Why Ken loved his ding-dongs with Dame Judi
Kenneth Branagh said the secret of Judi Dench’s success is that ‘with her, every morning is Christmas morning’.
Branagh, who has worked with the thespian dame 11 times on stage and screen, talked to me following an awards season screening of their latest collaboration all Is true, about William Shakespeare’s return to Stratford — and his wife and two daughters — after a long absence in London, producing plays.
the two old friends portray the playwright and his wife, anne hathaway, in the film. Ian McKellen also features as the earl of Southampton, one of Shakespeare’s supporters.
Branagh, who directed the film, said Dench had signed on without reading the script or knowing what the story was about. he added that the mere mention of Dench’s name ‘produces an audible “aah!” She has that quality of delight’.
he recalled a comment Michael Williams, Dench’s late husband, made about his wife. ‘he said to me once: “With her, every morning is Christmas morning.”’
Branagh noted that ‘Judi leans into life and is genuinely interested in people, and that comes across in her performances; she’s right there, listening’.
‘She’s a lover of life, even though she’s had all the knocks, like everybody else.’
he added that working with her and McKellen on all Is true was like working with ‘two national treasures’.
In the movie, Shakespeare and his family are at crisis point as secrets are revealed. the powerful acting — and Ben elton’s screenplay — gives the audience a ringside seat.
‘I wanted you to feel as though you’re at somebody else’s domestic,’ Branagh said.
‘Where you go: “Oh my Christ, it’s kicking off!” It’s that stuff you recognise, because it happens in families.’
the film is being released by Sony in the U.S. on December 21; and here in the UK on February 8. Dench and McKellen have another joint project on the go: the Working title production of andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical stage show Cats.
McKellen told me that they’re rehearsing ‘at Cat School, writhing all over the floor’. (Sadly, he admitted later that he was only joking.)
I asked Dench what goes on in this ‘Cat School’, and she replied: ‘You might well ask. We’re seeing a lot of the dancers, and they’re extraordinarily good.’