Dame Judi: the dead live on as trees planted in my secret wood
DAME JUDI DENCH has created a wood in her back garden by planting trees in remembrance of friends, relatives and actors who have died, she discloses in a documentary.
The actress, 82, said she had been naming trees after dead acquaintances for decades at her six-acre plot in Surrey, and said she viewed them as her “extended family”.
In the one-hour documentary, Judi Dench, My Passion For Trees, she told film makers how she had planted trees in memory of Robert Hardy, Ian Richardson and Natasha Richardson, the actors, as well as Michael Williams, her late husband who died in 2001.
“Ever since I was a little girl I have been interested in trees,” she said. “I’ve even turned my six-acre garden into a secret woodland, and I see my trees as my extended family. My life now is just trees. Trees and champagne.” She added: “It is about remembering and for me it’s something that’s living and goes on, The memory goes on and gets more wonderful.”
Dame Judi spent a year working alongside Tony Kirkham, head of the arboretum at Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, to learn more about the annual life cycle of trees, and how they “communicate” via underground networks.
The film crew followed her as she used a special microphone to listen to the sound of sap travelling up an oak tree. Dame Judi said filming the documentary had changed her view on the lives of trees. “Beneath our feet is a huge network. Not only can they send messages but they can share food and water between other trees,” she said.
“I’ve loved trees all my life but after this year I will never be able to look at them in the same way, I will never be able to walk so nonchalantly through a woodland ever again. It’s mind blowing.” Judi Dench: My Passion For Trees will air on BBC One at 8pm on Wednesday Dec 20.