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A lengthy 2017 interview, to be streamed online, shows the acting great opening up about her craft and sharing priceless memories
One of the many tantalising shows lost to the lockdown was I Remember It Well at London’s Bridge theatre, in which Judi Dench was to reminisce about her career in conversation with Gyles Brandreth. There is talk of it happening at a later date but in the meantime Dench-watchers can catch a recording of a conversation, filmed in 2017, between the great Dame and Brandreth at the Orange Tree. Declaration of interest: I too have done one of these public chats at the Richmond venue. I would still say this is engrossing viewing that gets way beyond the kind of anecdote-swapping you find on a Graham Norton sofa and that offers a good deal of practical wisdom about the art of acting.
There are, of course, one or two familiar stories. We hear about the film producer who once brusquely told Dench: “You have every single thing wrong with your face.” We also hear how, when Dench as an Old Vic Juliet passionately cried, “Where are my father and my mother?”, the audible response was “Here in Row H” (a story I’ve always found somewhat incredible since her parents, long involved in the York Mystery Plays, were hardly naive theatregoers). But many of the stories are fresh and funny, including one that shows that John Gielgud, normally regarded as the high priest of British acting, had a sense of mischief that more than matched Dench’s own. Continue reading...