If you need some cosy, festive viewing this Christmas week, then look no further than Sky Arts’s Tea with Judi Dench, which sees the legendary actor visited at her Surrey home by Sir Kenneth Branagh for a trip down memory lane.
The pair have worked together countless times during their decades-spanning careers, frequently appearing on stage and the big screen in Shakespeare adaptations, as well as casting each other in their own projects. Dench directed Branagh in her production of the John Osborne play Don’t Look Back in Anger, while she has appeared in his big screen version of Hamlet and the Oscar-winning Belfast.
In recent years, Dame Judi, now 91, has spoken candidly about suffering from health issues, including sight loss, which have left her unable to take on work as an actor. Thankfully, this format perfectly suits the star and offers plenty of touching moments along the way...
Judi’s nod to Bond
Dench was the third actor, and the first woman, to play MI6 chief “M” in the James Bond franchise and she welcomes visitors to her home with a doormat that reads: “I’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond.”
“That’s a very nice entrance if you happen to have played Mr Bond,” remarks Branagh, who has previously said he’d love to play one 007’s adversaries.
Dench took over the spy chief role from Bernard Lee in 1995 and made her debut as the straight-talking “M” in GoldenEye, where, with relish, she labelled Pierce Brosnan’s 007 “a sexist misogynist dinosaur”. Seven films later, in a decision that brought Dench to tears, producers decided to kill off her character in Skyfall.
The potty-mouthed parrot
Dench’s constant companion in her cosy abode is her parrot Sweetheart, but don’t be fooled by the pet’s adorable name.
“You have to contend with the parrot, who is very talkative,” Dench tells Branagh, before putting on her best Kat Slater accent to reveal the bird’s favourite catchphrase: “She says… ‘You’re a slag.’” Cue plenty of laughter from Branagh, who thankfully manages to escape being insulted. Dench’s previous houseguests haven’t been so lucky.
The Philomena actor previously revealed she was given the parrot as a gift during the pandemic. Despite the bird’s foul mouth, Dench has said she “wouldn’t be without [her] for the world”.
Remembering her late husband Michael Williams
Dench and her late husband, Michael Williams, had been married for almost three decades when he died at the age of 65 in 2001. They share a daughter, Finty Williams, who is now 53.
As Dench leads Branagh around the home she previously shared with Michael, he points out an artwork, saying: “I want to ask you about this painting, Jude, because it's such a fantastic likeness of the brilliant Mr Michael Williams.”
Becoming tearful, she replies: “Michael and I were married just short of 30 years when he died in 2001. Look at that, Kenneth. I mean, you knew him. That’s so... it’s brilliantly painted. I love it, I really love it.”
The pair later watch a clip of Williams starring in Henry V, which leaves Dench silently in tears as Branagh admires her late husband’s performance.
A walk through the memorial garden
Dench’s house holds plenty of mementos from her decades on the stage and screen, and tributes to the friends she and Williams made along the way. But one of the most touching moments of Branagh’s visit is their walk around the garden.
In a voiceover, Dench explains how she, Williams and their daughter decided to “dedicate trees in the garden to our friends who are no longer with us”. The pair stop at a crab apple tree dedicated to Dame Maggie Smith – or as Dench affectionately calls her, “Mags”. “It had [no fruit] on it until the day of her memorial and it had one, and I put it in my pocket,” Dench says.
As the arm-in-arm Dench and Branagh take a stroll, they see plaques delicately hanging on tree trunks to commemorate the likes of composer Stephen Sondheim, Branagh’s Harry Potter co-star Alan Rickman and Michael Bentall, an artistic director of the Old Vic who Dench says she owes her career to.
Tea with Judi Dench aired on Sky Arts and is currently available on NOW.
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