One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.
July 2011 Book of the Month.
Judi Dench fans will read this without recommendation but for others I’d say it’s well worth reading. Firstly there’s Judi Dench’s own personality which shines through in her dry humour and individual voice and there’s the range of her work from theatre to TV and film, in classics, comedy, new work, a good line in Queens (Elizabeth, Cleopatra and Victoria) to her memorable performance in the James Bond films. Not many actors can boast such a CV and not many can tell such a good story.
As one of the nations best loved actresses we have seen Judi Dench’s career move from successful theatre actress to TV sitcom star to Hollywood Oscar winner and yet she still retains an air of being ‘one of us’ and that is why the nation loves her. Here she looks back over her career and life with great humour and charm.
From the moment Judi Dench appeared as a teenager in the York Mystery Plays it was clear that acting would be her career. Trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama it was her performance in her twenties as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's memorable Old Vic production that turned her into a star. In the theatre since she has played every classic role from Titania (three times, most recently in 2010) to Cleopatra. She first became a household name via television, thanks initially to a sit-com, A FINE ROMANCE, in which she played alongside the actor Michael Williams, whom she married in 1971. She has since made nine series of another sit-com, AS TIME GOES BY (with Geoffrey Palmer), as well as plays and classic serials such as CRANFORD. In the cinema her films have ranged from LADIES IN LAVENDER (opposite Maggie Smith) through NOTES ON A SCANDAL with Cate Blanchett to SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, in which she played Queen Elizabeth, a role which gained her a Hollywood Oscar. But it is her role as 'M' in six James Bond films beginning with GOLDENEYE in 1995 that has gained her worldwide recognition. This book is, however, much more than a career record. Her marriage (Michael Williams died in 2001), their daughter, and her impish sense of humour contribute vividly to her account of more than half a century as Britain's best-loved actress.
