Judi Dench: All the World's Her Stage


Judi Dench: All the World's Her Stage

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For most of us, Dame Judi Dench is M.

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For God's sake!

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Just get out of the way!

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-Don't you recognise the car?

-Madam...

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EXPLOSION

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She transformed the role,

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and helped bring James Bond into the 21st century.

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A lifetime of experience allowed her to create a very modern,

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and very human, M.

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Judi has balls, M has balls.

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And she knows how to use them.

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HE LAUGHS

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You connect with her immediately when you see her on screen,

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because there's a sort of joy, and there's this twinkle in her eye,

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which is just sort of magical.

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JUDI LAUGHS

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Judi challenges you in an extraordinary, frightening

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and exhilarating way, to be the very, very, very best that you can.

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You've got to progress.

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You can't ever stand still. You can't go back.

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Besides Bond, Judi's shown the world how it's done

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in independent film...

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Should I smile or shall I be serious?

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..Hollywood film, Shakespeare...

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Drinks all round!

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..modern theatre, TV sitcom,

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musicals...

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and even as a mouse.

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So confusing!

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And then of course, there is her national treasure status.

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She would say she doesn't enjoy being a national treasure,

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which would be an absolute bloody lie.

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She loves it!

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But beyond the Dame Judi we all think we know,

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there is another Judi.

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Private, instinctive, enigmatic.

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I feel more comfortable when I'm dressed up as somebody else,

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being somebody else, and talking.

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I find it difficult to go along as myself.

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I do think she's one of those people who expresses something in her art

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that she cannot express in life.

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She'll enjoy making you laugh.

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AUDIENCE LAUGH

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But equally, she's capable of making you cry,

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and doing that turn on a sixpence.

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And you do feel that at that moment you've seen into the soul -

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the real Judi.

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I think the real Judi dresses in leather

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with metal spikes on it,

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and screams punk rock all night

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and annoys the neighbours, kills cats.

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In order to understand the real Dame Judi Dench,

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we will explore some of the most powerful performances of her career.

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Through them, we will uncover her secrets

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and show why she is regarded

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as one of the most versatile actors in history.

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Over 50 years ago, a young Judi was on her way

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to one of the most memorable auditions of her life.

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Already a success at the Royal Shakespeare Company,

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she had yet to make her mark in film.

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I went up about a film once, before I'd ever made a film,

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and I went into a room and there were five big men there.

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They offered me a seat, and nobody said anything.

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This man looked at me for a long time,

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and then he took a cigar out of his mouth, and he said,

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"Miss Dench, you have every single thing wrong with your face."

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And I got up and I walked out of the room.

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# These boots are made for walking

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# And that's just what they'll do

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# One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you... #

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Oh, how history has proved that particular director wrong.

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# Start walking... #

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50 years after that audition,

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Dame Judi Dench has become one of the most successful

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and recognised actors in the world.

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This was in no small part due to her role in international espionage.

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Who the hell do they think they are?

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I report to the Prime Minister,

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and even he's smart enough

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not to ask me what we do.

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Have you ever seen such a bunch of self-righteous, arse-covering prigs?

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I didn't for a second ever imagine that I would play M.

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And I was a huge fan of the Bond films.

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17 years, and did seven films,

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and just the most glorious time.

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But Bond is only one part

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of the story. Judi's real break in cinema

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came on a low-budget film made for the BBC.

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Judi was in her 60s.

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She openly confessed that

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she was terrified about doing it,

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and I said, "why?". It seemed...

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improbable, given the breadth

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and depth of experience that she'd had in her career.

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And she said, "Because I don't trust that I'll know what to do."

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My job was initially to try and engender confidence in her

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that she could pull it off.

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The project definitely daunted her.

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It's your first real starring role in a movie, isn't it?

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It is. It is.

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Because you don't like films much, do you?

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I don't know the business of it.

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I really rely very, very, very much on the director.

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I'm very, very unsure of myself in the movies, very.

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But if Judi was nervous, her co-star was terrified.

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Mr Brown, ma'am.

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She frightened the life out of me at first.

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Because, you know, she was such a giant of the business.

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And I said to John Madden,

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"I'll do the part,

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"but I want to meet her first."

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We talked, and we found who we didn't like,

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which I always find endears me to people,

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if we are linked by people we loathe.

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You know?

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Billy Connolly played the part of John Brown,

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who was to console the Queen

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after the death of her husband, Prince Albert.

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Honest to God, I never thought to see you in such a state.

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You must miss him dreadfully.

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You do not...

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He...

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Get him out! Get him out!

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Get him out! Get him out!

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The first scene we did,

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Queen Victoria burst into tears in the middle of it.

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And we did it 12 times, and she did it...

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She burst into tears 12 times

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and it blew me sideways.

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You know? That was the great reality of her.

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'My husband used to say, "You have a huge well of sadness in you.

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' "An incredible kind of deep pit of something."

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'And I suppose out of that pit came any grief

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'that I showed as Queen Victoria.'

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The film told the story of the friendship

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and then deepening affection that developed

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between Queen Victoria and Mr Brown.

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We were doing the Eightsome Reel in a scene in the castle,

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and she was directly opposite me.

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And in the middle of the dance

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I thought, "Oh, my God, she fancies me!"

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"Judi Dench fancies me, what am I going to do?"

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You know? I'm not that good at spotting that in a woman,

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but I spotted it in lumps here.

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I thought, "Oh, Christ, how do I get out of this?"

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And of course, she was acting.

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And she did fancy John Brown,

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and suddenly the penny dropped in my head.

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And I began to act properly.

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It was one of the lessons of my life.

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She just gave it to me for free.

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Mrs Brown surpassed all expectations.

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Judi was nominated for an Oscar...

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..and although she didn't win that time,

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Mrs Brown was the beginning of a new era.

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Judi, the film star.

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REPORTERS CLAMOUR

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My family, my family.

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There was an extraordinary story that she once told me.

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She'd gone to America to do

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the pre-publicity

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for Mrs Brown, in fact it was.

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And she was being interviewed by the American journalists,

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and they said to her, in all seriousness, they said,

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"We all know you from the Bond films. So what did you do before?"

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And that's sort of 40 years of a career.

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But you have to go, "Well, I've done quite a lot of Shakespeare."

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Completely oblivious to the magnificence

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that we've all been watching for as long as I can remember.

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What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?

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For nearly 60 years,

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Judi Dench has been first and foremost a Shakespearean actor.

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'Shakespeare has always been my passion.'

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Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, as in revenge,

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have sucked up from the sea contagious fogs...

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'They're such wonderful parts.'

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That Herod's head I'll have.

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I am a spirit of no common rate.

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The summer still doth tend upon my state.

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' "The man who pays the rent,"

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'that's what Shakespeare was known as in our house.'

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She does make it look absurdly easy.

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You do think it's just like breathing for her,

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speaking Shakespearean text.

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It just seems like she rolls out of bed and just does it, you know?

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What she is masterful at is hiding how difficult it is.

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What comfortable hour canst thou name,

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that ever graced me with thy company?

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She has immense knowledge, immense technical craft,

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but you are simply unable to see it.

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But hard as it is to believe today, Judi's first role in Shakespeare,

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aged just 18, was a disaster.

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I got cast as Ophelia straight out of drama school.

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Very, very lucky, but quite hard.

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Baptism of fire.

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I tried every way to make her mad when she came to the mad scene.

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Now I know now

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that I need have only chosen one thing

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to convey to the audience her madness,

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and it would have been enough. You know, less is more.

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It's a very, very difficult thing to learn when you're a young actor.

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There's no short cuts.

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And it is something you have to learn by experience.

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And I got terrible notices as Ophelia.

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I had to do an enormous swallow,

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and...I could have been fired, and that would have been it.

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I don't know what would have happened. Anyway, it didn't matter,

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because I played lots and lots and lots of Shakespeare,

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and so I did learn.

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-The elbow.

-Oh, je m'en oublie! De elbow.

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When I was a little, little girl,

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I'd seen my brother play Lady Macbeth at school

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and my other brother was playing Duncan.

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I always remember he came in and said, "What bloody man is that?",

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I said, I thought, "Oh!" I was about eight.

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I thought, this is thrilling.

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This isn't just Shakespeare, it's swearing, too.

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So the play must have been one of

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the first Shakespeare plays I'd ever seen.

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In 1976, Judi and fellow actor Ian McKellen asked

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the director Trevor Nunn whether they could play the leading roles

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in Shakespeare's bloody tale

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of obsession and murder.

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I was immediately aware

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that if Judi Dench and Ian McKellen worked on it,

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then there was an extraordinary possibility to re-examine Macbeth.

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And we went ahead

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very much on a tide of

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their joint energy.

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Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor.

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Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!

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Ian McKellen had worked with Judi once before.

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She famously arrives at the first rehearsal unprepared.

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But she's a quick study, and suddenly,

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somewhere in the middle of the first week, Judi became the character.

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And she'd learnt the words, and she knew how she wanted to inhabit them.

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And that can be alarming,

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if you're still struggling

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up your own mountain,

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and you look up and there's Judi

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at the top of hers, waving, "Come on up!"

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Hail, king that shalt be.

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Hail, king that shalt be...

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'Nothing happens by chance with Judi, she has worked it out.'

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But when she works it out is a bafflement to me.

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Judi discovered that Lady Macbeth

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was not simply the embodiment of all evil.

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She wasn't simply someone who was off the rails.

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On the contrary, everything that goes wrong with her character

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and her husband is rooted in their love for each other.

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Your face, my thane,

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is as a book,

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where men may read strange matters.

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To beguile the time,

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look like the time.

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Bear welcome in your hand, your eye, your tongue.

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Look like the innocent flower,

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but be the serpent under it.

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'I've just always believed that she was incredibly ambitious,

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'not for herself, but for her husband.

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'So she pushes through the one deed which she thinks is going to be

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'glory for them both for the rest of their lives.'

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Will these hands ne'er be clean?

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You were entirely taken into this woman's world.

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You identified with her needs and her passions and ambition.

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And almost the only time

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I thought, this play is a tragedy,

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because this woman, essentially,

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destroys herself and destroys her husband.

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That's the extent that she transformed the play

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and transformed the part.

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SHE MOANS

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'Gradually the rift gets wider and wider between them.

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'And that is, in a way, what she dies of, I think.

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'There's nothing for her to live for.

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'And that's the tragedy of it.'

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SHE WAILS

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-Do the roles take you over? I mean...

-No!

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They don't? I mean, you don't walk around Sainsbury's as Cleopatra?

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No! Tricky, actually.

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Tricky shopping. Tricky shopping when you come to play Lady Macbeth

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-round Sainsbury's!

-That keeps the old feet on the ground?

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It certainly does, when you have the shopping list to do.

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Judi continues to play in Shakespeare.

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In early 2016,

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she received a record eighth Olivier Award for her supporting role

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in Sir Kenneth Branagh's The Winter's Tale.

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But the reason she has become one of the most versatile actors

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of her generation is the fact that Shakespeare alone

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was not enough for Judi.

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There was a boredom threshold with Judi.

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She says herself, she can get, "I've done that now,

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"let's get on to something else."

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# Come on, pretty baby Let's move it and groove it... #

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SHE GROANS

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Hey up. Hey!

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In 1963, Judi was given a part in

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an early episode of the BBC's Z Cars,

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one of her first steps into the world of television,

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and a very different medium.

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They go for it, don't they? A bit of a punch-up...

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-What's your name?

-Judy Garland!

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Judi had already made her mark in the theatre.

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-SHE SHOUTS

-Hey, shut it!

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She was beginning to be

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talked about as potentially

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a great young actor.

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When I first did television, I thought I'd never...

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..come to grips with it at all.

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But John Hopkins wrote this quartet of plays

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called Talking To A Stranger,

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about a family in suburbia.

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And Christopher Morahan was directing it.

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Talking To A Stranger is very bleak indeed.

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I think there are some actors

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who would find it too frightening,

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and wouldn't have been able to do that,

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and that's why they weren't cast.

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But, I mean, Judi was

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the most marvellously rich,

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tough-minded actor.

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'I use the fear, I think, because that creates adrenaline.

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'So you can use all that, because you'll need that anyway.

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'I don't know, I don't know about anything else.

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'Except that, you know, I'm sure that every actor

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'has that kind of fear.

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'And it's not part of the deal to share it.'

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Would you like to hear my life story?

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No, of course you wouldn't. Everyone else has a perfectly good life story

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of their own. Oh, I had such a happy childhood.

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Happy, happy, happy.

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The first time I saw Judi she was playing this very,

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very troubled teenager.

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Now, the conventional view would be that brilliant performance of

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troubled teenager equals...

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very disturbed childhood and teenage years.

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-This is a family?

-Isn't it?

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The outward and visible maybe, if you don't look too closely.

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Now, with Judi, the reverse is true.

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Judi had a very happy, settled childhood.

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Your childhood, of course, was in Yorkshire.

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Yes, I love it still.

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What were your early ambitions as a child?

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My first ambition was to be the owner of a fish shop!

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JUDI CHUCKLES

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-Why? I mean...

-Well, it's the feel and the look of it.

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And, very early on, I took some kippers from the fish shop.

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-You mean you stole them?

-Stole them.

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And my mother found out when we were...

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She said, "You go straight back and take them back!"

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Judi's father, Reginald Arthur Dench, was the local GP.

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But outside of the surgery, he had a variety of other roles.

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Here, he can be seen in a production of Dick Turpin,

0:19:500:19:53

starring alongside his wife and Judi's brother.

0:19:530:19:57

We had a big hamper, and we had all sorts of bits of things,

0:19:570:20:02

and we were always dressed up in costume.

0:20:020:20:05

As a child, Judi was surrounded by theatre.

0:20:050:20:08

Here she is seen playing an angel in the famous York Mystery Plays.

0:20:080:20:13

There was no pressure for her to become an actress.

0:20:130:20:16

There was simply this extraordinary talent that she was nursing.

0:20:160:20:22

Her portrayal of life in a very different family to her own

0:20:230:20:27

would earn her a Bafta in her first major TV role.

0:20:270:20:31

Do you think you're so important?

0:20:310:20:32

I think anyone who needs something, anything, I don't know, God knows.

0:20:320:20:35

Your friends think that's very funny, I suppose?

0:20:350:20:37

Look, once and for all, the friends I've got, I haven't got any.

0:20:370:20:40

You put butter on that piece of bread, eat,

0:20:400:20:42

-and you still wouldn't choke on them.

-Terry, be quiet.

0:20:420:20:44

Sweetie, I've only just started.

0:20:440:20:45

'I don't think we, as an audience in Britain,'

0:20:450:20:48

had seen a suburban family dissected,

0:20:480:20:53

and asked to be witnesses,

0:20:530:20:56

'in such a way before.

0:20:560:20:58

'The rawness was palpable.'

0:20:580:21:01

Tonight? No, well, I can't, tonight. I...

0:21:010:21:03

No, I'm not busy, I just don't want to go out with you.

0:21:050:21:07

Not tonight, not tomorrow night, not...

0:21:080:21:11

Well, you know what I mean.

0:21:110:21:13

No, look, Chris, I had a dolly time, you're very sweet and all that,

0:21:140:21:18

and you'll make somebody a very nice...whatever the word is.

0:21:180:21:21

Husband. I know that's not the idea,

0:21:210:21:24

but it's what you're cut out for - ask your wife.

0:21:240:21:26

'It would be very difficult to do a scene like that,

0:21:260:21:29

'the speech on the phone, because it is basically a monologue.'

0:21:290:21:32

Well, it's the only way I know how to talk.

0:21:320:21:34

What do you think, I put it on? Is that what you think?

0:21:340:21:37

To sustain that level of emotional connection,

0:21:370:21:42

'and to vary it all the time.

0:21:420:21:45

'She'll laugh when it's unexpected, she'll be cynical

0:21:450:21:49

'when it's unexpected, and so on.'

0:21:490:21:52

You'll soon find a substitute - I could name a dozen.

0:21:520:21:55

Come the dark, you won't even notice.

0:21:560:21:58

She has an instinctive empathy for more or less everyone she meets.

0:21:590:22:06

And certainly at the heart of her craft is a capacity to empathise

0:22:060:22:13

and fully comprehend the lives of people

0:22:130:22:17

who are quite distinct from her.

0:22:170:22:20

MUSIC: You Were Made For Me by Freddie And The Dreamers

0:22:230:22:26

-# You were made for me

-You were made for me

0:22:260:22:30

# Everybody tells me so

0:22:300:22:33

-# You were made for me

-You were made for me

0:22:330:22:36

# Don't pretend that you don't know... #

0:22:360:22:39

Judi's work in TV and theatre had brought critical acclaim,

0:22:390:22:42

but it was only after she met and then married

0:22:420:22:45

the actor Michael Williams that she found broad popular appeal.

0:22:450:22:49

It was no surprise to anybody

0:22:530:22:55

that they just absolutely hit it off instantly.

0:22:550:22:59

They were absolutely the right...

0:22:590:23:03

size, the right optimism,

0:23:030:23:06

the right sense of humour for each other.

0:23:060:23:10

And in 1981, Michael and Judi embarked together on a sitcom.

0:23:100:23:13

Let's talk about you.

0:23:140:23:17

Helen said you were a linguist.

0:23:170:23:19

It was to become a classic.

0:23:190:23:21

No, I'm sure it's not.

0:23:210:23:23

I mean, what are you translating at the moment?

0:23:230:23:25

A German textbook on urinary infections.

0:23:250:23:28

LAUGHTER

0:23:280:23:29

It was really good fun for her to be

0:23:320:23:35

able to work on something with Mike.

0:23:350:23:38

She adored him.

0:23:380:23:39

-What about the bank?

-I already owe them.

0:23:390:23:42

Well, owe them more.

0:23:420:23:44

And, at the same time, it was financially rewarding.

0:23:440:23:47

I don't know if you have any idea what you get paid as an actor

0:23:490:23:53

at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the National Theatre,

0:23:530:23:56

but it's barely enough to support a family.

0:23:560:23:59

But she also loved the fact that she had an audience exponentially larger

0:24:020:24:07

than anything she'd ever done before.

0:24:070:24:10

Many in the audience believed

0:24:120:24:13

they were getting a glimpse of the real Judi.

0:24:130:24:16

The audience see her first of all as

0:24:160:24:19

someone rather ordinary, and...

0:24:190:24:23

..not unlike their sisters or people they know.

0:24:230:24:28

But suddenly they see some strange depth there, and they want to know,

0:24:280:24:32

-where did that come from?

-Look.

0:24:320:24:34

If you can get by without the sheer black nightie,

0:24:360:24:38

I can get by without the words.

0:24:380:24:41

Do people expect you to be like

0:24:420:24:44

the character you play in A Fine Romance?

0:24:440:24:47

They do expect us to be like that

0:24:470:24:48

and they think that our lives at home are exactly like it.

0:24:480:24:51

It's not at all like us.

0:24:510:24:53

But I think that the appeal of it is because it is more like real life,

0:24:530:24:57

in that it's more, life is more like having a dinner with somebody

0:24:570:25:01

and thinking how lovely you are, and you find there's spinach

0:25:010:25:04

on your tooth or egg all down your front.

0:25:040:25:06

LAUGHTER

0:25:060:25:08

Why are you winking?

0:25:090:25:11

Do you know something about the food that I don't?

0:25:110:25:15

I've lost a contact lens.

0:25:150:25:17

-Here?

-Well, it must be here, it was in a minute ago.

0:25:170:25:20

Well, where is it?

0:25:200:25:22

Why do people always ask that when you've lost something?

0:25:220:25:25

What's going on?

0:25:340:25:35

They sometimes drop down your front.

0:25:360:25:38

I think what was remarkable is that

0:25:490:25:52

neither Judi or Michael did what I'd describe as sitcom acting.

0:25:520:25:59

Look, if you, if you wiggle about a bit, I'll have a look on the floor.

0:25:590:26:05

Occasionally, there'd be pauses where one or the other

0:26:050:26:09

was just thinking and reacting,

0:26:090:26:12

and in the syntax of sitcom that's very, very bold stuff.

0:26:120:26:19

-Are you ready to order, sir?

-No thank you, we're still deciding.

0:26:210:26:25

'Judi would defer to Michael.

0:26:250:26:27

'Michael was a very clever comedy actor.'

0:26:270:26:30

Michael would say, "You should

0:26:300:26:31

"have left a longer pause there

0:26:310:26:33

"before the punch line," and Judi

0:26:330:26:34

would say, "Yes, you're right."

0:26:340:26:36

So there was tremendous respect going between them.

0:26:360:26:40

HE SCREAMS

0:26:430:26:45

You are a distinguished Shakespearean actress,

0:26:470:26:50

yet best known for a somewhat trivial television comedy.

0:26:500:26:54

Yes, and a lot of people say to me, "Is this the first job you've had?"

0:26:540:26:57

So it's very nice to reach an audience

0:26:570:26:59

who don't want to come and see Shakespeare,

0:26:590:27:01

but do want to sit and see you in their sitting-room.

0:27:010:27:03

But you don't feel, "Is this what all my training has been about?"

0:27:030:27:06

No, I don't, I like it a lot.

0:27:060:27:07

Because I like to do something that is the most unexpected thing.

0:27:070:27:13

Quick, hide!

0:27:130:27:14

SHE GASPS

0:27:140:27:16

TV sitcom remained a draw, and in 1992 she starred alongside

0:27:170:27:22

Geoffrey Palmer in the hugely popular As Time Goes By.

0:27:220:27:26

At last, we've got a bit of weekend to ourselves.

0:27:260:27:29

LAUGHTER

0:27:290:27:30

It ran for a decade.

0:27:320:27:34

-Wait!

-What?

-You've broken an ankle.

0:27:340:27:36

I suppose it's pointless to ask why?

0:27:390:27:41

'Her success in popular shows is part of what makes her accepted

0:27:410:27:45

'as a national treasure.'

0:27:450:27:47

-Just limp!

-Which leg?

-Well, I don't know, just limp!

0:27:470:27:50

There are many very successful

0:27:500:27:52

sitcom actors of both genders,

0:27:520:27:55

but they haven't also been

0:27:550:27:57

very good as Lady Macbeth...

0:27:570:27:58

..or Sally Bowles in Cabaret.

0:28:000:28:02

# ..a chance

0:28:020:28:06

# Hush up, don't tell Mama

0:28:060:28:09

# Shush up, don't tell Mama

0:28:090:28:11

# Don't tell Mama whatever you do... #

0:28:110:28:15

I do like the challenge of something new.

0:28:160:28:20

I've always wanted to do a musical and everyone kind of says,

0:28:200:28:23

"Oh, get you," when you say musical.

0:28:230:28:25

But I want to have a go

0:28:250:28:27

and I want to have a great big orchestra and everything,

0:28:270:28:30

and a bit of dancing,

0:28:300:28:32

a bit of singing and a bit of acting.

0:28:320:28:34

A chorus and all.

0:28:340:28:36

I long for that, because that's a really different thing.

0:28:360:28:40

In 1968, Judi Dench starred as Sally Bowles in Cabaret -

0:28:410:28:45

a musical based in a seedy nightclub in '30s Berlin.

0:28:450:28:50

..doesn't even have an inkling.

0:28:500:28:52

When she tries, as Sally Bowles, to hit the high note,

0:28:520:28:55

the character doesn't quite achieve it, but the actor does.

0:28:550:28:59

It's a totally successful rendering of Cabaret.

0:28:590:29:04

No-one will ever sing it as well. Couldn't.

0:29:040:29:08

# You can tell my papa that's all right

0:29:080:29:10

# Cos he comes in here every night

0:29:100:29:12

# But don't tell Mama what you saw. #

0:29:120:29:17

-We're in two.

-We are in two.

0:29:170:29:19

It would be almost 20 years

0:29:190:29:21

before Judi would return to the musical stage,

0:29:210:29:24

in Stephen Sondheim's powerful love story A Little Night Music.

0:29:240:29:29

What is it that you're trying to prove?

0:29:290:29:32

'I'm trying to prove that I'm worthy of another part

0:29:320:29:36

'coming up after the next one, you know.

0:29:360:29:38

'Because people say all the time, "What are you going to do next?"

0:29:380:29:40

'I have no idea what I'm going to do next.'

0:29:400:29:42

You'll have to get through today.

0:29:420:29:44

Once we get today over, we shan't mind.

0:29:440:29:46

THEY LAUGH

0:29:460:29:47

A Little Night Music centres around an actress, Desiree,

0:29:470:29:51

and I think she's your...

0:29:510:29:53

..absolute creature of the theatre

0:29:540:29:56

and Judi Dench had a very strong connection to that character.

0:29:560:29:59

The play tells of how Desiree's old lover Frederick, now married,

0:29:590:30:03

re-enters her life and how, after many years apart,

0:30:030:30:06

they fall for each other's charms again.

0:30:060:30:09

-I apologise for all the squalor.

-On the contrary.

0:30:090:30:12

I've always associated you, very happily, with chaos.

0:30:120:30:15

When you said that time, "I apologise for all the squalor,"

0:30:150:30:17

it was like, shall we now go into...

0:30:170:30:19

-It's going to be worse in there.

-Yes.

0:30:190:30:21

'It's hard to specify her techniques.

0:30:210:30:25

'She rehearses in a way that you don't talk about it,'

0:30:250:30:29

you just do it,

0:30:290:30:31

and you do it differently

0:30:310:30:33

all the time.

0:30:330:30:34

Each time we got on our feet,

0:30:340:30:36

we did a different version of things and then, slowly,

0:30:360:30:39

the performance begins to coalesce of its own volition.

0:30:390:30:44

Still hungry as ever after a performance, I see.

0:30:440:30:47

Worse.

0:30:470:30:49

I'm a wolf.

0:30:490:30:51

Still hungry as ever as a performance, I see.

0:30:510:30:53

Worse.

0:30:530:30:55

I'm a wolf.

0:30:550:30:56

Hungry as ever after a performance, I see.

0:30:580:31:01

Worse.

0:31:010:31:02

I'm a wolf.

0:31:020:31:04

'Rehearsals is a time that you're allowed to make mistakes

0:31:040:31:07

'and try and make choices, to move your wings

0:31:070:31:10

'and to fly a little bit in certain directions.'

0:31:100:31:13

I peered and peered and thought, "Is it?

0:31:130:31:15

"Can it be possible...? Is it...?"

0:31:150:31:16

I thought, "Is it? Can it be? Could it...?"

0:31:160:31:19

I've got so much bread, it is terrible.

0:31:210:31:25

-It's terrible.

-It's only to substantiate the line,

0:31:250:31:28

"I eat like a wolf."

0:31:280:31:29

'It's a very curious thing sometimes.

0:31:300:31:32

'You know that there is a laugh in a line.

0:31:320:31:34

'Your instinct is entirely what tells you there's a laugh

0:31:340:31:37

'and sometimes you can't get it. In the play and the theatre,

0:31:370:31:41

'you can't get it and can't get it.

0:31:410:31:42

'Quite suddenly, one night, you will get it.'

0:31:420:31:44

-Sandwich?

-No. Hungry as ever after a performance, I see.

0:31:460:31:50

Worse.

0:31:500:31:51

I'm a wolf.

0:31:510:31:53

LAUGHTER

0:31:530:31:55

Sit down.

0:31:550:31:57

'So much of being in the theatre is being part of a company.'

0:32:000:32:04

'I wouldn't even know who to rely on if it was on my own.

0:32:060:32:10

'You'd have none of those wonderful larks that go on sometimes

0:32:100:32:13

'in the dressing room. Or in a company of people.'

0:32:130:32:17

Oh, dear.

0:32:170:32:19

Judi likes to work and, actually,

0:32:190:32:21

I would put it more strongly than that.

0:32:210:32:23

She can't bear not to work.

0:32:230:32:25

Her particular demon is to be

0:32:250:32:27

left alone with nothing to do and

0:32:270:32:30

no ability to practise her skills

0:32:300:32:32

and I think she's scared witless by that idea.

0:32:320:32:36

'Well, I don't have much quietness inside me.'

0:32:360:32:38

'I don't find it easy to sit still and do nothing.

0:32:390:32:43

'In fact, I can't do that.

0:32:430:32:45

'I'm not good at being passively quiet.'

0:32:450:32:50

# I thought that you'd want what I want... #

0:32:500:32:54

The emotional climax of the play is when Frederic tells Desiree

0:32:540:32:58

that he will not leave his wife.

0:32:580:33:00

# But where are the clowns?

0:33:000:33:04

# Quick, send in the clowns

0:33:050:33:08

# Don't bother, they're here. #

0:33:100:33:16

I'm an actress who can put over a song.

0:33:160:33:18

I wouldn't say sings but I would say could put over a song,

0:33:180:33:22

because I had to learn that in Cabaret.

0:33:220:33:24

So it's just a matter of acting it.

0:33:240:33:27

Do try to forgive me.

0:33:280:33:30

The opening night,

0:33:370:33:38

I was sitting next to Stephen Sondheim, the composer,

0:33:380:33:42

and Stephen was leaning forward as she was singing,

0:33:420:33:47

and then turned to me and said,

0:33:470:33:50

"Well, that's why I like to write songs."

0:33:500:33:53

And for him, it was sublime.

0:33:550:33:57

It was perfect.

0:33:570:33:59

It was acted.

0:33:590:34:00

# Isn't it rich?

0:34:000:34:04

# Isn't it queer?

0:34:070:34:09

# Losing my timing this late

0:34:120:34:16

# In my career

0:34:160:34:18

# But where are the clowns?

0:34:220:34:24

# There ought to be clowns

0:34:260:34:29

# Well, maybe...

0:34:320:34:36

# ..next year. #

0:34:380:34:44

Her great gift as an actress

0:34:440:34:46

is making everybody feel that she's accessible to them,

0:34:460:34:50

but she's much more private

0:34:500:34:53

and there's a core of her that is hard to know

0:34:530:34:58

and, when you do know it,

0:34:580:35:00

you feel that there is something there

0:35:000:35:03

that is...

0:35:030:35:05

..a soul that is far from untroubled.

0:35:050:35:10

MUSIC PLAYS

0:35:110:35:13

'I love the theatre best.

0:35:180:35:20

'And then I like television.

0:35:200:35:21

'Last, I like the movies.'

0:35:210:35:23

'The theatre, although it's the thing

0:35:250:35:27

'that takes the most energy out of you,

0:35:270:35:29

'it's the thing that gets the greatest rewards. You know?

0:35:290:35:32

'You can hear the audience reactions, you know.

0:35:320:35:34

'You can hear if you need to kind of

0:35:340:35:37

'push the accelerator a bit or pull back the brake.'

0:35:370:35:40

Dominic, you've never seen my mother acting.

0:35:420:35:44

No, it must seem ridiculous.

0:35:440:35:45

I do know how famous you are,

0:35:450:35:47

but, by and large, my generation, we don't go to the theatre.

0:35:470:35:50

To us, it doesn't seem relevant.

0:35:500:35:52

No, well, why should it? I quite understand.

0:35:520:35:54

People say, "Oh, everyone should go to the theatre."

0:35:540:35:57

Why should they?

0:35:570:35:58

Amy's View was the story of Esme, an actress,

0:35:580:36:01

and her daughter Amy.

0:36:010:36:03

It followed their relationship over a quarter of a century.

0:36:030:36:07

Let's play to people who actually like it

0:36:070:36:09

and if there aren't very many, well, so be it.

0:36:090:36:12

But don't come, please, because you've been told to.

0:36:120:36:16

That won't do at all.

0:36:160:36:18

When I wrote Amy's View, then Richard Eyre,

0:36:180:36:20

who was to direct it,

0:36:200:36:21

immediately said, "Well,

0:36:210:36:23

"this is Judi Dench, isn't it?"

0:36:230:36:25

Now, I never write for actors

0:36:250:36:26

so I said, "I hadn't thought that, but, yes, that would be fantastic."

0:36:260:36:30

But when she was given Amy's View, she said,

0:36:300:36:33

"I don't see myself in this at all. Why are you giving this to me?

0:36:330:36:36

"This is not me."

0:36:360:36:38

She resisted the part very strongly.

0:36:380:36:41

Did David Hare write that play about you, really?

0:36:410:36:43

'I don't think he did.

0:36:430:36:45

'But there are lots of things in it that are parallels, I suppose,

0:36:450:36:48

'with my life or that I can understand easily.'

0:36:480:36:51

She, Esme, is really a very vulnerable character, isn't she?

0:36:510:36:56

'Yes, I think she is, very.'

0:36:560:36:57

Do you think you are?

0:36:570:37:00

'Yes, I expect I've got a lot of that in me, too.'

0:37:000:37:02

Mummy's brilliant at playing comedy.

0:37:090:37:11

Well, I'm usually best at playing genteel

0:37:110:37:14

with something interesting happening underneath.

0:37:140:37:17

You know, layers. I play a lot of layers.

0:37:170:37:19

-She plays them wonderfully.

-Well, thank you.

0:37:190:37:22

The reason people responded so strongly to the play

0:37:220:37:25

was that it's a mother-daughter play.

0:37:250:37:28

I observed how complex that bond is

0:37:280:37:31

and the play plugs into something pretty primal.

0:37:310:37:34

Oh, you all say it so easily, so glibly.

0:37:340:37:37

"Take control of your lives."

0:37:370:37:39

Who's in control, finally?!

0:37:390:37:41

I ask you. The answer is no-one.

0:37:410:37:44

No-one!

0:37:440:37:46

If you don't know that, you know nothing.

0:37:460:37:50

There is an element of rebuke and competition in that relationship.

0:37:500:37:55

And also, in the mother,

0:37:550:37:57

there's also a regret for the life they never got to live

0:37:570:37:59

and that they feel their daughter is living.

0:37:590:38:01

My God, you live with this man, this child, this figure,

0:38:010:38:04

who you think merits your love.

0:38:040:38:07

And you let him run off with

0:38:070:38:08

a slice of teenage Scandinavian charcuterie

0:38:080:38:11

and, even then, forgive me,

0:38:110:38:15

you don't even leave.

0:38:150:38:17

'There are two kinds of actors - those who'

0:38:170:38:21

reveal themselves when they act

0:38:210:38:22

and those who act...

0:38:220:38:24

..with a series of masks, you know.

0:38:240:38:26

In a sense, one is about stripping away

0:38:260:38:29

the mask that they have in public

0:38:290:38:31

and the other is about adding a mask.

0:38:310:38:33

She reveals herself.

0:38:330:38:35

-Please, stay.

-I can't, not tonight.

0:38:350:38:37

-I have to get back to London.

-Amy, I beg you, please.

0:38:370:38:40

-I can't.

-Just tonight.

0:38:400:38:42

Just stay and comfort me!

0:38:420:38:45

I can't.

0:38:450:38:46

'When mother and daughter finally come to loggerheads,

0:38:460:38:50

'it was immensely challenging.'

0:38:500:38:52

Try and stay steady.

0:38:520:38:55

'And immensely painful to play.'

0:38:550:38:59

Jude would play with

0:38:590:39:01

such searing honesty...

0:39:010:39:03

..that one simply responded.

0:39:060:39:09

I'll see you.

0:39:100:39:12

-Amy!

-I'll call you.

0:39:120:39:14

This is the last scene of the play

0:39:140:39:16

before Esme discovers that her daughter Amy has died.

0:39:160:39:20

SOBBING

0:39:200:39:22

As the play transferred to New York,

0:39:250:39:27

Judi received the news

0:39:270:39:29

that her husband Michael had been diagnosed with cancer.

0:39:290:39:32

We were in New York together when Michael first got ill

0:39:330:39:39

and she was absolutely terrified

0:39:390:39:43

and...

0:39:430:39:45

..drawn, and in agony.

0:39:450:39:49

Is it that you just don't dare to

0:39:510:39:53

deal with real experience?

0:39:530:39:55

Or the things that happen in real life,

0:39:550:39:58

like grief and betrayal...

0:39:580:40:01

..and love and unhappiness...

0:40:010:40:04

..and loss?

0:40:050:40:07

The loss of people we love.

0:40:070:40:09

She has the necessary stoicism

0:40:090:40:12

that an actor has to perform,

0:40:120:40:15

even though their heart is breaking.

0:40:150:40:18

Michael died on 11th January, 2001, after an 18-month illness.

0:40:210:40:27

Did you take time away from acting after your husband died?

0:40:280:40:31

'No.

0:40:310:40:33

'I was not in a frightfully wonderful place

0:40:330:40:36

'and then I kind of immersed myself in a lot of work,

0:40:360:40:40

'and I think it was the best thing I could do,

0:40:400:40:42

'and it was also being with incredible people.

0:40:420:40:45

'Richard Eyre and Jim Broadbent, you know.

0:40:450:40:48

'Spread amongst friends - it was good.'

0:40:480:40:51

Wonderful. Well done.

0:40:550:40:57

My mother had had Alzheimer's,

0:40:580:41:00

so I knew a lot about it, and it was uncanny

0:41:000:41:02

that Judi, who hadn't actually

0:41:020:41:04

been through that in any way,

0:41:040:41:08

was incredibly just accurate.

0:41:080:41:10

Even when she was suffering from

0:41:140:41:16

terrible grief over Michael's death,

0:41:160:41:20

she was performing this exquisitely dignified person

0:41:200:41:24

who was dealing with the worst grief of her life.

0:41:240:41:28

'If you are grieving,

0:41:320:41:34

'for anything, grieving creates an incredible energy in you.

0:41:340:41:40

'You can use that, it just is like...

0:41:400:41:44

'It's petrol. It can be used, that energy,

0:41:440:41:48

'in order to tell another story.'

0:41:480:41:50

There's a scene where she is in the advanced stages of dementia

0:41:550:42:00

and her husband, played by Jim Broadbent,

0:42:000:42:03

reads an excerpt from Pride and Prejudice to her.

0:42:030:42:08

And in her close-up,

0:42:080:42:12

you feel that you're watching somebody whose mind is half there.

0:42:120:42:18

Extraordinarily difficult to do.

0:42:190:42:22

"Mr Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty."

0:42:220:42:26

I...wrote.

0:42:260:42:29

Yes, my darling clever cat.

0:42:310:42:35

You wrote books.

0:42:350:42:37

Books. I wrote.

0:42:370:42:40

You wrote novels.

0:42:400:42:43

Wonderful novels.

0:42:430:42:45

I think what she covers up, very skilfully,

0:42:520:42:55

is the sheer degree of hard work

0:42:550:42:58

and technical skill that has been required to get her to where she is.

0:42:580:43:02

She has immense knowledge,

0:43:040:43:06

immense technical craft, but you are simply unable to see it.

0:43:060:43:11

It is there so deep for so long,

0:43:110:43:13

and with such a sensitivity and such knowledge, and such perception,

0:43:130:43:20

that it is just invisible.

0:43:200:43:22

'I don't want to be thought of as one kind of actress.

0:43:250:43:29

'You know, if having played Iris Murdoch,

0:43:290:43:32

'another similar kind of part comes up, then I can't do that.

0:43:320:43:36

'Everything in me says no.'

0:43:360:43:38

Dame Judi's range of work was now immense.

0:43:380:43:42

Everything from a disturbed schoolteacher...

0:43:420:43:45

..to a cartoon mouse...

0:43:450:43:47

..to Queen Elizabeth I - a role for which

0:43:470:43:50

she received an Oscar for a performance

0:43:500:43:53

lasting under ten minutes.

0:43:530:43:55

But in those ten minutes,

0:43:550:43:56

Judi delivered one of the great performances of her lifetime.

0:43:560:43:59

It was as if the part was written for her.

0:43:590:44:03

What do you love so much?

0:44:030:44:06

-Your Majesty, I...

-Speak up, girl. I know who I am.

0:44:060:44:09

It's one of the thrilling things about Judi's career

0:44:090:44:12

is to have watched someone who has been so glorious, always,

0:44:120:44:16

and then suddenly she has this extraordinary film career

0:44:160:44:19

that kind of started when she was about 65 or 70.

0:44:190:44:24

It fills us all with hope.

0:44:240:44:25

Challenging herself yet again, Judi played the lead in Philomena,

0:44:290:44:35

made by veteran director, Stephen Frears.

0:44:350:44:38

Hello, you must be Philomena. I'm Martin.

0:44:380:44:40

It told the story of an Irish mother

0:44:400:44:43

who was looking for her long-lost son

0:44:430:44:45

with the help of a journalist, Martin Sixsmith,

0:44:450:44:49

played by Steve Coogan.

0:44:490:44:50

I must apologise for the other night, I'm afraid I was a bit...

0:44:500:44:53

Caught me at a bad moment.

0:44:530:44:55

Oh, that's all right.

0:44:550:44:56

'Philomena is about the Irish girl who's had a baby

0:44:560:44:59

'out of wedlock and went into a convent and then,

0:44:590:45:02

'at the age of four, the child was sold to an American.'

0:45:020:45:04

So, Philomena, how are you?

0:45:060:45:08

I'm all right.

0:45:080:45:10

And so the mother

0:45:100:45:11

never saw the child again.

0:45:110:45:13

'I met her before and she made me a cup of tea,

0:45:160:45:19

'and I told her the story of Philomena.'

0:45:190:45:21

-Hello, sorry I'm late.

-Hello, Martin.

0:45:210:45:24

First of all, she said,

0:45:240:45:26

"Who do you see as playing Martin Sixsmith?"

0:45:260:45:30

And I said, "Well, we were thinking...

0:45:300:45:33

"..maybe me."

0:45:330:45:35

And she said, "OK,

0:45:350:45:38

"and is that negotiable?"

0:45:380:45:40

And I said, "No."

0:45:400:45:42

And she went, "OK."

0:45:420:45:44

One of the reasons we wanted Judi

0:45:480:45:51

was because we wanted to have the audience

0:45:510:45:55

privy to Philomena's private anguish

0:45:550:45:58

when no other people, within the film, are present.

0:45:580:46:02

Because it makes the moment really intimate.

0:46:020:46:04

There are very few actors who can pull that off.

0:46:040:46:08

In the wrong hands, it can just be...

0:46:080:46:10

Someone can just look vacant, you know, when the camera's on them.

0:46:100:46:14

Of course, the audience really connects with her,

0:46:140:46:17

just being able to look at her face very closely.

0:46:170:46:19

You know that her face is very, very expressive,

0:46:230:46:26

therefore you don't need six lines to say what her face is saying.

0:46:260:46:29

So you can do less, because she's doing it for you.

0:46:290:46:34

So, she's the perfect director...

0:46:360:46:38

The perfect actress for a lazy man.

0:46:380:46:40

Action.

0:46:410:46:43

There wasn't really much direction.

0:46:440:46:46

There wasn't much conversation with Stephen.

0:46:460:46:49

I mean, most of his direction was for me.

0:46:490:46:52

I mean, she didn't really need any.

0:46:520:46:54

As Philomena's relationship with Martin Sixsmith develops,

0:46:540:46:58

she opens up about the father of her lost son.

0:46:580:47:01

What made it so much worse was... that I enjoyed it.

0:47:010:47:05

-What?

-The sex.

0:47:050:47:08

SHE SIGHS

0:47:080:47:10

It was just wonderful, Martin. I thought I was floating on air.

0:47:100:47:13

He was so handsome.

0:47:130:47:15

The way he held me in his arms.

0:47:150:47:17

-The thing is, I didn't even know I had a clitoris, Martin.

-Right.

0:47:190:47:23

'Judi mainly liked the dirty bits.'

0:47:230:47:25

She did ring me up and say,

0:47:250:47:27

"I've just come across this line about the clitoris.

0:47:270:47:29

"You are going to keep it in, aren't you?"

0:47:290:47:31

I told her she was grubby.

0:47:310:47:33

Underneath it all, she was grubby.

0:47:330:47:35

It seemed to me all the better for it.

0:47:350:47:37

I...

0:47:400:47:42

..knew your son for about ten years.

0:47:420:47:45

The way Judi played Philomena

0:47:450:47:47

was a very careful tightrope to walk

0:47:470:47:49

because if you over-play the comedy,

0:47:490:47:52

then she could become a caricature.

0:47:520:47:55

I don't know if you know, but he was gay.

0:47:550:47:58

'Or it could be seen as cruel.

0:47:580:48:00

'So, it needed to be really well-judged'

0:48:000:48:03

and she managed to get that slight...

0:48:030:48:06

..naivety coupled with a kind of a...

0:48:060:48:10

..sort of a folk wisdom.

0:48:100:48:13

Tell me, did he father any children?

0:48:130:48:16

Philomena, Marcia's just told us that Anthony was gay.

0:48:160:48:19

Yeah, well, I always knew that,

0:48:190:48:21

-but I just wondered if he might be bi-curious.

-Bi-curious?

0:48:210:48:24

A lot of the nurses I worked with were gay, but one of them,

0:48:240:48:27

called Brendan, told me was bi-curious.

0:48:270:48:29

I don't think he could make up his mind, Marcia.

0:48:290:48:31

She has enormous empathy, but so do lots of people.

0:48:310:48:36

Sorry, this is my anti-national treasure line.

0:48:360:48:38

So do lots of people.

0:48:380:48:40

But then she's a trained actress, she's good at her job.

0:48:400:48:43

You work with Hollywood actors and they're not trained in that way,

0:48:430:48:46

and then you come across Judi and her gang,

0:48:460:48:49

and they know how to do it.

0:48:490:48:51

They do it basically, in rep, every two weeks.

0:48:510:48:54

That's what they do. They act a part.

0:48:540:48:56

'I think acting is... I think it's always talked about

0:49:030:49:07

'and it shouldn't be talked about, it should be done.

0:49:070:49:09

'It should either be a success or not a success.

0:49:090:49:11

'Just get on, tell the story.'

0:49:110:49:13

Where the hell have you been?

0:49:140:49:17

Enjoying death.

0:49:170:49:19

007, reporting for duty.

0:49:200:49:23

Judi being cast as M was just a piece of inspired casting.

0:49:240:49:28

It allowed a female voice...

0:49:280:49:31

Something that was probably needed

0:49:340:49:36

in a Bond...

0:49:360:49:38

..in the Bond franchise.

0:49:380:49:40

She came in and she took it, and she made it her own.

0:49:400:49:43

Her first outing was back in 1995 with Pierce Brosnan,

0:49:460:49:50

who was also new to the Bond family.

0:49:500:49:52

Would you care for a drink?

0:49:560:49:58

Thank you. Your predecessor kept some cognac in the top...

0:49:580:50:02

-I prefer bourbon. Ice?

-Yes.

0:50:020:50:05

I remember Pierce Brosnan's first day with Judi,

0:50:050:50:08

and it transpired

0:50:080:50:09

that he was absolutely terrified.

0:50:090:50:13

We were chatting in the lift

0:50:130:50:15

and he was going, "Well, you've worked with her. What's she like?"

0:50:150:50:18

And I was going, "Well, she's lovely, she's divine."

0:50:180:50:20

He was going, "Yes, but you know, she's...

0:50:200:50:22

"It's Judi Dench!"

0:50:220:50:24

'It's our first time together as James Bond and M.

0:50:240:50:29

'Both of us, I think, are quite anxious and nervous. They wanted her

0:50:290:50:33

to have a cup of tea in her hand

0:50:330:50:36

and she said, "No, that's going to

0:50:360:50:38

"rattle too much."

0:50:380:50:39

She said, "Just give me a Scotch."

0:50:390:50:41

So she sat there with a Scotch in her hand.

0:50:410:50:44

I said to her, "Do you like doing films?" She said, "Oh, no, no.

0:50:440:50:48

"I don't like films at all."

0:50:480:50:50

You don't like me, Bond. You don't like my methods.

0:50:500:50:53

You think I'm an accountant.

0:50:530:50:55

A bean counter, more interested in my numbers than your instincts.

0:50:550:50:58

-The thought had occurred to me.

-Good.

0:50:580:51:00

Because I think you're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur.

0:51:000:51:03

A relic of the Cold War.

0:51:030:51:05

That particular scene, and that line,

0:51:050:51:08

really set the benchmark for the rest of her career playing M.

0:51:080:51:13

-Point taken.

-Not quite, 007.

0:51:140:51:17

She gave it a context, for the first time,

0:51:170:51:20

rather than us feeling like

0:51:200:51:22

we're in this permanent time warp

0:51:220:51:24

of 1969 or '72,

0:51:240:51:27

the sort of Connery, Roger Moore axis, and basically,

0:51:270:51:31

they were stuck there forever.

0:51:310:51:35

You know. She somehow went, "Actually, no, we can...

0:51:350:51:38

"This is now."

0:51:380:51:39

-AMERICAN REPORTERS:

-M, over here, M!

-Judi!

0:51:390:51:43

But however much Judi brought to Bond,

0:51:430:51:45

her screen time was still limited -

0:51:450:51:48

until director Sam Mendes took over.

0:51:480:51:50

When I directed Bond, I thought, "Hang on a minute,

0:51:520:51:54

"we haven't exploited the fact we've got a great actor

0:51:540:51:57

"playing M."

0:51:570:51:59

Take the shot.

0:51:590:52:01

-I can't, I'm...

-Take the bloody shot.

0:52:010:52:03

So let's try and unlock the potential of the character

0:52:030:52:07

and her genuine interaction with Bond.

0:52:070:52:10

That's something that I felt Judi could bring that nobody else could.

0:52:100:52:15

His name is Thiago Rodriguez.

0:52:160:52:19

He was a brilliant agent.

0:52:190:52:21

But he started operating beyond his brief, hacking the Chinese.

0:52:210:52:25

The handover was coming up and they were onto him, so I gave him up.

0:52:250:52:29

Yeah, she stole every scene she's in.

0:52:310:52:34

But, I mean, what a joy is that, for me as an actor.

0:52:340:52:36

When people like Judi walk on set, I relax.

0:52:360:52:40

With Judi, you're always guaranteed a little magic.

0:52:400:52:42

Who is your favourite Bond?

0:52:420:52:45

Oh, you see, I knew that would come up.

0:52:450:52:48

How can I say that? Now, how can I say that?

0:52:480:52:50

How would Pierce feel?

0:52:500:52:52

Dame Judi might feel differently

0:52:520:52:54

if she knew the role that Craig had played in her demise

0:52:540:52:57

in her last Bond outing, Skyfall.

0:52:570:53:00

I think I actually was the one who came up with the idea.

0:53:000:53:04

You try and think of what's the biggest, best story you can tell.

0:53:040:53:07

And that seemed to me...

0:53:070:53:09

To me and everybody in the room, to be the biggest and most emotionally

0:53:090:53:14

kind of charged story we could tell.

0:53:140:53:17

Then we had to, of course, break the news to Judi, which wasn't so easy.

0:53:170:53:22

'I had 17 years of being M,

0:53:240:53:27

'so I had a full go at it.'

0:53:270:53:30

Christ. 'And I loved it.

0:53:300:53:32

'Just loved it.'

0:53:320:53:33

I think she was drawing on the fact that she had had this long,

0:53:350:53:38

seven-movie relationship with the franchise

0:53:380:53:40

and it felt to her like M's relationship with MI6

0:53:400:53:42

was the equivalent.

0:53:420:53:44

She was grieving it, and it's nice when art and life intersect

0:53:450:53:49

to the degree, when someone who has had a 20-year relationship

0:53:490:53:53

with the role is actually saying goodbye to it.

0:53:530:53:56

In Skyfall, M had become the film's driving force.

0:53:560:54:01

Judi Dench - the ultimate Bond girl.

0:54:010:54:03

I read your obituary of me.

0:54:030:54:06

And?

0:54:060:54:07

Appalling.

0:54:070:54:09

Yeah, I knew you'd hate it.

0:54:090:54:11

I did call you, "an exemplar of British fortitude."

0:54:130:54:16

That bit was all right.

0:54:160:54:18

Judi's days in Bond may be over,

0:54:200:54:23

but since then, she has performed on stage, on television and in film,

0:54:230:54:26

where she reprised her role as Queen Victoria.

0:54:260:54:31

I said, "I'll only make this if Judi does it."

0:54:360:54:40

And I cannot guarantee that she'll

0:54:400:54:41

want to put all those clothes on again.

0:54:410:54:45

But it's a wicked, mischievous part, so...

0:54:450:54:48

I don't think it would have been something

0:54:480:54:50

I would have done by choice but once I got the script

0:54:500:54:52

and I knew Stephen was directing it, I thought

0:54:520:54:55

I would definitely want to do it and I'm very pleased I have.

0:54:550:54:58

Judi co-starred with the actor, Ali Fazal.

0:55:020:55:04

Ali plays the Indian servant, Abdul,

0:55:040:55:06

who becomes Queen Victoria's confidante.

0:55:060:55:08

There are very few people I really admired as a child.

0:55:110:55:14

It was Judi Dench, it was Meryl Streep, Marlon Brando, DeNiro

0:55:140:55:17

and these were actors we would idolise.

0:55:170:55:19

And then to be able to work with her, I mean, it was...

0:55:230:55:26

It was a dream come true.

0:55:260:55:27

My first scene, actually, with her, there was 200 people on set.

0:55:280:55:33

Honestly, I was nervous, it was all there...

0:55:330:55:36

..for you to see.

0:55:360:55:38

Profiteroles have gone. Gentlemen, process, turn, bow, present.

0:55:380:55:43

And absolutely no eye contact whatsoever.

0:55:430:55:47

FANFARE

0:55:470:55:51

One of the film's key scenes is where Abdul has to present

0:55:510:55:53

a ceremonial coin to Queen Victoria but not to catch her eye.

0:55:530:55:56

The subtle interplay between the two co-stars

0:56:010:56:03

hints at the relationship that follows.

0:56:030:56:05

-I remember both of us looked at Stephen.

-Eyes!

0:56:090:56:14

And we were like, "Is that OK for you, Stephen?"

0:56:140:56:16

And Stephen just walks up to her and says...

0:56:160:56:18

"Judi, just act better."

0:56:180:56:20

And I thought, that was the best ice breaker, everybody was in splits.

0:56:220:56:29

And action, Ali.

0:56:290:56:31

As the film progresses, Abdul begins to teach Queen Victoria Urdu.

0:56:310:56:37

ABDUL SPEAKS URDU

0:56:380:56:40

"I am the Queen."

0:56:400:56:41

-I see.

-Judi Dench was a good student.

0:56:410:56:44

We would sit together and we would do our lines

0:56:440:56:47

and we would do the Urdu.

0:56:470:56:48

Luckily, I knew the Urdu well,

0:56:500:56:52

so, eventually it was me you know, writing it all for her,

0:56:520:56:55

recording the dialogues for her or we would just practice.

0:56:550:56:58

JUDI SPEAKS URDU

0:57:000:57:03

That took me ages but with Ali, you know, it was somebody on hand

0:57:050:57:08

to say, "It's not like that, it's like this."

0:57:080:57:10

She's constantly trying to reinvent herself.

0:57:140:57:16

She's trying to make mistakes, she is making mistakes

0:57:160:57:19

and learning from them.

0:57:190:57:21

At that age, with that experience.

0:57:210:57:24

It gives you so much to work with.

0:57:240:57:27

The lucky ones are people like Judi who find what they're good at

0:57:310:57:34

and are allowed to lead an interesting life.

0:57:340:57:36

Would you ever consider retiring?

0:57:440:57:46

No. No.

0:57:460:57:48

It's a really dirty word.

0:57:500:57:52

Old and retiring, those are really dirty words.

0:57:520:57:57

I think she wants to go on working until she can't do it any

0:57:570:57:59

longer and would love to expire probably, preferably, on stage.

0:57:590:58:03

I don't think it's unusual for somebody to want to work

0:58:070:58:10

when their means of expression artistically is their talent,

0:58:100:58:13

their God-given gift and that's what she has.

0:58:130:58:17

I think she is a figurehead.

0:58:190:58:21

A woman of great integrity, beauty, charm, intellect.

0:58:210:58:23

And, above all, humanity.

0:58:230:58:25

She's not like other people.

0:58:310:58:32

If other people were the same as Judi,

0:58:320:58:34

we wouldn't be talking about her.

0:58:340:58:36

You've got to progress.

0:58:390:58:40

You can't ever stand still.

0:58:410:58:43

You can't go back or at least you hope you won't,

0:58:430:58:45

stand still or go back.

0:58:450:58:47

And also, you're aware of the mistakes that one can make.

0:58:470:58:51

It's like building a house of cards.

0:58:510:58:53

Your hand starts to shake when you get up to the top.

0:58:530:58:57

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