DENCH FINDS HER FAMILY'S LINK TO HAMLET

Dame Judi Dench has uncovered a family link to Hamlet, in the form of an ancestor who was lady-in-waiting to the queen of Denmark.

The actress's 10-times-great-aunt was a lady-in-waiting at Kronborg Castle in Helsingor, which was immortalized in Shakespeare's play under its English name Elsinore. The link was revealed as Dench learned about her family history for the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?

Her six-times-great-grandfather, an Irishman, married a woman from Copenhagen in the 17th-century. “I just will never stop talking about it. I'm a Dane! Heaven!” Dench said. “I look in the mirror all the time now and think `aah, Scandinavia!' It's just been an extraordinary adventure like starting a play (and) not knowing your part in it.”

Dench made her professional debut in 1957 in Hamlet at the Old Vic, playing Ophelia. In 1989, she returned to the play at the National Theatre, playing Gertrude opposite Daniel Day-lewis.

Dench, 86, told Radio Times that she agreed to take part in the show because she was “very intrigued” about her past. She knew that her father, Reginald, was awarded the Military Cross for his actions in the First World War, but he never discussed his experiences.

In the course of the program, she learned more about his record and the bravery he showed in battle at Ypres.

“My father, like so many men who survived the First and Second World Wars, rarely spoke about it,” she said.