Long before America knew Dame Judi Dench as “M” in James Bond, or as Queen Elizabeth I watching Romeo and Juliette at the Globe or even more recently as Miss Matty in Cranford, she was an honored and greatly loved star of stage and the BBC television. The Judi Dench Collection brings a group of nine BBC productions to American viewers in a set that is a theater lover’s dream!
Judi Dench has performed in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard twice for the BBC. The first production in 1962 and the later in 1981, and both are included in this collection. It is fascinating to watch the two performances for the scope of Dame Judi’s acting ability, she plays the young Anya in 1962 and the aristocratic Madame Ranevsky in 1981.
She won the Best Television Actress BAFTA Award in 1981 for the combined performances in The Cherry Orchard, Going Gently and her sitcom A Fine Romance. These performances alone would be a treat, but the collection has even more treasures.
Included in this fine set are the BBC drama Talking To A Stranger, by John Hopkins which is a collection of four plays into a single entity. Each part is told from a different point of view and this is the production for which Judi Dench won her first BAFTA. Keep an Eye on Amelie from 1973 is a French farce in which Dame Judi plays the coquette Amelie involved in a plan to help Marcel (Patrick Cargill) stay a bachelor AND get all the money.
In Going Gently one of the performances that won her the 1981 BAFTA, Judi Dench plays Sister Scarli a nurse who has the care of two men in hospice who have to share a room although they hate each other. Ibsen’s Ghosts from BBC 1987 is a dark and shocking drama about the depths of moral degradation.
It nearly ruined the author’s career when it was published in 1881, and the performances of Judi Dench and Michael Gambon as well as Kenneth Branaugh and Natasha Richardson are chillingly horrific. Make and Break is a comedy about a businessman who is just too work driven to recognize that his devoted secretary is mad about him, until a convention in Frankfort. In Can You Hear Me Thinking? BBC 1990, Judi Dench starred with her real-life husband Michael Williams as parents of a sixteen year old boy who is diagnosed with schizophrenia.
In 1991 Judi Dench starred in Absolute Hell a dark comedy by Anthony Ackland where she plays the owner of a seedy sort of nightclub in post WWII London.
Along with the BBC plays, the collection includes interviews with Judi Dench from 1985, 1996, and 2002. She sings “Send In the Clowns” from A Little Night Music at the end of the 1996 interview.
There are also three radio plays included. With Great Pleasure, is a program where celebrities read from their favorite literary works. Are You Still Awake? And Amy’s View.
The collection is presented on 8 discs with a playing time of 19 hours. Close captions are available. Included in the attractively packaged set, is an illustrated booklet with explanatory notes and discussion of the life and career of Dame Judi Dench. Very nice!
The Judi Dench Collection is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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