compliment to a performer, what's
the best thing you could say afterwards?
There must be something you could say better than that.
I think it's Laurence Olivier who said that if you've seen
a terrible performance, that you have to say, "Well,
"you've done it again..."
...because that way you haven't really lied.
I'm sure that I've had that.
There's a famous story about you going for a screen test
very early on that always comes up. It wasn't even the test.
It wasn't even the test? No. It was an interview.
Was it an American director or a British director?
I'm not going to tell you who it was. You're very discreet.
He interviewed me charmingly, and then he said, "It's
"been very nice meeting you."
He said, "I'm sorry, but," he said, "I don't think you'll ever film
"as you have everything wrong with your face," he said.
What did he mean, do you think?
Well, I think he meant that I didn't have the classic face for films,
and I think it's quite right.
Then, fortunately, films have moved on a bit, so it doesn't matter
what you look like, really.
I mean, you were and are a very beautiful woman.
So I think... Oh, really?
...| think it was a strange thing for him to say.
Who knows? It's very odd. I didn't want to make a film anyway.
Well, this is what I was going to ask. Did you, were you keen
to get into films or you were there just to pass the time?
My agent told me he wanted to see me and I went, "No, no, no."
I mean, I was in the place, you know, I wanted to be.
We're going to feed the ducks. Yes, let's do it.
Hello! Are they already waiting for us? Oh, yes, of course.
Hello. Hello. Hello, duckies. QUACKING
Hello, duckies. Hello.
They're supposed to be quite aggressive, aren't they, mallards?
Well, the males are terribly aggressive to the females.
That's what I mean. Yeah.
Their sexual mores leave a lot to be desired. Do you know that they drown
them sometimes? The males drown the females?
They all try and get at her, hump her in the water.
I mean, we think of them very benignly, but they don't
have good manners.
Do you drink champagne?
Yeah. I brought you some.
You brought me some? Yeah. Champagne?
Wasn't supposed to be a big... It was a surprise.
I'm not trying to make it a big production, I was going to do
off camera, so it didn't seem like here I am holding my champagne.
I say, it is a production number. Here we go.
Ancl it's in a case. It's in a case.
I'm not sure if it's any good. Is it Bollinger?
Yeah. Hoh, only Bollinger.
LOUIS LAUGHS
I told my mum and dad I was doing this and I think it's the first time
in my career where I felt they were genuinely impressed.
They thought that ne'er-do-well has come to something at last.
I don't believe you, Louis. They definitely were impressed.
No, my dad, I called, my dad lives in America, and I told him
and he was like, "Really?"
He was really thrilled, as was I.
I don't want to make it about them, as was I, to hear that you'd agreed.
As was I.
Okey-do key. I'm taking the Bollinger.
Look out for the very small door, please.
It says, "I've been expecting you, Mr Bond."
Yes. That's for somebody else, you don't know.
There are three letters here that I couldn't resist having framed.
What does that say?
The first one says "Damejudi Olivia Dench, care of tiny front door
"in deepest Surrey, England."
But my friend, the postman got it to me.
What does that say?
This one says "Damejudi Dench, somewhere in or near a woodland
"in Sussex."
Isn't it amazing? And those got to you?
Ancl it got to me. Aren't they clever?
And here's Michael.
There's Mr Mikey, in that chair.
Only it was red then. And that's the actual chair.
But you've had it re-upholstered.
Yeah. Nice.
That's very, very, very good of him and very like him.
Do you know when it was done?
I think it was clone a year or two before he cited...
"actually.
Judi married fellow Shakespearean actor Michael Williams in 1971.
The following year, they had a daughter nicknamed Finty.
You're not as tall as I thought you were.
Nor are you.
Judi and Michael worked together often, most famously on television
in the sitcom A Fine Romance.
Ancl tonight's award for best performance by an actress
in a leading role goes t0judiDench.
She gets there a big kiss by her husband, Michael Williams.
Their real life love and his pride in her success was well documented.
Your marriage to Michael Williams was well known for being well,
a happy marriage. Very.
What was it about him, do you think?
What was the, and what was the foundation of the relationship?
Because I'm always curious about successful marriages.
You can't tell, Louis. Sense of humour.
Probably mostly.
Michael used to laugh, and when he laughed, he used to cry.
I think mostly that. Interest in the same things, of course,
but I mean, what is it?
It's impossible to tell.
Whose decision was it to do a sitcom together? How did that come up?
And not just a sitcom... We were asked. ..but one in which you play an unlikely...
We were just asked so we said yeah, why not?
And was working with Michael part of what appealed about that?
Oh, definitely.
No question about it.
But then suddenly Michael and I got the Clover butter advertisement
which bought my house,
bought this house.
See, I didn't know about this. Tell me more about that.
Oh, we did an advertisement for Clover butter.
Because you love it so much.
Well, Louis, of course.
Would this have been around the time of...?
I think I'm getting a dim record. Well, I've been here,
we've been here 30, something like 38 years ago.
You were just a child in knickerbockers running about. 14,
I would have been.
Can you dig or someone can dig that out? I wouldn't mind having a look at that on the phone.
Would you be curious to see it?
You could. No, I don't want to see it.
Well, you'd think you could improve on the performance.
Yes... I might want to take it on tour.
Was it a series or just a one?
No, no, no. just one. Here we go. Jen's got it.
Are you happy to bring it over, Jen?
Jen, you're so sneaky behind me.
...saute the mushrooms.
That's Clover.
Clover is churned with cream from fresh milk
with added vegetable oil.
So you can cook with it, just like butter.
So it spreads from the fridge.
Spreads? Like butter. Mm.
Only they can't call it butter.
They can call it bread, though.
Yeah.
This was... Hang on. This is surreal.
Can we just pause? This is so confusing.
I have no... Hey, jen, don't go.
"Recollection. I just want to make sure. ..whatsoever.
I asked if there was more than one.
There's about ten of them. See... It was 40 years.
It was over 40 years ago.
I'll look for more.
I wouldn't.
Nevertheless.
Thank you. There you go.
Good old Clover butter.
You can't call it butter. I said...
Can't call it butter. Michael just said that in the advert.
Yes, he just told us. Yes. Stop.
Not butter.
You were together from '71 to 2001.
Yeah.
Are you OK talking about how it came to an end?
How he came to die?
I don't want to mention it if...
Well, he, he, he wasn't well.
And...and I'm not good at it, actually.
Erm, yes, he, he, erm...
Well, he...
He died in 2001...
SHE CLEARS HER THROAT
...of lung cancer.
Smoking, you see? All that smoking when they were young.
Erm...
I was in New York and they said he was not well.
So my agent flew out and we came back on Concorde the next clay.
Ancl it aborted take-off.
Ancl we got off and we went back and they said, "Oh, well, it'll be all right."
Ancl we got on another plane, same thing happened.
So it took us a long, long time to get back.
But we were back and got back here.
Ancl so we were all in the house together.
And that was very, very good indeed.
You talked about immersing yourself in work as a way of...
Yeah. ..getting through it.
Well, at least you're getting on and thinking of something else
and being,
using up a bit of energy and having to think about, you know.
Uh.
I'm assuming Finty and Sam. Can we go? I don't know where they'll be waiting.
They'll be waiting. They're not in the, not in the pods.
It must be baking in there, can you imagine? That's where we sat.
You'd feel like a tomato plant. I like it.
Maybe I'd get taller.
Here it is. Maybe I'd be very tall.
A short drive away,
we were at a restaurant that celebrity chef Aldo Zilli runs
from his home.
We'd been joined byjudi's daughter, Finty, and her grandson, Sam.
Lead on Macduff.
Oh, look at this, isn't it heaven?
Cheers. Cheers.
Cheers. Cheers, my love.
During lockdown, judi enjoyed an unlikely TikTok stardom after Sam
moved in with her and began posting videos of them.
# juice, sauce, little bit of dressing
# Ice, wrist, little bit of flexing. #
So I'm going to read you a lyric.
You have to finish the next lyric.
Let me take you dancing.
You've nothing on tonight.
Actually, quite a good line.
Part five of telling jokes to my grandma.
Why did the lobster blush?
Because the seaweed.
My word, are they all for me?
Thank you so much.
Oh!
It is sensational.
You should try one of these.
Finty, was it your idea that
Sam should move down and be with judi?
Sammy was going a bit stir crazy in London, so I just thought, well,
it's the sort of, it's the perfect thing.
And also, when, when, at what other time, naturally do you get
as a grandmother and a grandson,
do you get to spend that time together? Mm.
But it was a good thing, wasn't it? 100%.
It was a very good thing.
It was very, very good thing.
I loved it. How long did you move in for?
Ten months.
Ten months?! Yeah.
Can we talk a little bit about the TikToks
and how that came about?
I went down to Ma's and we just started posting videos
like very silly videos.
There were days where we would post a video that would take kind
of five minutes. We would have a really good laugh.
Ancl then the next clay I would say to Ma, right guess numbers, guess,
guess the view count.
Ancl Ma would be like 10,000.
Ancl then I'd be like two and a half million.
She'd be like, "Right, what do we do next? What shall we do?"
Ancl it was such a lovely thing to do.
It was a hugely good laugh.
I mean, we've always been a family who likes to be together.
This is delicious. Oh! My God.
Is this lobster ravioli? Yes, darling.
It's to die for, isn't it? It's good.
To absolutely understand Ma I think,
I think the most intrinsic thing about Ma that is way bigger
than the job or the profession,
is that Ma hates being on her own.
I think that's why lockdown was so hard because suddenly
the people went. I think I'm right in saying this.
I don't think I'm speaking out of turn.
I think Ma's energy and, and light and humour and everything comes
from being with people.
Oh, that was amazing. Very good. Would you like another one of these?
No, I'm... Oh, my word. "I've had my fill. Mama?
Well, I'm not going to eat for a fortnight.
Have we got time to...to do a TikTok?
Why don't we do that one? You could do that one.
# Eh, eh, eh. # I can't remember that.
It's easy, look.
No, it's that, at the end.
Yeah. Even I picked that one up pretty quick.
This'll be appalling.
Are we like that? Like that?
You go forward. No, I'm good.
No, you forward. Mum, you come...
Yes.
OK.
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm losing it...
Outside, over our impromptu dance recital, we reflected on what Finty
had said about her mum's reliance on people.
Are we ready?
But in judi's case, a love of company had come packaged
with a once in a generation theatrical gift and a refusal
to take herself too seriously.
LAUGHTER
So shall we talk about how you moved into doing more films?
It happened relatively late. I mean,
you was one of the, if not the most, well, one of the outstanding
actors of your generation on stage, and then mid-nineties...
Yeah. ..it seems as though Hollywood came knocking.
Decided to drag the jewel of the British stage...
SHE SCOFFS
...onto the silver screen. When they came to talk
to you about doing Bond, can you remember?
How did it feel? Well, I came home here.
Ancl I said to Michael, "They want me to play
He said, "You've got to do it. You've got to do it."
He said, "I've got to live with a Bond woman," he said.
That was '95 or thereabouts.
It was Pierce Brosnan, wasn't it, was the Bond? Mm.
It's a world away from Shakespeare and, you know, for the National, isn't it?
Yes. It's entirely different world altogether.
Both Pierce,
I think Pierce wouldn't mind me saying, we were you both very,
very frightened, you know, suddenly taking over those two roles,
it was very, very demanding and, and one was nervous about it.
Can I just...how I see it, you're an amazing, quite
evidently legendary actor.
And I would have thought for you, you could have,
not sleepwalk through, that sounds wrong,
but it's not like doing Lady Macbeth.
No, it isn't.
You don't get so many goes at it either.
I mean, for me, the whole filming is...
...is agony for me simply because you can't...
...once it's, well, it's obvious, isn't it?
Once it's there, it's there.
If you're in the theatre you can get it better on Tuesday
and then perhaps not so good on Friday, but in the film you,
you work on it and you do it,
and then the director decides,
and says, "Cut," and that's a print.
Well, I mean, there are so many films I've clone that I've never
seen, and I don't want to see them.
Why don't you want to see them?
Because I would be irritated.
You might be pleased. You might think, "Wow, I did really well in that." No, I don't think I'd be p...
I might think, "Oh, yes, that bit's all right."
You worked with Clint Eastwood as a director?
Clint Eastwood? Yeah. I have.
He's the most laid back man I have ever met.
You start at nine.
You finish at four.
AS EASTWOOD: "In your own time."
So he'd say. Really?
Ancl then at the end of the scene, he says, "Stop, stop." Not cut?
No, no, no. Not cut. And he didn't shout it either.
Just that "in your own time".
"Could you, Mr Eastwood,
"could, could we possibly do that again?"
"Why?"
"Sorry." "why?"
"Well, because we've just clone it once.
"Could we have another go?"
"NO-"
What was the film?
It was called] Edgar.
Oh, about] Edgar Hoover, FBI Chief.
Not curious to see it?
I'll see it at some point.
Do you think you were good in it?
I have no idea.
Can I throw a left field one at you?
Chronicles of Riddick... Oops. ..with Vin Diesel.
That is so left field, Louis.
Are you sending me out?
You bet.
I don't think you've seen it, have you? I have never seen it,
but my family send me up about it,
rotten.
I only saw a little clip on YouTube.
I Googled on YouTube or whatever I put in...
That's very, very sneaky.
...judi Dench Chronicles of Riddick.
I thought, I don't think I want to sit through the whole
thing, but based on the little clip, you were on a spaceship
and or something, and you kept disappearing and reappearing.
I think they said you're an elemental.
Were you an elemental? I was called an elemental.
Why did that come up?
Because I was at the Haymarket Theatre and Vin Diesel came
to see me. He sent me some flowers,
which stretched...
"certainly the length of this sofa.
In fact, they couldn't get up the stairs to my dressing room
and left downstairs.
Well, that's pretty nice, isn't it?
So, of course I did The Chronicles of Riddick.
The Chronicles of Riddick.
We don't need to talk very long about Chronicles of Riddick.
You can't, because I know nothing more about it.
I have no recollection, nor have I seen it. And I don't know much
about it, but it seems to be set in the future. You can't resist it,
can you? Star Wars, no, I... You can't resist it.
What was it like for you?
Because obviously '95, you did your first Bond.
Then what was it, '97 you did
Mrs Brown, which I read was intended as a TV film,
although when I watched it I thought, how could this be on TV?
It was Harvey Weinstein, who said, "This is not a television film,
"this is a grown-up film."
So Harvey Weinstein saw it and said this is a proper film.
He did. And then that following,
following on from that, john Madden, same director, cast
you in Shakespeare in Love? Yes.
Which was also a Harvey Weinstein film, Miramax, as it was then. Yes.
Can I ask a question?
And this isn't, I want to talk about this very delicately,
because it is a sensitive subject.
Harvey Weinstein. Yes.
He's been convicted of various things, assault, sexual assaults.
It must be upsetting or difficult trying to, um, resolve
what you read about someone? Yes, it is. Because you've spoken
very positively about Harvey... When you've had,
absolutely no experience of that.
Whatsoever.
But I know that there are people who have.
I think I worked with Harvey six or seven times, maybe.
Never, ever, ever
have I had that experience.
So, he's only just been jokey and funny,
and kind and complimentary.
Ancl so that's all I know.
I don't know another side.
Although I don't in any way,
erm, not have immense compassion for anyone who had another side or,
presented to them.
Shall we look at some of the trees? Yeah. The memorial trees?
I have to hang on. Here we go. Because otherwise I can fall over.
Take a firm hold. Yeah.
This is Helen McCrory.
Well, I read about her dying. That was very sad.
She was enjoying a lot of success in Peaky Blinders. That's right.
Natasha Richardson. Yes. That was sad.
She died after a skiing accident. She did indeed.
And how did you start the practice of dedicating trees?
Well, I've always, I love them.
I love trees. Mike and I just
thought what a nice thing it would be to do.
Now, then down to see Mikey's tree.
There's Mikey. Beautiful. There's Mikey.
It's a lovely tree.
He liked it very much.
So we didn't plant that one, that was here.
Ancl it seems only right as he found the house and, you know,
beautiful straight tree.
I like that.
What kind of tree is it? That's a good question.
I can tell you if you like. Tell me.
Well, I'll have to use my app.
I've got the most amazing app.
There it is. What is it?
Green ash.
A green ash.
That's good to know.
Apparently, the leaves are enjoyed by tadpoles.
Gosh, they've got to climb a long way, haven't they? Well,
it's not that far, is it? They'll never make it.
Now, I'll take you to see something.
But I haven't been to it for a long time.
OK, we're going off the path now.
Is that right? We're going off piste.
Now you're going to get quite a shock.
Oh, wow. Who have we got here?
I wasn't expecting that. No, I bet.
And it was for your film Victoria and Abdul? Yeah.
They said to me, "Do you want her?"
I thought, "No, well, not really."
Ancl then I thought, "Actually, I know a nice place for her."
Ancl it is, you see how much the birds like her.
Ancl so she came down here and she quite likes it there.
Good, good, good, good, good.
This is where Sammy had his party when he was 25,
a few weeks ago, he had the silent disco.
Have you heard about that?
Yeah. I've done that.
Have you clone it? Grooving around with headphones? Yes.
SHE LAUGHS
You're too tall for my garden.
Down, down, down there we go. I don't have to bend so low, you see.
I've read that you were a Quaker.
Yeah, I'm a Quaker.
Do you go to meetings? Yes.
Often?
Not often enough.
Well, is there a Quaker view of the afterlife?
Oh, don't ask me those kind of questions. Too deep?
No. Too maudlin?
Too gloomy?
Too theological? Too final.
Here we go, too final, did you say?
Well, it's the afterlife. I mean, who knows?
Might be parties in silent discos.
Oh, I think so.
Did you think after Michael that that might be it or not,
or you just didn't think? Yes.
You thought maybe... Yes, I would never marry again, no. ..| won't find a new...
I mean, some people would be thinking at a certain point,
I've grieved enough, I'm not ever going to replace this person,
but it's time to... I don't think you ever can replace somebody...
No, but you find someone to share your life with, I suppose. ..ever.
But it's jolly nice to have a really good friend who laughs a lot too.
Ancl I've got David, my chap, who is about four miles away.
David Mills. Correct. He's not an actor?
No. He built and runs the British Wildlife Centre and we used
to drive past David's, I'd say to Finch and Sammy,
"That man in there has got otters."
I adore otters.
And... He'd rescued the otters'?
No, he has them as part of his centre.
Right.
Every British mammal and bird.
I didn't, I didn't... Sorry, there we go. Sorry.
There we go. Done.
What was that? It was a fly.
It was quite good, wasn't it? I got it.
Not for the fly.
Sorry.
Are you keen on flies?
Well, you know, it's just having a casual... It was, no longer.
So, shall we talk about your plans professionally?
You've said that we don't retire, I think,
meaning actors and actresses in general, though I suppose some do.
If you're lucky.
If you're lucky, you don't retire.
I don't want to. Yes, I don't want to retire.
I'm not doing anything much at the moment because I can't see.
Well, we should talk about that probably. Macular degeneration.
Same as my mother.
And how bad is it?
Bad.
Bad enough.
Bad enough in that you're quite fuzzy. Right now?
Sorry you're so fuzzy.
Yes. I'm sorry I'm fuzzy.
Just a tad fuzzy.
You know I'm here, though. I do.
I went to a dinner a few weeks ago.
Rather important dinner.
It was so dark that I said to David, who's next to me,
I said, "Have I anything on my plate?"
He said, "Yes." I said, "Does it need cutting up?"
So he said, "Yes." I said, "Would you, would you do it?"
So he cut it up and handed it, something to me on a fork.
Ancl that's the way I ate it.
I don't know if I finished it.
I don't know what I did.
I probably scooped it all up and over the side of the plate
for all I know, it was so dark.
Can you be on stage? I suppose if you look... As long as I know
there aren't things to fall over.
If it's very well planned.
I've got to teach myself a new way of learning
because I have a photographic memory.
So a person saying to me, "This is your line," and I can do that,
and I have many people who will help me.
Nevertheless, I realise that I need to know
where it is on the page.
I'll teach myself a way.
I know I will, as long as I don't trip overdoing it.
Look at this.
Quite something, isn't it?
It's heaven. I love it.
I love it.
At the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End, judi was performing
I Remember It Well,
a show of reminiscences and anecdotes with her friend,
the writer and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth.
Here we are again. Here we are again.
But with something new, different and fresh.
Are you staying for some of the show? Of course, all of it.
I'm looking forward to it. It's an amazing experience.
You will feel the love.
I'm sure. It will just amaze you. They love her.
It's, it's magic.
We're in the presence of an angel.
Aren't we lucky?
Judi has spoken often of her love of live audiences.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's Dame judiDench.
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
As the show got under way before a full house of theatre-goers,
her pleasure at being on stage was clear.
This young man beside me said, "You get shot."
So I said, "OK."
Ancl it went bang. I went, "Oh. Oh."
Ancl he said, "In the arm." Oh!
So they took me and they bound up my ankle and I do the whole play
with the stick and everything.
Well, at the end, huge applause.
Huge applause.
"Thank you very much. Thank you." Ancl then suddenly in my ear comes,
"Get off the stage, you limping bitch."
A complete performer, loved and giving love in the live setting
of her professional home.
Like to the lark at break of clay, arising.
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate.
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Something that I feel almost bad bringing this up,
not really, though,
something that always comes up in interviews with you is the fact
that you're viewed as a national treasure. Shut up, Louis.
That's the reaction I was expecting and maybe even hoping for.
Why do you not like to be called it?
Because it's such a dusty thing.
It's, you know, national treasure. It's, oh...
You think of some old cabinet with a dirty old glass front
and you think, oh, look in there.
Oh, oh, look.
I don't think I think of, of a dusty old thing.
A national treasure, to me, means someone who's been unimpeachably
at the top of their craft for many, many years, to the point where...
In some people's eyes. ...their bona fides are impeccable.
And you think, I mean, David Attenborough.
David Attenborough, now that, now you're talking.
And Damejudi Dench, I'll put forward.
No.
No, I10, I10, n0, no, no, no.
No.
No, no, no, no, no? No.
Are you called a national treasure?
Erm, not very often.
But you have been. How's that?
How did you feel about that, Louis?
I feel it's... It's a, erm.
I actually, honestly, there's a part of me that feels flattered by it.
And there's another part of me that feels it's sort of a pat
on the head and now you can go out to pasture, I suppose.
But it is nice. Don't let's go out to pasture yet.
Eh?
What was that?
That's pasture. Oh.
There, you are clone, out to pasture.
No.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but what I sense
about you is that you are conscious of wanting to move forward.
The work isn't done yet.
I do hope so.
Would you still do Shakespeare?
Shakespeare?
Mm. Oh, yeah.
What part would you like to do?
Anything that's offered me.
Drunken Porter? Yeah.
"Who's there, in the name of Beelzebub?"
Yes, play it like the parrot.
What do they say at the end of Midsummer Night's Dream?
Something about... They say, erm...
They say our revels... No, that's Tempest.
Our revels now are ended.
I didn't think they ate Revels in those days.
You're a Philistine.
There we go. I got a joke.
Our revels now are ended.
It's time for a glass. It is, isn't it? Yeah.
Sweetie.
How's tricks?
Her expression is quite hard to read.
Well, yes. She says that about you.
I can't believe we didn't get onto the subject of the film Cats.
Louis.
Yes.
Out. Leave the champagne. HE GIGGLES
I actually found it...
You can leave the champagne here.
Out!
I don't think you've seen that one, have you?
Out!