Hands up anyone who can spot the obvious mistake

DAME Judi Dench is a woman of many parts — and hands, judging by this portrait of the 83-year-old actress by royal artist Michael Noakes which has just been unveiled at the Society of Portrait Painters’ annual exhibition on the Mall.

Noakes, whose portrait of the Queen graces Prince Charles’s wall, explains: ‘Judi was impossible to pin down to do the sitting and now when her portrait is unveiled in Mall Galleries she tells me she won’t be there because she has to go to hospital for an eye appointment.

‘ That is why I portrayed Judi with three arms, showing her in a rushed state.’