Authors: Judi Dench
For Finty and Sammy
Unless otherwise credited, all pictures belong to Judi Dench. While every effort has been made to contact copyright holders, if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be happy to acknowledge them in future editions.
Text Illustrations
With John Neville in
Hamlet
, 1957
With John Gielgud in
The Cherry Orchard
, 1961 (John Timbers)
With Edward Woodward in
Private Lives
, 1965
Backstage after
Cabaret
, 1968 (Bentley Archive / Getty)
With Michael on our wedding day, 6 February 1971 (Tina Carr)
With Michael Pennington in
The Way of the World
, 1978 (Donald Cooper / Photostage)
As Mother Courage, 1984 (Donald Cooper / Photostage)
With Anthony Hopkins in
Antony and Cleopatra
, 1987 (ArenaPal)
With Ronald Pickup in
The Cherry Orchard
(Donald Cooper / Photostage)
With Michael and members of the cast of
A Fine Romance
As Desirée Armfeldt in
A Little Night Music
, 1995 (Mark Douet)
With Billy Connolly in
Mrs Brown
, 1996
With Samantha Bond in
Amy’s View
, 1999 (ArenaPal)
In
Tea with Mussolini
, 1999 (Philippe Antonello / Medusa / The Kobal Collection)
As Lady Bracknell, filming
The Importance of Being Earnest
, (Greg Williams / Art and Commerce)
As Judith Bliss in
Hay Fever
, 2006 (Nigel Norrington / ArenaPal) 1074229
As Titania in
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
, 2010 (Nobby Clark / ArenaPal)
Section One
As the First Fairy in
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
, 1957 (Snowdon/Camera Press)
On holiday in France in the 1950s
As Maria in
Twelfth Night
, 1958 (Mander & Mitchenson Archive /ArenaPal)
As the Princess of France in
The Age of Kings
, 1960 (BBC Photo Library)
In
Z-Cars
, 1960 (BBC Photo Library)
With Franco Zeffirelli rehearsing for
Romeo and Juliet
, 1960 (Getty)
With Peggy Ashcroft in
The Cherry Orchard
, 1961 (ArenaPal)
Charity dancing photo, 1963 (Reg Lancaster / Express / Getty)
As Titania in
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
, 1962 (Express / Getty)
As Isabella in
Measure for Measure
, 1962 (Gordon Goode /Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)
With Ian Richardson in Peter Hall’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
, 1965
As Sally Bowles in
Cabaret
, 1968 (Hulton Archive / Getty)
As Perdita in
The Winter’s Tale
, 1969 (Hulton Archive / Getty)
As Viola in
Twelfth Night
with Donald Sinden as Malvolio, 1969 (Morris Newcombe)
Wedding Day, 6 February 1971 (Bentley Archive / Getty)
Michael in Judi’s going-away hat
Rehearsing with Michael (John Brook)
Section Two
With Michael in
London Assurance
, 1970 (Mander & Mitchenson Archive / ArenaPal)
With Michael in
The Merchant of Venice
, 1971 (John Brook)
With Finty as a baby (Press Association)
As Lady Macbeth with Ian McKellen, 1976 (Laurence Burns /ArenaPal)
With Jeremy Irons in
Langrishe, Go Down
, 1978 (SUS / Camera Press)
Rehearsing
Much Ado About Nothing
, 1976 (Nobby Clark)
With Norman Rodway in
Juno and the Paycock
, 1980 (Donald Cooper / Photostage)
With Anna Massey in
A Kind of Alaska
, 1982 (Laurence Burns)
With Michael in
A Pack of Lies
, 1983 (Donald Cooper /Photostage)
With Michael in
Mr and Mrs Nobody
, 1986 (Donald Cooper /Photostage)
The cast of BBC Radio 3’s
King Lear
, 1984 (Topfoto)
A trip to a brewery for
Entertaining Strangers
, 1987
The black glove (Tim Pigott-Smith)
Section Three
As Cleopatra in
Antony and Cleopatra
, 1987 (Donald Cooper /Photostage)
As Gertrude with Daniel Day-Lewis as Hamlet, 1989 (Donald Cooper / Photostage)
With Michael Pennington in
The Gift of the Gorgon
, 1992 (Ben Christopher / ArenaPal)
As Christine Foskett in
Absolute Hell
, 1995 (ArenaPal)
Backstage preparing for
Amy’s View
, 1997 (John Timbers)
Rehearsing for
A Little Night Music
, 1995 (Sasha Gusov /ArenaPal)
Rehearsing for
Amy’s View
with Richard Eyre and David Hare, 1997 (John Haynes)
With Michael at John Mills’s eightieth birthday party, 1988
With Sammy, Finty and Minnie (John Timbers)
Section Four
With Geoffrey Palmer in
As Time Goes By
(BBC Photo Library)
With members of the cast of
Cranford
(BBC Photo Library)
With Pierce Brosnan in
Die Another Day
, 2002 (Topfoto)
With Daniel Craig in
Casino Royale
, 2006 (Jay Maidment / Eon / Danjaq / Sony / The Kobal Collection)
In Italy filming
Tea with Mussolini
, 1999
With Bob Hoskins in
Mrs Henderson Presents
, 2005 (Stephen Frears)
With Toby Stephens in
The Royal Family
, 2001 (ArenaPal)
With Bill Clinton and Maggie Smith after a performance of
The Breath of Life
, 2002
With Jim Broadbent in
Iris
, 2001 (Miramax Films / Topfoto)
With Cate Blanchett in
Notes on a Scandal
, 2005 (Giles Keyte /Fox Searchlight / The Kobal Collection)
I DO NOT CONSIDER THIS
an autobiography. I have neither the time nor the skill to write one, and John Miller has covered much of my life in his 1998 biography, the seventieth birthday book from my friends which he edited, and the illustrated
Scenes from my Life
we assembled together.
So when Ion Trewin approached me about this new volume I hesitated for a long while. Eventually he persuaded me that told in my own voice, filling gaps and remembering much that John Miller did not know or did not include in his biography, was more than sufficient justification for a new and updated account.
I said that I supposed in that case we might entitle it
And Furthermore
, as a follow-up to those earlier books. I hasten to add that this is also not the final word, since I have often expressed the wish to emulate my dear friends and mentors, John Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft, both of whom continued working right to the end.
I have enjoyed – and am still enjoying – a wonderful life, and made some friendships I cherish deeply, many of which appear in these pages, and that is one of the most important reasons why I am happy to put all this on the record.
1934–1957