Judi Dench shares how she harassed her neighbour
Los Angeles, July 12
English actress Judi Dench has a certain elegance when it comes to her on-screen characters but it turns out she wasn't always a model neighbour.
The actress recently admitted that she once shoved a dead rat through her neighbour's letterbox, reports 'Mirror.co.uk'.
The actress, 91, revealed what she did on the BBC's This Natural Life podcast. She started by admitting to host Martha Kearney that it was a "terrible story" and clarified that it was the idea of her two older brothers, Jeffery and Peter.
She said, "The boys used to play cricket in the garden, and they used to be always batting the balls over into the other gardens, and there was a lady called Miss Lazenby, and she never ever would throw the ball back, or give us the balls back".
"And once the boys found a dead rat in the barn, and they parcelled it up, and they said to me, 'Judi, will you just go round and put this through Miss Lazenby's door?'", she added.
The actress, who has played both Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, shared, "So I did go and squeeze it through Miss Lazenby's door. Miss Lazenby was rather red about it saying, 'please give us our balls back'. We wrote that message, it was tied on the dead rat".
As per 'Mirror.co.uk', the actress was asked if the message and the rat were successful in forcing Miss Lazenby to give back the balls, to which she said "probably not". She added that her brothers were banned from playing cricket shortly after. Since her rat-posting days in York, where she grew up, Dench has gone on to build a tremendous career as one of the UK's most beloved actors.
She has played iconic characters, including the two queens, M in three James Bond films and the snobby Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride & Prejudice. For her role as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare In Love, she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, despite only being in the film for eight minutes. She has also been nominated for several more Oscars including for her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown. Alongside her Oscar, she has also won ten BAFTAs across film and TV, two Golden Globes, two SAG awards, seven Oliviers and a Tony.
— IANS
Reader Comments
As an Indian, I find this story quite amusing but also slightly concerning. The poor neighbour probably had a heart attack! But it's important to remember this was 80+ years ago when kids had more freedom to roam and get into mischief. Today's parents would never allow this. Miss Lazenby must have been quite a character to refuse returning the cricket balls. 😊
This is pure British eccentricity at its finest. In America, we'd call the police and the dead rat would be evidence. But in England, it's a funny story shared on a podcast. Love how she still remembers it so vividly at 91. Shows what a great memory she has. Also, only eight minutes of screen time and she won an Oscar - that's legendary.
Okay, but can we talk about how she played Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, AND M in James Bond? Absolute versatility! And this rat story just shows she's human after all. In India, we have similar stories of celebrities getting into trouble as kids - like how Amitabh Bachchan used to climb trees and jump into pools. Childhood is childhood everywhere. 🐀
I appreciate her honesty, but I can't help feeling sorry for Miss Lazenby. The poor lady just didn't want kids trampling her garden to fetch cricket balls. As an Indian who grew up playing gully cricket, I know how annoying it can be when neighbours refuse to return the ball. But a dead rat? That's next level. Her brothers were clearly the masterminds here. 🤔
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