WEBVTT - Dame Judi Dench 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.840 Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:12.039 adamized studios. 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:15.800 Name. Judy Dench is not just a national and international treasure, 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:20.280 She's an interplanetary treasure if there is life on Mars. 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:26.400 They're talking about her most recent performance. Judy is a 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:29.920 woman of warmth, a woman of wit. A friend tells 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:32.600 a story that when he mentioned to Judy hadn't seen 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:36.920 the royal family, Judy replied, tell me when you're coming, 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:41.080 and I'll be sure to overact for you. After record 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:45.559 this conversation, Judy's having lunch in the river Cafe. We 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.040 are planning to definitely overcook for this woman. A friend. 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.000 I admire respect and adore. 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:05.480 Goodness on the mains while we've got these beautiful, really 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.160 sweet grapes at the moment, which passed so well with 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:09.200 the grouse. 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.240 And there's turbot and sea. 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:13.360 Bears, oh my worm monsfish. 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:15.959 You can have everything. We have had people come and 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:16.840 order everything on. 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.319 The and did they stay for a month or per 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:28.080 a month? Yeah? Yeah, a month? Yeah. 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:32.440 I always say a recipe is half science and half poetry, 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.600 and so we're going to skip the science and read 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:37.000 the poetry. How about that. 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:40.160 Yes, well, I would love to have read a recipe 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.959 or even given you a recipe, but we'll come to 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:46.040 that data. But you are talking to the worst cook 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:52.760 in Britain. And I wasn't a sonnet about food, But 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.280 I just know. This is one poem, but it's Hilaire Belloc, 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:58.400 and it's about Henry. 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:00.600 King, Henry King, Henry King. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.560 Here he goes. The chief defect of Henry King was 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:08.359 chewing little bits of string. At last he swallowed some 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:13.000 that tied itself in ugly knots inside. Physicians of the 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.640 utmost fame were called at once, But when they came, 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.800 they answered, as they took their fees, there is no 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:22.840 cure for this disease. Henry will very soon be dead. 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:27.360 His parents stood about his bed, lamenting his untimely death. 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.720 When Henry cried with latest breath, Oh, my friends, be 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:37.359 warned by me that breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea are 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:43.920 all the human frame requires. With that, the wretched child expires. 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.440 The wretched child. So as he worke of this poem, 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.880 he was quite a lectural Bellock, wasn't he. He liked 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.920 to tell everyone what to do, and children how to 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:54.520 be polite. 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:59.639 It's rather sad. He was rather grim. I think that Bellock, well, 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:01.520 you know. 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.720 There's a message, right, don't snack? Is that the message? 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:06.200 Or you might don't snack? 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.880 What was it like growing up? We grew up in Yorkshire. 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.640 I did. I was born in York. My brothers were 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:20.720 born in Lancashire. My mother was from Dublin, my father 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.120 from Dorset and who went to Dublin. And recently in 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.320 the last year I found out that my mother's side 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:31.200 of the family is Danish and goes back to somebody 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:37.160 who worked at Elsino in fact Son and was there 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:42.560 when Shakespeare's first company went over there. I was brought 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:46.080 up during the war. I was five when the war 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.520 broke out, and we were very lucky because my pa 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:53.320 was a doctor and he used to visit all the 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.680 farms all around York as well as York itself, and 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.760 everyone used to say, Oh, do have a chicken, Do 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.800 have goose? Do have a duck? We were really lucky 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.640 and that way we had we always had food and things. 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:11.280 And that's also where we had sixteen cats, because there 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.440 was nobody else in the neighbors sixteen cats. We did 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.960 sixteen because nobody wanted their. 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:19.920 Pets, you know, they all need them. 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:22.680 Put them out, But they all came round to our place. 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:24.200 It was a triumph. 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.720 And who would cook the food? Would your mother? Would 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:28.359 you sit down to family meals? 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:28.840 Yes? 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.320 Or how many would you have siblings? Who did? 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.440 Two brothers, two brothers older than me? But and we 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.960 always had the house full of friends. Meals were a 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.520 great thing. I'm always trying to say. Now, you know, 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.559 do enjoy sitting down at the table and not looking 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:47.120 at the phone if possible? 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:49.839 What was it like the meal time at your house? 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:51.839 Was there always a discussion. 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:55.480 And always singing, singing, a lot of singing. My ma 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:59.919 playing the piano. My father could recite the whole of 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.640 more Darthur. My brother Jeff, who was an actor long 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.760 before me and at Stratford, used to know reams of 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:11.960 Shakespeare and it was a kind of I think that 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.600 was in the family very much before that. People used 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:17.880 to be able to I mean I remember sitting on 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:22.640 the stairs and hearing friends who were invited around, and 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.520 somebody singing and playing the piano, and you know, you 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:28.080 couldn't miss the arts. 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.320 So when you think of your early meals, you think 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:32.520 more of the performance. 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:37.160 I think only of family meals round the table, and 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:45.719 it was a family thing that you wouldn't miss because 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:49.320 that's when you got to actually discuss things and talk 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:50.000 about things. 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:51.279 Who would cook? 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.360 My mom would, or we had a wonderful person called Sissy. 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.360 What did she cook? Because your actually has a very 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:00.640 definite regional food. 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.000 It was course, it was mostly what you could afford 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.919 to get. And I remember there was a market in 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.760 New York, a wonderful market. You'd go around and people 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.359 would come in and they'd have a chicken in a basket, 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.599 you know, all prepared for cooking and things. And I 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.240 mean I could get the rations for five people when 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.400 I was six. I could easily go and carry the 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:27.599 rations which were so minimal for everybody. But I never 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:33.120 remember Ruthy being hungry or thinking, gosh, you know, I 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:34.920 wish there was more of this. I don't remember that. 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:37.719 We were red really lucky. 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:41.400 And your father didn't go away. He was he was 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:42.680 away in the First World War. 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:47.280 He was he was a hero. He got the military 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:50.120 Cross and bar he got do you know where he was? 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:53.400 He was in Arras and then because of a knee 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:59.240 injury that he'd got, he was sent home to have 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:04.240 and that way he got he was not at Passiondale 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:12.160 was just fantastically well lucky is not really the word. 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:15.160 And so for your father to have been in the 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:16.360 war and then come home. 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:21.880 I know, it was an extraordinary thing. And I knew, 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.720 I knew about his record, but I didn't know it 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:28.000 was quite so illustrious, which it was. 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:31.000 And do you think that do you think your parents 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:36.640 wanted to be actors or to be singers or part 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:37.400 of their nature? 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:42.200 No, my father there was an amateur group in New 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:46.200 York called the Settlement Players. My power and were part 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:48.000 of that. Mammy never wanted to act, which she was 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:51.400 wonderful seamstress and could make costumes and things like that. 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.040 And then when it came to the mystery plays the 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.840 miracle plays, when they were done for the first time, 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:01.480 Daddy played and asked the High Priest and we were 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:06.800 a lot of us were auditioned by Martin Brown. I 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:09.120 were to quake a board in school in York, and 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.680 we were, we made angels, we were, We had a 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:15.600 wonderful time, wonderful time. 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.080 You remember the first auditions that would have been what 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:19.120 age was your first. 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.800 Wee It wasn't really an audition. They just came and 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.120 said you, you, you, you, and you. 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.000 And when did you know that that's what you wanted 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:28.240 to do? 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:32.640 What I wanted to do, not ages, not for not 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:38.800 until fifty three, because I wanted to be a designer, 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:43.880 stage design, stage designer. But I was taken to Stratford 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.280 by my parents and saw Michael Redgrave in Leah, and 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:57.160 I can remember seeing this set which completely changed my idea. 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.480 During your holidays at school, I had assisted Voit, the 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:05.880 designer York rep, painting sets for him, and I only 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:11.440 really understood plays by three acts. You know, you design 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:13.240 one act and then the curtain would come down. You 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.040 change a few things and we'll go on. But for 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:22.840 Lear at Stratford, it was the most phenomenal set that 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:28.080 never changed. It was a huge flat disc that revolved 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:30.600 with a rock in the middle of it that was 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.760 the throne or the cave or nothing had to be changed. 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:39.559 The whole boy was kind of continuous, and that I thought, no, goodbye, 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:41.959 York Art School, I'm going to try for Central. 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:47.120 When you went on these theatrical journeys with your parents, 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.440 you went to Stratford, you went to the theater in 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.880 New York, would you go to a restaurant before or after? 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.000 Was that part of the evening? Was that part of 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:55.760 the experience. 0:09:56.000 --> 0:10:02.319 It was partly, but probably. We were always in a rush, 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.520 always in a rush to get things on time. But 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.439 there was a restaurant that we used to that used 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:14.760 to be the most enormous street to go to outside York, 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:17.240 and we used to cycle there. 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:20.319 This would be post war. 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.640 This would be that was post war. Yes, but we 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:29.440 all had bikes, so that was the greatest. And go 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:33.839 to a restaurant simply wonderful. It's called the bider we 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:40.400 It was wonderful. It was wonderful food. I mean, not 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:44.040 investigated in any way, not in any way. 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.880 And so what are the dishes of your childhood that 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:51.239 you remember that? Did you have Yorkshire pudding? 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.320 We did have. I tell you something. Tell me we 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.800 used to have at school. I used to try and 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.080 stay away on a Tuesday because they used to do 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:07.080 Yorkshire pudding with treacle. Now even now that's that was 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:08.000 really so. 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.560 It was a dessert, or they served the treacle Yorkshire 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:11.240 pudding with beef. 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:18.079 It's so disgusting that it was always on a Tuesday. 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:21.600 And I used to feign illness on a Tuesday, and 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.000 on about the third or fourth Tuesday, Mama said, this 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:29.079 is something about school. This is not to do with illness. 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:33.400 And it was the Yorkshire pudding with a tree school 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:35.800 that was at my prep school. 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.600 But that's food was important to you. Food mattered. 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.920 It didn't matter because of course during the war, of course, 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.520 it was just something to sustain you. And as I 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:52.720 say it, because of my power visiting right around in 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:56.120 the country, we were just so lucky that we had 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.520 enough to eat, but so many people didn't know. 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:04.000 I often think that when people are very critical of 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.920 food in Britain in the fifties or even the sixties, 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.280 Britain had come out of a war, They came out 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.480 of rationing, they came out of kitchen gardens where people 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:19.440 didn't have food. And to go from that to you know, 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.840 grand cuisine or to cooking, it seems so unfair to 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:28.000 criticize a nation that had suffered food wise to being 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.720 critical of you know, the way they cooked. 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:31.080 You know. 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.199 So I feel it must have been very tough. 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.640 Yes, it was. It was just a question of giving 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.840 you something that filled you, yeah, you know. 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:42.120 Yeah, But also I mean, I love the idea of 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:45.840 your mother cooking a goose, or cooking duck, or cooking 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:47.600 the food that was getting. 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:51.080 We grew on the vegetables, grew the vegetables in the 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:55.960 garden and next door it was the most wonderful pear tree. 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:59.880 And my brother and I Jeff, the younger of my 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.720 two brothers, used to get a rake and rake the 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:08.240 pears off the tree into the garden. Yeah, it was 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:09.480 quite a lot of peary. 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:12.280 What would you do legal? What would you was illegal? 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:16.800 Was it because it wasn't your tree? Okay? There? What 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.240 would you remember what your mother would cook with the pears? 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:20.800 Which is stud them or would you have I. 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.079 Think she would, yes, I think she would studio or 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:24.200 we just let them, you know. 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.240 Yeah, delicious fruit pears, aren't they do? Still like them? 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:31.920 I like pears. I quite like pears. Yeah, I've got 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:34.319 a picture of you in the garden actually recently. 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:37.440 What's your garden like? Did you have a garden? I 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:38.559 have a beautiful crowd. 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:43.200 Yes, I grew trees, mostly trees. There were lots of 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:48.160 different trees. But we have some apples and one of 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:52.160 them is a russt, which is very nice. And we have, 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.000 as I say, these pear trees. We had a wonderful 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.200 green gage tree, but it came down in a storm. 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:14.439 Yeah, gageous, very very British green cages. So doing the menus, 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.600 Eliza had a blank sheet of paper. She came in 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:19.400 the morning. It's ratter like your house. You go on 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.960 the fridge, you see what's there, you see what's been ordered. 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:26.360 You've sort of also, you know, we're always thinking about 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:28.280 what I always think, what would I want to you 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:30.920 for lunch today? 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.640 You're not coming to my house fridge? And I begged 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:35.120 you are. 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:40.800 I was so excited to make this beautiful clam taggerini, 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.720 which I know Ruthie's is one of Ruthie's favorite pastors. 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:48.880 Where we cook the bongolay in advance with garlic and 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:51.480 parsi stalks in chili, and then we pick all the 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:55.640 clams out of their shells and reduce the white wine 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.160 and the olive oil and the butter, and then we 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.120 toss that through fresh handk tagerini, which is one of 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.440 my favorite things that I've ever had at a. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:04.239 Ri of a cafe. 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.680 And we've also got this amazing slow cooked pheasant and 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:12.200 partridge sauce which is a ragou that we make with 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.520 lots of different wildbirds at this time of year, and 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:19.560 we put chestnuts and mince panchatta in and that's really wonderful. 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.240 Now we're really talking. 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:28.680 We do write our menu every day. 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:32.920 It makes it special and exciting, which is what a 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.040 restaurant should be and isn't very much. 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:45.320 When you left this Mother's wonderful family of theater and 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:49.000 cooking goose and sitting around the table and singing songs 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:54.920 and having friends over, it sounds so warm and so inclusive. 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.160 What was it like when you actually then came to 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.400 London and food wise? Were you're on a budget? Did 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:03.240 you have to cook it out? What did you do? 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:09.440 I've never had never I had to tell you a 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:14.040 story that when I was awarded the O B E 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.720 and my agent at the time had been in Central 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:22.360 with me, Julian Belfridge. He came down to lunch and 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:27.119 I gave him lamb cutlets. I made an enormous effort. 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:29.680 He finished them, and whatever I gave him I can't 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:35.160 remember for a dessert. And he sat back and he said, well, 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.000 I'll tell you something, Judy. He said, you didn't get 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:44.760 the ob for cooking. Nothing like having a support of 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:50.480 It's good to be told, isn't it. It's good. There 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:51.760 was a time what did. 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:53.720 You eat there? You are going to. 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.320 When we were old that when we got well, when 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.440 we got to central, Oh, it was it was glorious. 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:04.359 We used to go to it was somewhere in Kensington 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:08.280 High Street. But we used to also go to a 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:14.240 restaurant called a Capernina in Soho and that was the 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:15.399 greatest treat. 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:16.960 So that was Italian food. 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:20.359 That was Italian field. It was absolutely and it was affordable. 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.080 You could do so they're on a student budget. 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.760 Just about just about it. But it were nice to 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.879 be taken there. I must stay. That was an enormous treat. 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.760 Do you remember a kind of multicultural restaurants? You remember 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:34.320 Indian because a lot of you know, the cheapest food, 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:39.520 certainly when I came in the sixties was Greek, Indian, Chinese. 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:42.600 I mean that was a huge treat to be able 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:49.440 to eat, you know, to eat Chinese and as say, Italian, 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:53.439 and it was a real luxury. And suddenly to be 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:56.600 able to go to go or be taken to somewhere 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.920 and you have the luxury of really the choice of 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.600 things to have to eat, and you know, I'll never 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:04.600 take that for granted. 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.439 I don't think were you ever hungry as a student? 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:08.920 Did you were the days? 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:13.080 I don't ever remember that. 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.400 You probably had a grant to do the days when 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:17.440 they know I didn't have a grant. 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:21.640 I lived in QA Queen Alexandra's house, which is right 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:26.560 by the Albert Hall where Central was, and so all 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:28.200 that was I don't know my phone. 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.760 They did, they did. That's good. 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:34.080 Yeah, so we were lucky. 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:40.400 Yeah, and suddenly started getting roles at the National Theater. 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:45.280 I went straight to the VIC. But I mean I've 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:51.920 never been I've never been a good cook, or even 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:55.320 any cook of any kind. So you I have tried. 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.280 I have tried. I can do two things. I can 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:02.040 make white sauce and I can make gravy. Oh well 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:04.840 that's pretty good. I'd say, that's all I can do. 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:09.320 But I used to at the VIC. Alec McCowan was 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:11.040 at the VIC at the same time as me, and 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.040 he used to live in the King's Road but three 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.480 minutes from my flat. We used to have Sunday lunch 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:22.600 together and he used to cook and he used to always, 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:24.600 I mean, it would be a very usual thing. We 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.720 were in the importance together. And you know we knew 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:29.359 each other frankly, but he used to send me a 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.639 little note saying, would the gravy Queen or the white 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:38.800 sauce Queen come on Sunday and have lunch? And he 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:39.560 did all the rest. 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.000 You were at the old Fake Who are the directors 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:43.320 that you? 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:48.200 Oh, Michael Bentley, Michael Bentle at the VIC and Doug 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:54.679 his seal and oh it was house in days. I 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:59.720 loved it and I despite having had not very good 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:03.840 notice Isophilia, which is my first part. I remember Michael 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:07.280 Bentel said, he said, we'll just get over these notices. 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:10.000 He said, you will get better. And he said, I'll 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.879 go on employing you and you can play small parts 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:15.480 and walk on, but you can stay at the VIC. 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:22.040 And you know that that was such. I was so lucky. 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:26.679 And then the National and then Nottingham Playhouse with Johnny Neville, 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:30.160 Who's Hamlet. When I went to the VIC and we 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:33.679 took he was we were the very first company to 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:34.960 ever go to West Africa. 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:36.439 Do you remember that very well? 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.160 I remember it very well. Indeed, there's set plays were 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:46.119 Twelfth Night, mac Beth and Arms and the Man. What 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.960 was the audience young children, young people at school, and 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.000 the British Council was the British Council. 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:56.960 And do you remember the culture of food there? 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:57.320 I do? 0:20:58.040 --> 0:20:59.960 I do. The food was the. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:04.600 Food a kind of stew, probably are quite meat based, 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:07.120 might well have been which which actually is a question 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:08.160 I also like to ask. 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.800 Would when you act, when you're in a play, do 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:12.760 you eat before? 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:13.880 Do you know after? 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:16.040 You need to tell me about you you're in a play. 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:18.119 You might be doing a matinee. 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:19.600 And sometimes think you're lucky for it. Do you get 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:20.480 to eat in the play? 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:24.000 I know you have a story about that, but if 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:26.240 you're if you might not be eating in the play. 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:28.879 So there's a day you're in a play in the 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.200 West End or at the National or at the Old Vic, 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:33.800 and you wake up in the morning and you know 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.440 you have a matinee and you have an evening performance. 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:40.560 Judy Dench, what would you what would your day be like? 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:45.040 In terms of I probably I probably I'd have coffee 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:48.639 in the morning or tea. I wouldn't eat very much. 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:53.520 I wouldn't eat much before. I'd eat just something before 0:21:53.640 --> 0:22:02.959 mattering it not much, not lunch, and mostly eat afterwards. 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:05.719 After the evening performance or after the matinee. 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:07.080 After the evening before. 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.359 Yeah, that's a very I like going to see a 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:13.320 friend of friends I have in the theater and then 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:16.639 going out. They always like to go out for dinner afterwards, 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:18.359 and there's some joyousness. 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:21.560 Is dinner after It is wonderful as long as you 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:23.959 don't have a match the next day. Do you know? 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:28.840 That's tricky, But I'm in the luxury of doing do 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:31.560 shows and knowing you're going out to dinner afterwards. Yeah, 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:33.240 it's just glorious. 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:35.280 And then other nights you would just go home and 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:36.840 crash or did was there a kind. 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:38.720 Of home and crash? Probably? Probably? 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:41.520 I always say that there's sort of links between the 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:43.920 theater of a restaurant and the theater of the theater. 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:46.959 You know that we have a kind of curtain up 0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:50.879 at a certain time, and then there's the performance, and 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:54.320 then there's after the performance. And if I do an 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:57.600 evening I can sometimes do a night where the curtain 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.479 goes up. I use somebody walks in and you're ready 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:03.360 and you know it's going to be a great night, 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:06.640 or you just know sometimes even just by the way 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:09.960 the first table sits down, or the way, perhaps one 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:11.760 of the chefs is coming a bit late, or they 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:15.000 seem a bit tired, that maybe it's not going to 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:17.959 go so well. And then sometimes the one that the 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:20.359 ones that you think won't are the best nights, and 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:23.000