Judi 'M' Dench Included in Times Legends Issue

Dame Judi Dench, who has played 007's boss 'M' in the film series since 1995, was included in a special 'Legends' issue of The Times magazine on 11 September. The magazine was devoted to the UK's favourite over-70-year-olds, and Dame Judi was included alongside other stars and famous celebrities such as Raquel Welsh, Mary Quant, Stirling Moss and Seamus Heaney.

The magazine noted that, at 75, Dame Judi 'is busier and more impetuous than ever', and growing old 'has not diminished Dench but enhanced her popularity'. As well as her huge reputation as a theatre star, in the past 15 years she has also grown into 'a proper Hollywood star', nominated for six Oscars in nine years. As The Times put it: 'Far from being a gentle fading out, her later life has turned into a majestic Act V'.

The magazine's interview with Dench took place at the National Theatre on London's South Bank, which is just a few bridges down from the MI6 headquarters besides the Thames at Vauxhall Bridge (which was the start, of course, of the famous boat chase in 'The World Is Not Enough'). Dench revealed to The Times that she once had 'a thrilling lunch' with former MI6 head Sir David Spedding and some SIS officers: 'They were absolutely charming. Nobody looked like anybody who would be listening into something. They looked very, very respectable people', she said.

The Times magazine noted that her next outing as 'M' in Bond 23 has been put on hold because of MGM's financial problems, but she 'loves playing M' and bossing Bond around. Interestingly, when the magazine interviewer remarked about the difficulty of understanding the plot and 'fast-cut' editing of 'Quantum of Solace', Dench declared: 'Yes, I know, it was hard, wasn't it? I didn't have a clue what was going on. I just did my bit, as I was told. I should know, though, shouldn't I, being all-knowing, all-seeing M'.

Dench's next film project is 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel', which will be directed by John Madden, who was responsible for the hit movie 'Shakespeare In Love'. The new film concerns a group of English old-age pensioners who retire to a care home in Bangalore. Other names attached to the film are, reportedly, Peter O'Toole and Julie Christie.   

Towards the end of the interview, reflecting on her general acting career, Dame Judi commented: 'I could never retire. I'd be bored stiff'.