Judi Dench at the National Theatre

okay like you good evening ladies and gentleman have very nice to see a full house is probably more than I've ever had at the end of a place let's hope we get some at the end moment we weren't and so we we have an elephant in the room and what it is is next Tuesday there's a certain occasion a certain birthday that we're not possibly allowed to mention in any shape or form I believe is that just shape you already mentions but I'm not attaching a number to it Judy that's the idea which but it's still a lovely this is the excuse for being better having to do back which is always lovely and it's been a long time since we've done one of these so it's very nice to have you back so we've got some new jokes this time um Judy I would love though to try and do a quick Whistlestop tour through a fairly distinguished career and I wonder if we could go right back to the Old Vic oh right and when you were cast in a philia which was a bit of a risk I believe it was a huge risk and I just finished at the Central School and and they and the only Michael Ben tral was running the five year plan at the Oh Vic which was every play of Shakespeare's and the only one he repeated was Hamlet and he done Hamlet the Richard Burton and they needed Hamlet with John Neville and I got cast as a few dear straight out of drama school very very lucky but quite hard um not easy going after that but it was a you know it was a good done it was a baptism of fire and how was your Hamlet heaven a good leaving man to start with yes what is simply wonderful I learned an amazing was John Neville and I learnt I mean I learned almost well everything that I knew about the Vic when I went you know when I went to the week in 57 and left in 61 and everything I learnt about being an actor and being part of a company was really from John and you were spied when you were playing with Ophelia by a certain Ian McKellen I believe who took a job in Oxford simply to have the opportunity to act with you in in the promise this is entirely news to me hahahaha probably News Julien McKellen Jewish ian mckellen calm you in an in McShane yes the three of us in a play yes bye Alexia Rousseff called the promise which the three of us we never came off stage all the time we were on stage the whole evening was very very very tiring but quite fun and it would came from Oxford and then during our during Oxford Trevor Nunn asked me to be in something that the RSC and I said that would be absolutely wonderful I said this this this play may transfer and um and in which case I won't be and he said well I've seen it and I don't think it wound track it transferred transferred for nine months so I wasn't able to go to Stratford to Trevor not then anyway and you didn't go to Broadway with it it went to whirlwind the fellows went I think Eileen Atkins did she she did yes she's a lovely time um that it seems quite an interesting choice i there's a lovely thing it says on the poster of it that's on the end website three of the finest young actors of our time together which is rather brilliant it was a grey McShane thought that Ian McKellen and I were out of the arc he really thought we were out of the ark he had to come running it at one point Ian McShane with a tip with a tin mug which I had to use subsequently in the scene and a spoon and he used to come running it was such kind of gush to the spoons girls sometimes they're the mug summed up there was there was nothing to act left to it and when you said could you possibly just bring the mark of a spoon and he used to go so did you take that play as a sort of radical choice and a big hit behind the Iron Curtain it can't have been an easy easy yes behind the Iron Curtain the play had been a big hit he had been a big hit but it was Franklin also you see who chose it and he had the most wonderful what's that word hmm what's that word when you have good a good good habit you know a good instinct what's that word I hope you're here when I do in another place yes he had he was impeccable at reading a play and kind of knowing what would go Frank and he ran Oxford for all that time and we had a lovely time and I I did another play by Alexei Abruzzo called the 12th hour well we're John Turner tall actor and I had a rather passionate kiss and the only way we could possibly do it was that I should fall exhausted onto a lump of wood where he would then be able to you know somehow Manu put me in some kind of embrace and not long after that Sally Bowles in cabaret we guess it surprised a lot of people that again you took that your first musical it was it was my first musical in it was because Halperin saw the promise and said um will you come on audition or he said to my agent would you get my audition so I did go I got very very very frightened beforehand and I had a drink and when it came to auditioning um I actually stood in the wings by the piano and he hurt he was at here and I sang it from there I think something like happy birthday to you but I having never had you know sang before but um you know the thing about Sally Bose is if you go by Christopher Isherwood's book I'm a camera is that she was a you know couldn't sing and middle class girl from Cheltenham and couldn't sing but there was something about her that you couldn't kind of take your eyes off or stop watching and so I used to read that every single night I used to read it just this bit in the book and I was sent to a wound of a wonderful opera singer called Gwen Kat Lee and she kind of had some afternoons with her and she said well she said I can't teach you to sing but she said I can teach you to put a song over and that's in fact what she did let's just look at the problems yes and it was how he said you know you'd go don't speak in one voice and stop to sing in another and that stood me an incredibly good stead for a long time and I saw there's a lovely bit of footage of that tantalizingly without the soundtrack from from they compiled lots of your interviews on the BBC and you say there that you talking experience it's 1968 I think of going into a room full of men inevitably from the film industry who take one look at you and say you'll never work in film is stench and you report that quite interestingly on television there it was it was a certain film that I was asked to go and see somebody about Nettie's what he said he said not not the right arrangement he said that's not that's not quite right and it wasn't then it wasn't I mean it's only you know suddenly then they went all kind of always and kind of cast anyone in films did it happen but it was true he did say that and and did win every is no personal will you been corrupted by reporting less as a young woman why are you being a little provocative by reporting that as a young actress I think it's really great that you do know on television you talk well yes I reported it a bit later would it stunned me I didn't know realize I think how much it did at the time because I had no intention of making a film all I wanted to do is do Shakespeare and be at the o Vic and then come here and do it too but that's yes do Shakespeare south of the river rotating and that's really all I ever wanted to do and I that's what I you know going to the vacant 57 is staying there till 61 and then going to Stratford it was my it was it was the kind of zenith I loved it so much and presumably the theatre didn't have that kind of terrible stipulation you could be as you were Cleopatra beautifully well you still have to suspend a bit of belief don't you but but you know the wonderful thing about us being up here is where much taller than all of you and that's a huge advantage when you're 5 1 and 3/4 because you can actually create somebody who is much taller I have people often say to me oh gosh I didn't realize you were that size but you know you can create an illusion in the theater I think Cleopatra was here um with with you're in the Olly with your great collaborator Peter Hall and was that a role that you coveted or did you have to be persuaded you know I didn't absolutely didn't covet it I never for a second dreamt I would ever play and the terrible thing is is that I said yes to Peter and Terri hands asked me to play too at the same time and I said yes to Terri hands as well and it wasn't till I deed waste at the lyric that Terri hands came round and somebody said I've found out he said who are you gonna do it for so I had to say Peter because Peter had asked me first that terrible I'm so flattered about being asked yeah and and he hasn't there we did I remember and I remember being on the first night in the Olly saying to tony Hopkins just before we came and I said people are actually being born and dying at this moment you know we did why are we in such a state much more important things are happening than this and and we had a glorious time doing it I must say if we didn't have mics then yep coming back down to the Littleton theater absolute hell here a really happy experience Oh Bellinis and we had done it already in on television with Anthony page and then we came here and also did it with actually measure with us with us slightly well it entirely different color stacking and we had a wonderful bar built on this stage and you couldn't you couldn't once you were in there couldn't actually get out of it this bar and I can remember one night being on all fours behind the bar and saying to Greg Hicks how can I feel so drunk on water and a bit of red dye in it you know bit of Ribena and but it was a oh it's the most glorious plate it's the play that if people say what would you like to do now in half an hour absolute hell is the one I would like to be doing we had it an incredible it's the most marvelous play wonderful play and and now available on DVD on the TV I just watched it last week it's absolutely fantastic really good we did it before yes it's terrific I'm back up to the Olivier theatre um and a little night music another for a a big foray into the musical world it wasn't you done others in between it is a very good moment during Antony Cleopatra went to Alan Bennett was doing down Cemetery Road at the cottesloe which is work the door full of costs low and I came out during the play I had my call came out of my dressing room and met Alan Bennett we started to talk and started to talk and walk glances and as I put my foot on the cottesloe stage I realized that I actually should be me sorry alright no little night music more singing but that now that song has sort of become a bit of a trademark that number you did it live for the Nationals 50th you've done it at the Proms I think that's the most frightening yeah how was that that was really frankly uh that was especially as during the rehearsal he said and while they're doing the night walls you'll come on and be standing behind and then in between that rehearsal and doing it in the evening at the Proms they must have come to some kind of other arrangement because as I went to go they said not yet not yet so I was like a mirror greyhound in the slips so that's why that's why we when you see it I'm kind of running on late yeah I'm really frightening and when you did it live here um what was going on with black gloves that night I can't remember well I'd love his past so many times I was now that I I was I was charged with looking after that that night and you never make demands but the first thing you did was say get me a black leather glove right now so we obviously went to wardrobe we did to give to Tim pickets it to Tim Pinkett Smith during the show well not during you know in between just subtly or maybe was during actually actually it was live on TV you can see on the DVD Judy I couldn't quite believe what I've got I'd gone into the house by that point and I saw you handing it in the middle of the curtain call it was in the curtain call yes it was that's an old old old joke which is started at the Ani during during Cleopatra during Antony everybody must have heard this story so many times during Peggy's Dame pegs 80th birthday and when when Tim bigot Smith who was playing Octavius Caesar and came on to do a bit of jewel in the crown and he was Marik you know with that kind of thing and I happen to see him that's strangely sexy that never so the next night we went back to doing Antony he came walking down sing here with his hand like this and the next minute this terrible leopard ahahaha and so ages past when was Antony 80-something yeah well it's past their black glove now is passed between us I don't know more than a hundred times I imagine you were trying to get hella wearin to give it to him as well it was extraordinary um more recently you returned with with Peter to play titania again at at Kingston yeah uh in in in 2010 having done it firstly I think in about sixty two or three no much earlier load him up fifty-seven well fifty-seven first ferry um fifty-nine Hermia you see I was K it's growing up Hermia and then 62 tutorial and that that seems an interesting bookends for your your working relationship with Peter well you know Peter I owe him oh how I owe him and I loved working with him just loved it and when he said would you come and do this at the Rose I mean I would have probably gone and done anything for him but I thought well I I didn't have to look at the script because I know the place so well I could do the whole play for you now if you ordered it um but it was we had a lovely time I expect he was rather unsuitable but it was a glorious time we had doing and more recently on stage I thought for Michael Grandage is company you didn't you play Peter and Alice yes Ben was sure with Ben wishes method Ben Whishaw yes and did you enjoy enjoy doing a new play at this I didn't enjoy a gig enjoy and it was a it was John Logan wrote it who wrote sky 4 and during rehearsals and I are I and a new play you know I had so many questions and he was at rehearsal one day and a couple of days and I would go out and said John what what I don't understand that and we go on on he said I'd say John John would you would you mind would you mind explaining that why does she say and I went on and on and on and after a morning of this and I've gone up for a I don't know 60 something for moment said John what do you wonder I killed you off in sky yeah being killed off in Skyfall yeah did you um did you have any say in how you went now nope no they told me at the woolsley I've never been into the walls really since actually they told me about it no I I'm joking it's high time it was high time I had um I did seven and I had 70 17 years of it of being em so I had a full go at it yeah and I loved it just loved it and I got to go to mi6 and have lunch and I got to mi5 we'll have lunch you well so I felt very grand especially when those things go down in the road and your car drives you know and then the great big wall comes down off do you think this is the real thing this is the model and when I was at mi5 they said will you would you there's some people want to ask you some questions yes I said oh right so we went in it was canteen full of people absolutely full of people they all kept asking me so I said you know ah this is fake we are fake you're the actual real thing you have to ask I asked yourselves were you pleased to go out with a bang though that it wasn't just she need a bang I'm gonna call it about falling over in the chapel I said Sandman is cause I act that I've been hurt uppity Cinco you've got give him a surprise but she didn't retire quietly at least no no she had a good day no she poor ol thing um I mean when we sat here want before I remember you I mean M wasn't even on the on the horizon that that no no which is amazing and and the and the other films obviously the two great queens you'll play Victoria and Elizabeth that took you to I mean the men sat in that room in the sixties can eat their words no longer with us when when you're now an Academy Award winning actress none of them very good lookers they were they there is two green it's true let's all own makeup surely it's all done with makeup um I think you enjoyed doing mrs. Brown a lot is that right I did enjoy and especially as we did it for television and John the Blessed John Madden we did it in 30 days and absolutely you know I had I had two black dresses and a different color and a different Roach and you know and was made out of a you know pig's ear really and all the boys had one kilt and they get wet up on the hills and we all have to dry them and warm their feet and you know it was it was lovely but I had finchy my daughter played a daughter of daughter of mine say it was if we had a lovely time and we were up in Scotland a great deal of the time did you get home with mr. Connolly yeah I say yes yes how could you not but like but Billy like Steve Coogan you know who I've made Philomena with you know there I've said this I mean publicly and I mean their stand-up comics of the kind of first order but and you think well I hope that they can rein it in a bit and say well of course both of them behave absolutely superbly and know all the lines I'm doing it perfect I just got Steve Coogan to make jokes all the time really beforehand and things but they were just sublime there's no reason to think that somebody who is a stand-up comic shouldn't know apart and should but it was you know you kind of thought well that's what major I'm not a stand-up comic a smart I'm for serious actor here but was lovely then or not freedom in film about Marilyn you play dumb another little Sybil Thorndike did you ever work with now I guess and I dare anything I ever did with her was um an evening with rabindranath tagore at the Old Vic well where we were dressed in saris she and her husband Lewis katharine barbour Jeffords I think John Neville was in it I can't remember it's 1958 I'm talking about and it was a riot actually but then so I had known her a little bit did you enjoy playing her yes I think I did I've never seen the film titles but I think I think I enjoy playing her but she was an absolutely delightful person she had the most silvery laugh of anyone I've ever ever met before I don't think I got to laugh in the film and she I couldn't have done it anyway and another happy teen seems to be the best exotic marigold hotel yes that was um eight weeks in India four years ago and eight weeks again at the beginning of this year this is the second dress that'll come out in February and March and that was I mean acting with a massive friends you know was absolutely lovely and we were all that was withdrawn Madden again and I had never been to India and I just couldn't wait to go back again so it was lovely to go back this year again and 70% of the crew came back to do the second film as well so we knew everybody and it was very special and then it's not it's it's I think in New Year's Day treat you have a new leading man in Dustin Hoffman very badly behaved yes and this is for a role doll at upload our adaptation of SEO trot and so it was a Dustin and a huge amount of tortoises and a lovely actual richard cordray do and me almost virtually we had yes we had a heavenly time doing it I must say directed beautifully by d'oeuvre Walsh and you'd not worked with Dustin before no I met him before funny enough I met him I met him here no no did we do other places here it wasn't in the Cottesloe what other place other places was that Pinter three trilogy and the first one was about was marching Jarvis and Anna Massey yes Anna Massey Nigel Havers anyway the so two plays and then I was in the third play and I had to be in bed all the time kind of Alaska it's about a woman with sleeping sickness and I was sitting there one evening waiting to start talking to Anna suddenly around the clerk I forgot his load came Dustin Hoffman's head and he just got up and maybe he done it to the others I don't know but said hello hello I see that we do never saw ever again um but we had a wonderful time doing this it was very very very quick but we had a very nice time a little girl yes New Year's Day new New Year's Day I think so affinity said yes yeah I think it is yes and and then you're currently filming the hollow crown and your witch and you're in the rich of the third yeah section as the Duchess of York only weeds mother with Benedict Cumberbatch's yes with then does nothing but no not been me as the Duchess real time she met all the time never has a laugh I'm just looking through what's coming up also tulip fever by stop hearts yes and what are you in that I'm the Abbess another very very nice week in the cloisters of Norwich Cathedral that was extremely straight after Ezio trot one day in between and so I thought yes I could squeeze a tea and so yes I went and I had a lovely time and you know those peregrine falcons are in the spire of Norwich Cathedral and during a shot because I was working this afternoon on it and during a shot suddenly one parrot there was a terrible kind of kerfuffle and I looked up in one peregrine falcon had caught a pigeon and it passed it to another one and then it took it back and all its babies at it that was in the middle of our sea well no respect no respect at all how do you keep so busy how do you how do you keep service how do you design ask to do the work and I don't turn it that way and will you ever stop doing it at the super don't let's talk of it what not never what I don't know good you know it's daft isn't it just stop doing something because you then don't remember how to do it and you fall over it's hopeless to stop and I you know I'm not I'm not keen on that and I'm not keen on not learning something and it's wrongly reported I learn a poem every day I don't learn poem I say I learned something new every day sometimes two lines of a poem you got back to me that I learn a poem every day I felt drunk with power that's next after you finish so I'm not gonna make sure no I'm not quite sure I've got to do some press and talking about the Marigold Hotel you know because that's coming up shortly so we have to do that all that but apart from that I'm not sure who knows touchwood well maybe maybe celebrate a birthday next week you've never possibly you'll never know we've got to do one thing I wonder could you put the house lights on I promised we'd do a selfie so we're going to turn our backs on you before we go and then we all use alright way you can a wave you're all in it if we don't go viral never ever done this before here we are but Hansel when I'm looking this way no you're looking that lucky is it that's it that's us look let they're waving I see them smile I've taken so many right um that actually happened so ladies and gentleman as as we thank Judy for her time thank you so much for coming back let's just make that round of applause a bit of a happy birthday Randall oh thank you so much best singers you know you ignore that ignore that you can hit that way

Channel: National Theatre

Views: 228,868

Rating: 4.8839459 out of 5

Keywords: ntdiscovertheatre, National Theatre, NationalTheatre, theatre, theater, London, play, show, stage, drama, Judi Dench (Film Actor), Actor (Profession), A Little Night Music (Play), Antony And Cleopatra (Play), Absolute Hell, A Kind of Alaska

Id: -aGhvdZEKUU

Length: 28min 37sec (1717 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 16 2014