Behind the Scenes (9781466882195) Read online

  Those are the Mountains of Mourne sweeping down to the sea.

  With Billy Connolly and Michael Parkinson, December 2007

  I had been invited on to Michael’s show several times over the years, so was delighted to be asked on to his farewell programme with Billy Connolly. Neither of us knew what stories Billy would come up with, and he never disappointed us or the audience.

  With Stephen Frears at the Venice Film Festival, August 2013

  My great friend David Mills accompanied me to the Venice Film Festival, and before the screening of Philomena he said to me, ‘I think you’re going to get a standing ovation.’ I said, ‘Don’t be stupid, nobody gets a standing ovation for a film at Venice, nobody gets it.’ He kept on, so I said, ‘Oh David, it simply can’t happen, I bet you.’

  ‘OK, what’s the bet?’

  ‘The bet is, I’ll bring you back to Venice and I’ll pay for absolutely everything, you’ll get a free holiday.’

  ‘OK.’

  It was a 12-minute standing ovation, I couldn’t believe it!

  ‘Will it be the six months?’ he said.

  Ken Branagh is a rare being. When he’s directing he knows the first name of every single member of the crew. Here I am presenting him with the John Gielgud Golden Quill Award in 2000.

  Receiving an Honorary Degree from Oxford University in 2000. I’m wearing Mummy’s brooch. The man behind me looks terribly glum!

  With Joan Plowright and David Hockney at A Celebration of the Arts at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2012. That was a good time. David told us, ‘I don’t really like this kind of do.’

  Receiving an Honorary Degree from Leeds University in 2002. Melvyn Bragg is Chancellor of the University, and we both have very colourful robes. It’s quite a get-up on these occasions.

  Receiving the Freedom of the City of London at the Guildhall in 2011. I’m sorry I haven’t got my geese behind me, walking across the bridge, which is what the Freedom brings with it.

  At the National Theatre’s Fiftieth Birthday Gala in 2013, we all did scenes from various earlier productions at the National. I sang ‘Send in the Clowns’ from A Little Night Music, and a short scene from Antony and Cleopatra. The whole evening was recorded for the BBC.

  The rehearsals are worst for this kind of Gala, because you know that everyone else in the show is sitting out front watching you; it was ghastly to rehearse.

  Hampton Court Flower Show, 2010. They had created a new rose, and called it the Drama Queen Rose; I can’t think why they presented it to me!

  With David Mills at the Sandringham Flower Show, 2013. I don’t know what the man behind us is up to.

  With my brother Jeffery on the balcony of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford

  My brother Jeff was one of the longest-serving members of the RSC, and when he died on 27 March 2014, Greg Doran that night called the whole Company – all the crew, wigs, wardrobe, actors, and he said, ‘There’s a great spirit gone.’ He talked about Jeff and some of the parts he’d played, and when he said ‘We ought to give him a big send-off,’ they all broke into enormous applause and cheers. Then he wrote a letter to Jeff’s wife Ann. It was the right thing to do, because Jeff had been a great member of the Company, and a great citizen of Stratford, he’d lived there since he was first married. I went down for the Memorial Service, and Greg gave a wonderful address.

  With David, Finty and Sammy at the Shakespeare Globe Gala dinner, 2013

  At the party after the BAFTA Awards, 2014. I was asked to fly back from India in the middle of filming, as I had been nominated for an Award for Philomena, but all in vain, as I didn’t win. But it was a most enjoyable evening all the same.

  This looks as if I’m listening to a director, and probably disagreeing with him

  Learning my lines in my dressing room at the Oxford Playhouse, 1965

  I love the regular routine of the stage, and I’m always one of the first to arrive at the Stage Door. In the last few years I have been lucky enough to work again with old and dear friends, as well as making a number of new ones.

  I couldn’t resist adding this picture to the others in this book. The saga of this little game with Tim Pigott-Smith has become quite well-known ever since John Miller wrote about it in his 1998 biography of me. At Peggy Ashcroft’s Eightieth Birthday Gala in 1987, Tim was in a skit on Jewel in the Crown as Merrick, wearing one black glove. I made the mistake of joking to him, ‘That’s strangely attractive, that one-armed acting!’ So the next night he wore one black glove when he came on as Octavius in Antony and Cleopatra. Later he slipped it into the basket with the asp, and it soon became a battle to see who could deliver it next to the other. I had this cake made for his birthday, and am currently cooking up another surprise for him. This running gag seems to amuse other people too, and whenever I do a Platform conversation with John someone in the audience always asks, ‘Where is the black glove now?’

  Chronology of Parts

  Awards

  Date

  Award

  1961

  Paladino D’Argentino at the Venice Festival for Romeo and Juliet

  1965

  BAFTA Award Most Promising Newcomer for Four in the Morning

  1977

  SWET Award Best Actress for Macbeth

  1980

  SWET Award Best Actress for Juno and the Paycock

  1981

  BAFTA Award Best Actress for A Fine Romance and Going Gently

  1984

  SWET Award Best Actress for Pack of Lies

  1987

  Olivier Award Best Actress for Antony and Cleopatra

  1995

  Olivier Award Best Actress for Absolute Hell

  1995

  Olivier Award Best Actress in a Musical for A Little Night Music

  1998

  Golden Globe Award Best Actress for Mrs Brown

  1998

  Critics Circle Award Best Actress for Amy’s View

  1998

  Critics Circle Film Award British Actress of the Year for Mrs Brown

  1998

  BAFTA Award Best Actress for Mrs Brown

  1999

  Academy Award Best Supporting Actress for Shakespeare in Love

  1999

  Tony Award Best Actress for Amy’s View

  1999

  American Shakespeare Guild John Gielgud Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts

  1999

  BAFTA Award Best Supporting Actress for Shakespeare in Love

  2000

  Golden Globe Award Best Actress for The Last of the Blonde Bombshells

  2000

  BAFTA Award Best Actress for The Last of the Blonde Bombshells

  2001

  BAFTA Academy Fellowship

  2002

  BAFTA Award Best Actress for Iris

  2002

  Critics Circle Film Award British Actress of the Year for Iris

  2007

  British Independent Film Award Best Actress for Notes on a Scandal

  2009

  Critics Circle Film Dilys Powell Award

  2011

  BFI Fellowship

  2014

  Critics Circle Film Award British Actress of the Year for Philomena

  Picture credits

  Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers would be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity.

  Yevonde Portrait Archive

  Cecil Beaton / National Portrait Gallery

  Linda Rosier / NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

  Mike McKeown / Daily Express / Hulton Archive / Getty Images

  Snowdon / Camera Press

  Yevonde Portrait Archive

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  Tenniel Evans

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  Tony Wallace Daily Mail / Rex

&nbs
p; John Timbers

  Wendy Toye

  Alex McCowen

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  Chrispian Woodgate

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  Joe Cocks Studio Collection / Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

  BBC

  Daily Express / Mander & Michenson Theatre Collection

  Tomas Jaski Ltd Mander & Michenson Theatre Collection

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  BAFTA

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  Ian Richardson / Joe Cocks Studio Collection

  Filmways / Royal Shakespeare / The Kobal Collection

  David Farrell Hulton Archive / Getty Images

  Nobby Clark / ArenaPAL / Topfoto

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  Phillip Jackson / Associated Newspapers / Rex

  David Magnus / Rex

  Ian Richardson / Joe Cocks Studio Collection

  Joe Cocks Studio Collection / Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

  Morris Newcombe

  Morris Newcombe

  Tina Carr

  Tina Carr

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  John Brook / Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

  John Timbers

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  John Brook / Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

  Press Association

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  Zoe Dominic

  Nobby Clark

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  Rex

  Solihull News

  Donald Cooper / Photostage

  Joe Cocks Studio Collection / Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

  ITV / Rex

  Joe Cocks Studio Collection / Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

  Sally Soames / The Sunday Times

  Donald Cooper / Photostage

  Judi Dench

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  Zoe Dominic

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  David Hare

  David Hare

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  John Timbers

  John Timbers

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  Yorkshire Post

  London Weekend Television / Rex

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  Donald Cooper / Photostage

  Nobby Clark

  Donald Cooper / Photostage

  Reg Wilson / Royal Shakespeare Company

  BBC

  John Timbers

  John Timbers

  John Timbers

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  Radio Times

  Granada Television

  Donald Cooper / Photostage

  John Haynes

  Douglas H. Jeffrey

  Nobby Clark

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  John Haynes

  John Haynes

  John Haynes

  Mark Douet

  Moira Williams

  Donald Cooper / Photostage

  Donald Cooper / Photostage

  John Haynes

  David Gamble / Topfoto

  John Timbers

  The Royal National Theatre UK, Radio Times

  John Haynes

  John Haynes

  Henrietta Butler / ArenaPAL

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  The Royal National Theatre UK

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  Popperfoto / Getty Images

  Mark Tillie / Ecosse / Miramax

  Mark Tillie / Ecosse / Miramax

  Mark Tillie / Ecosse / Miramax

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  Rex / Richard Young

  [The World is Not Enough still]

  DLT Entertainment UK Limited

  DLT Entertainment UK Limited

  John Timbers

  DLT Entertainment UK Limited

  Ian Richardson

  Bill Mackenzie / National Theatre Archive

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  The Royal National Theatre UK

  John Haynes

  John Haynes

  John Timbers

  Clive Francis

  Judi Dench

  R.Hepler / Everett / Rex

  Judi Dench

  Everett Collection / Rex

  AKG Images

  Rex

  Alistair Muir

  John Miller

  Topfoto

  Newsteam Syndication

  BAFTA

  BAFTA

  The Peter Hall Company and the Theatre Royal Haymarket

  The Peter Hall Company and the Theatre Royal Haymarket

  Donald Cooper / Photostage

  Judi Dench

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  Greg Williams / Art & Commerce

  Greg Williams / Art & Commerce

  Rex

  Press Association

  BAFTA

  Rex

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  Eddie Gallacher and the Oxford Union

  Eddie Gallacher and the Oxford Union

  Stewart Mark / Camera Press

  Dave Benett / Getty Images

  RSC Martin Norris;; RSC Martin Norris

  Donald Cooper / Photostage

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  John Timbers

  Georgia Oetker

  Universal / The Kobal Collection / Lederer

  Alan Weller Film Magic / Getty Images

  Judy Totton / Rex

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  Nigel Norrington / Camera Press

  Ferdaus Shamim WireImage / Getty Images

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  Nigel Norrington ArenaPAL / Topfoto

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  Stephen Frears

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  20th Century Fox / Everett / Rex

  Giles Keyte / Fox Searchlight / The Kobal Collection

  BBC

  Matt Cardy / Getty Images

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  Yoram Kahana Shooting Star / Camera Press

  BBC

  Lucamar Productions / The Kobal Collection

  Marilyn Kingwill ArenaPAL / Topfoto

  Johan Persson ArenaPAL / Topfoto

  Weinstein / Everett / Rex

  Malpaso / Warner Bros / The Kobal Collection

  Warner Bros / Everett Collection / Rex

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  Foxsearch / Everett / Rex

  Blueprint Pictures / The Kobal Collection;Blueprint Pictures / The Kobal Collection

  Lynsey Addario

  Jay Maidment / Eton / Danjaq / Sony / The Kobal Collection

  Col Pics / Everett / Rex

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  Dan Woollen / Rex

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  Snap Stills / Rex

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  Moviestore / Rex

  Ken McKay / Rex

  Domenico Stinellis / AP / Press Association

  William Conran / PA Archive / Press Association Images

  Theodore Wood / Camera Press

  Dave Hartley / Rex

  Tony Kyriacou / Rex

  Jane Mingay / Rex

  Catherine Ashmore

  Paul Grover / Rex

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  Associated Newspapers / Rex

  Judi Dench

  Copyright © Dame Judi Dench and John Miller 2014

  First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Ltd

  First U.S. Edition: November 2014

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  eISBN 9781466882195

  First eBook edition: November 2014