DAME JUDI’S SPECIAL WOODLAND
Trees have long been a subject of fascination for the Oscar-winner and in a new documentary she reveals how she plants them for loved ones in her grounds after they have died
BEYOND the diamondpaned windows of her beautiful Surrey home lies Dame Judi Dench’s refuge, a place where she can laugh and cry, find solace and inspiration. This is the secret woodland she has nurtured for 30 years and kept hidden from all but her closest circle.
Now she opens it up to the cameras in a joyous and gorgeously filmed new documentary titled Judi Dench: My Passion For Trees, to be shown on BBC One later this month. She began developing the wood in her six-acre grounds with her late husband, actor Michael Williams, soon after they moved there in 1985.
It might have remained a covert project but for a chance meeting with producer Anthony Geffen, one of the world’s foremost documentary film-makers who has worked with Sir David Attenborough. “Judi told me about her love for trees,” says Geffen and when he suggested the idea of filming her enjoying the woodland and investigating its mysteries over the four seasons he was surprised by her reaction. “She was reluctant. She didn’t know if she could play herself.”
In fact Oscar-winning Dame Judi, who celebrates her 83rd birthday today, is captivating, squealing with joy as she builds up her knowledge of all things arboreal with the help of scientists and botanists. As Geffen says: “Audiences will experience a side of Judi they won’t have seen before, her love for trees, her passion for learning and her wonderful sense of humour.”
Dame Judi’s wit and impeccable comic timing is on view even when she reveals that her woodland is a living memorial to those she has loved and lost. Wooden plaques attached to various trees are dedicated to family members and to a number of often famous friends who have passed away.
“This is Stephen Hanley,” she says pointing to a slim, white tree. “He was a lovely, lovely actor and singer in A Little Night Music at the National. He died and we put it in and it’s just like him. He was tall and kind of pale and it’s lovely.” There is also a tree for Shakespearean actor Alan Rickman who reached a wider audience as the evil Hans Gruber in the 1988 film Die Hard.
DAME JUDI lovingly pats another tree. “This is Jeff, one of my brothers.” Jeffery Dench, an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, died in 2014 aged 86. She lost her eldest brother Peter, a former GP, in January this year. “Since I was a little girl and was taken to see my brothers in Shakespeare at St Peter’s School in York all I wanted was to be in those plays. In 60 years I’ve been involved with more than 30 of his plays.”
She moves on through the wood. “We’ve got Ian Richardson [the original House Of Cards actor] and Natasha Richardson, no relation. Ian and I were at Stratford together. Natasha [who died after a skiing accident in 2009 aged 45] – well, I was at Central drama school with her mother Vanessa Redgrave. And this,” she pauses for breath, “is Michael.”
The plaque says Mike and is for her husband who died in 2001 of lung cancer at 65. They had been married since 1971. She didn’t plant a new tree for Michael. “This one was here already so it’s not a 16-year old tree but it was a young tree at the time. Planting trees is about remembering and something that is living that goes on.
“So you don’t just remember loved ones and stop, you remember