Cheltenham Literature Festival
Recital -- October 16, 2005
Last Updated:  March 13, 2010

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A Special Thank You to Connie E, USA,
for sharing these images (above) and her experience (below)

I was lucky to be able to attend the Cheltenham festival and see Judi read children's poetry by Ted Hughes. She was with two men who stood on either side and towered over her when they all stood up. She started to read a poem called, I believe, "My Sister." In the poem her sister was a bird. They projected silly drawings on a screen above the heads of the readers from the book. As Judi started, people started laughing. She knew she hadn't gotten to the funny bits yet so turned around and looked up to see what everyone was laughing about. "That's her," she remarked when she saw the bird drawing.

        There was an hour's break and then John Miller interviewed her about her life with references to the book. Miller said that he originally had a line in the book that said that Judi searched her cupboards and drawers for photos. He said that Judi made him take the line out, so they looked other places also. When asked about "Pride & Prejudice" Judi said she simply copied the performance of her good friend Bar Leigh-Hunt (who played the role in the 1995 mini series). She said I called her up and said I'm
copying you.

        Judi said she likes doing sitcoms. She turned to John and said, "Was Mikey's name in A Fine Romance " Mike? He said yes. Well, anyway, she said, someone said the series would be a big mistake to do, but it wasn't.

        Someone in the audience asked her if she liked being famous. She said overall yes since she liked talking to people. Michael had once remarked that she always wanted to know the gardener's grandmother's birthday - everything about people. She said she really didn't but she guessed she was
nosy. "There's always someone to meet."  At any rate she didn't like being famous recently. She had a knee operation and went to Eriska. They got her a scooter at the airport, and then everyone was saying 'look at her."

        She said there's a photo in the book of the old Vic gang then and now.  Depressing...she said.
In my opinion Judi's the one in the photo who actually looks better now, but then I'm biased!

        Afterwards she spent an hour signing the pre-publication books that we all bought...until John Miller had to leave to go back on stage to interview Maureen Lipman about her book.  Maureen said that following Judi Dench was as bad as having to follow Winston Churchill would be!

        Judi was asked her upcoming projects. In mentioning "Merry Wives of Windsor" she said she would like to say she was playing one of the wives but that she is playing Mistress Quickly. She said I'm even getting too old to play the nurse in "Romeo and Juliet"!

Lisa S, UK -- First hand account of her experience ...

Just thought I'd post the few bits I could remember from DJD's talk at Cheltenham yesterday.  Apologies for not remember more but maybe someone else will be able to fill in the gaps. A number of the stories were ones we'd heard before (in fact DJD even commented that she'd told them many times before and to say if we'd already heard them. No one said anything ;) so I wont' repeat those.)

* The new Bond (Casino Royale) was mentioned although it was more to do with the announcement of the new Bond rather than DJD's possible involvement with the film.

* On the photos included in 'Scenes from my life', she said she looked at the book from the back and worked to the front. This was in reference to a previous comment on how old they looked now ;)

* She loved working on Mrs Henderson Presents apart from one scene which was set on the river in a rowing boat. It took hours to film for something that's probably only going to be on screen for a second or two. She wasn't best pleased by having to sit in the boat for so long in high heels and fur coat, so that when she eventually did get back to shore and was offered a cup of tea, she shouted 'I don't want a cup of tea!!'. [this story was better heard, it doesn't translate onto the page very well!!]

* During the tapings of the ATGB specials in February, DJD and GP were asked to do some publicity photos. They went to a corner of the studio to discover it covered in snow with a Christmas tree in the corner, so they kind of figured the specials would be shown at Christmas ;)

* She hates the way she looks in the film 'Notes on a scandal' even though a woman in Eastbourne told her that 'She looked lovely'.

*She'd like to do more radio plays. The reason she had a 20 year absence from the RSC was because they hadn't asked her to anything before Greg Doran asked about AWTEW.

* When asked if she knew why people liked her so much she said she didn't know, but ventured it may be her sense of humour, or her girl next door appearance.

'Scenes from my life' was available to buy and get signed at the festival - a festival exclusive. It's a gorgeous book and I'd def. recommend getting hold of a copy when it's released on the 27th

A Special Thank You to Lisa S, UK, for sharing this with us

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