JUDI DENCH

OUR VERY SPECIAL DAME

FEW actors or actresses at 86 enjoy the public acclaim and sheer affection in this country that Dame Judi Dench does.

Yet, every new film - including her latest Six Minutes to Midnight - stage appearance or TV role is greeted with an outpouring of genuine interest and expectation from her thousands of fans

Perhaps that’s not so surprising when you consider her variety of roles runs from Sally Bowles to Queen Victoria. Nor that she has won a record-breaking number of awards and nominations which continue today. But not everything always ran so smoothly for the young Miss Dench.

Born in York and a doctor’s daughter, Judi made her “acting debut” as a snail in a play at her Quaker junior school and later played an angel in one of the York Mystery Plays. However, she wanted to study theatre design so went to art school but switched to a course at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama when she realised that, actually, she preferred to be on stage rather than designing stage sets. Here, she was in the same class as Vanessa Redgrave. She made her professional debut in Liverpool before going on to the Old Vic in 1957.

At her first film audition, she was told “Miss Dench, you have every single thing wrong with your face.” This unusual perception, though, did not either harm her future film career nor stop her from becoming a favourite of Director Peter Hall at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He asked Judi to play the title role in a staged, and then later televised, production of Cleopatra. The self-effacing, 5’ 1” Dench refused, insisting that her Cleopatra would be a “menopausal dwarf.” Hall persisted and she won rave reviews from both theatre critics and TV audiences. Interestingly, since then she has played virtually all of Shakespeare’s leading ladies and won an Oscar for her brief, although pivotal, role in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love.

She has also won many plaudits over the years for her Shakespearian roles. In 2004, an opinion poll of the Royal Shakespeare Company voted Dench’s performance as Lady Macbeth in Trevor Nunn’s 1976 production of Macbeth as the second greatest Shakespearean performance of all time. Only Paul Schofield’s masterful King Lear was ranked higher.

Although known internationally for her acting, early in her career she starred in musical theatre. She created the role of Sally Bowles in the London premiers of

the musical Cabaret and was cast to play Grizabella in the original West End production of CATS but tore her Achilles Tendon and was forced to quit the show. Elaine Paige replaced her.

Judi Dench’s skill is not only her reliability as trusted actress but also her chameleon quality. Although she has always specialised in playing dignified, strong-willed women, she has an equally light hand at comedy.

She was a genuinely funny Madame Arcati in this year’s re-make of the film Blithe Spirit and her highly recognisable warm tones have made her a popular voiceover choice for everything from children’s programmes to video games.

As well as a much-respected stage star, she is a TV favourite. Judi is a 10-time BAFTA winner including Best Actress in a Comedy Series for A Fine Romance in 1981, in which she appeared with her husband Michael Williams.

But it is probably in films that she has proved the greatest influence. Although she had made several films prior to making Mrs Brown with Billy Connelly in 1997, it’s fair to say that this was her breakthrough movie as a film actress.

She won her first Oscar nomination as the doughty monarch - and Hollywood began taking real notice of her.

When she won an Oscar the following year for Shakespeare in Love, the producers of the Bond franchise gave her character M a much larger role in GoldenEye.

This was one central to the film’s plot rather than just bookend scenes at the beginning and end of the film. They did the same with M in Skyfall in 2012, all adding to Dench’s international reputation and star stature.

Film-makers always saw her as bringing a special gravitas to a production, and she has always chosen well in her roles.

She has been in several films which were nominated for Best Picture Oscar including A Room With A View (1985), Chocolat (2000) and Philomena (2013). She has played St Joan, Sybil Thorndike, Mistress Quickly and Titania but her wonderful acting skills have been equally evident as Evelyn Greenslade in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in 2012 and the delightful TV series Cranford as gentlehearted Miss Matty.

She is a life-long animal-lover and a strong matriarchal figure in real-life. She has a daughter, Finty Williams, and one grandson Sam.

Judi had a long and happy marriage to Michael Williams before his death in 2001. “We were just happy to be in the same room together,” she has recalled. Her only regret was that “I didn’t have more children.” Her life has been full and rewarding in many ways so far, though. She was awarded an OBE in 1970, and a DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1988 for her services to drama.

Judi has never been known to brag about her undoubted acting skills. “I don’t think anybody can be told how to act,” she explained. “I think you can give advice. But you have to find your own way through it.”

In spite of all her personal achievements, she is also pragmatic about her acting success. “The passion doesn’t lessen over time but you get more anxious,” she has stated.

You’re only as good as the last thing you did. But that anxiety feeds what you’re doing. It gives you energy. It’s very much part of me.

And whatever drives Judi Dench, we just want her to carry on doing it for a long time to come.