WEBVTT - From the Archive: Dame Judi Dench 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.120 You are listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:13.880 Montclair name Judy Dench is not just a national and 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:19.360 international treasure, She's an interplanetary treasure if there is life 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:25.960 on Mars. They're talking about her most recent performance. Judy 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.000 is a woman of warmth, a woman of wit. A 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.640 friend tells a story that when he mentioned to Judy 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:36.159 hadn't seen the royal family, Judy replied, tell me when 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:39.120 you're coming, and I'll be sure to overact for you. 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:44.640 After record this conversation, Judy's having lunch in the river Cafe. 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:49.400 We are planning to definitely overcook for this woman, a 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.879 friend I admire, respect and adore. 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.679 On the mains while we've got these beautiful, really sweet 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:09.039 grapes at the moment which passed so well with the grouse. 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:13.200 And there's turbot and sea bears, oh my worm monsterish 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:15.760 you can have everything. We have had people come and 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:16.640 order everything on. 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.120 The and did they stay for a month or per 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:20.520 a month? 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:28.600 Yeah? Yeah, for a month. Yeah. I always say a 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:33.000 recipe is half science and half poetry, and so we're 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:36.240 going to skip the science and read the poetry. How 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:36.800 about that? 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.959 Yes, well, I would love to have read a recipe, 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.720 or even given you a recipe, but we'll come to 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:45.959 that later. But you are talking to the worst cookie 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:52.200 in Britain. And I think it wasn't a sonnet about food. 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:56.080 But I just know this one poem, but it's Hilaire Belloc, 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:57.600 and it's about. 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.400 Henry King, Henry King, Henry King. 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.320 Here he goes. The chief defect of Henry King was 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:08.160 chewing little bits of string. At last he swallowed some 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:12.800 that tied itself in ugly knots inside. Physicians of the 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.440 utmost fame were called at once, But when they came, 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.600 they answered, as they took their fees, there is no 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.640 cure for this disease. Henry will very soon be dead. 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.160 His parents stood about his bed, lamenting his untimely death. 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.519 When Henry cried with latest breath, Oh, my friends, be 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:37.160 warned by me that breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea are 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:43.720 all the human frame requires. With that, the wretched child expires. 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:47.799 The wretched child. So as he make of this poem, Well, 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.680 he was quite a lectural Bellock, wasn't he. He liked 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.680 to tell everyone what to do, and children how to 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:54.320 be polite. 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:56.519 It's rather sad. He was rather grim. 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:02.679 I think that Bellock, well, it's you know, there's a message, right, 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.000 don't snack? Is that the message? Or you might don't snack? 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:12.880 What was it like growing up? You grew up in Yorkshire? 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.440 I did. I was born in York. My brothers were 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.520 born in Lancashire. My mother was from Dublin, my father 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.920 from Dorset and who went to Dublin. And recently in 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:27.160 the last year I found out that my mother's side 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:31.000 of the family is Danish and goes back to somebody 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:36.920 who worked at elsinore in fact Son and was there 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:42.360 when Shakespeare's first company went over there. I was brought 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.880 up during the war. I was five when the war 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.440 broke out, and we were very lucky because my power 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:53.120 was a doctor and he used to visit all the 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:56.480 farms all around York as well as York itself, and 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.560 everyone used to say, Oh, do have a chicken, Do 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:03.600 have goose? Do have a duck? We were really lucky 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.440 and that way we had we always had food and things. 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.040 And that's also where we had sixteen cats, because there 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.240 was nobody else in the neighbors sixteen cats. We did 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.799 sixteen because nobody wanted their. 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:19.880 Pets, you know, they all need them. 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.480 Put them out, But they all came round to our place. 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:24.000 It was a triumph. 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.559 And who would cook the food? Would your mother? Would 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:28.120 you sit down to family meals? 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:28.640 Yes? 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.120 Or how many you have siblings? Who did? 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:35.200 Two brothers, two brothers older than me? But and we 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.760 always had the house full of friends. Meals were a 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.320 great thing. I'm always trying to say. Now, you know, 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.360 do enjoy sitting down at the table and not looking 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:46.919 at the phone if possible? 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:49.640 What was it like the meal time at your house? 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:51.400 Was there always a discussion and. 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:55.760 Always singing, singing, a lot of singing. My ma playing 0:04:55.800 --> 0:05:00.679 the piano. My father could recite the whole of them, Arthur. 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.919 My brother Jeff, who was an actor long before me 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.960 and at Stratford, used to know reams of Shakespeare and 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:12.279 it was kind of I think that was in the 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.840 family very much before that. People used to be able 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:18.440 to I mean, I remember sitting on the stairs and 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:23.920 hearing friends who were invited around, and somebody singing and 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:27.880 playing the piano, and you know, you couldn't miss the arts. 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.120 So when you think of your early meals, you think 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:32.279 more of the performance. 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:36.960 I think only of family meals round the table, and 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:45.479 it was a family thing that you wouldn't miss because 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.080 that's when you got to actually discuss things and talk 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:50.080 about things and. 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:51.080 Who would cook. 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.520 My mom would cook, or we had a wonderful person 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:55.160 called Sissy. 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.159 What did she cook? As your actually has a very 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.440 definite regional food. 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:03.800 It was course, it was mostly what you could afford 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.719 to get. And I remember there was a market in 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.559 New York, a wonderful market. You'd go around and people 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:12.159 would come in and they'd have a chicken in a basket, 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:16.400 you know, all prepared for cooking and things. And I 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.039 mean I could get the rations for five people when 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.200 I was six. I could easily go and carry the 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:27.400 rations which were so minimal for everybody. But I never 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:32.919 remember Ruthy being hungry or thinking, gosh, you know, I 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:33.960 wish there was more of this. 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.520 I don't remember remember that we were in red really lucky, 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.160 and your father didn't go away. He was he was 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:42.520 away in the First World War. 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:47.080 He was he was a hero. He got the military 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.919 Cross and bar he got so you know where he was. 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:53.239 He was in Arras and then because of a knee 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:59.039 injury that he'd got, he was sent home to have 0:06:59.440 --> 0:06:59.920 and that. 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:02.240 He got. 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:10.880 He was not at Passiondale was just fantastically well lucky 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:11.960 is not really the word. 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:14.920 And so for your father to have been in the 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:16.720 war and then come home, I. 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:22.440 Know, it was an extraordinary thing. And I knew, I 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:24.520 knew about his war record, but I didn't know it 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.120 was quite so illustrious. 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.200 Which was And do you think that Do you think 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:34.960 your parents wanted to be actors or to be singers 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.200 or part of their nature? 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:42.000 No, my father there was an amateur group in New 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.000 York called the Settlement Players. My power and were part 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:47.800 of that. Mammy never wanted to act, which she was 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.200 wonderful seamstress and could make costumes and things like that. 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.680 Then when it came to the mystery plays, the miracle plays, 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:58.480 when they were done for the first time, Daddy played 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:02.560 and asked the High Priest and we were a lot 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:06.920 of us were auditioned by Martin Brown. I were to 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.320 quake a board in school in York, and we were, 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:14.280 we made angels, we were, We had a wonderful time, 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:15.400 wonderful time. 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:17.840 You remember the first auditions that would have been what 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:18.880 age was your first one? 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:23.120 It wasn't really an audition they just came and said you, you, you, you, 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:23.960 and you. 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.800 And when did you know that that's what you wanted 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:27.960 to do? 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:32.440 What I wanted to do, not ages, not for not 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:38.600 until fifty three, because I wanted to be a designer, 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:43.600 stage design, stage designer. But I was taken to Stratford 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.040 by my parents and saw Michael Redgrave in Lear, and 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:56.959 I can remember seeing this set which completely changed my idea. 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.280 During your holidays at school, I had assisted vote the 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:05.360 design at York rep painting sets for him. And I 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:10.720 only really understood plays by three acts. You know, you 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:12.959 designed one act and then the curtain would come down. 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.440 You change a few things and we'll go on. But 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:21.800 for Lear at Stratford, it was the most phenomenal set 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.360 that never changed. It was a huge flat disc that 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.160 revolved with a rock in the middle of it that 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:32.880 was the throne or the cave or nothing had to 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:37.920 be changed. The whoby was kind of continuous. And that 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.640 that I thought, No, goodbye, York Art School, I'm going 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:41.760 to try for Central. 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:46.920 When you went on these theatrical journeys with your parents, 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:49.199 you went to Stratford, you went to the theater in 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:52.640 New York. Would you go to a restaurant before or after? 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:54.800 Was that part of the evening? Was that part of 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:55.560 the experience. 0:09:55.800 --> 0:10:02.120 It was partly, but probably we always in a rush, 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.320 always in a rush to get things on time. But 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:10.240 there was a restaurant that we used to that used 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:14.559 to be the most enormous street to go to outside York, 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:17.040 and we used to cycle there. 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:21.600 This would be post war, this would be that. 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.760 Was post war, yes, but we all had bikes, so 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:27.720 we that was the greatest and. 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:31.280 To a restaurant simply wonderful. 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:38.120 It's called the bid we It was wonderful. It was 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.920 wonderful food. I mean, not investigated in any way, not 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:43.800 in any way. 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.679 And so what are the dishes of your childhood that 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.040 you remember that? Did you have Yorkshire pudding? 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.120 We did have. I tell you something. Tell me we 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.600 used to have at school. I used to try and 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:00.760 stay away on a Tuesday because as they used to 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:06.640 do Yorkshire pudding with treacle. Now even now that's that 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:07.600 was really. 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:09.880 So it was a dessert, or they served the treacle 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:11.040 Yorkshire pudding with beef. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:17.880 It's so disgusting. But it was always on a Tuesday. 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.360 And I used to feign illness on a Tuesday and 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.560 on about the third or fourth Tuesday, my ma said, 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.240 this is something about school. This is not to do 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:32.720 with illness. And it was the Yorkshire pudding with a tree. 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.560 The school was that was at my prep school. 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:38.319 But that's food was important to you. 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:43.280 Food matter, It didn't matter because of course during the war, 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:46.599 of course, it was just something to sustain you. And 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:51.719 as I say it, because of my power visiting right 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:55.280 around in the country, we were just so lucky that 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:59.360 we had enough to eat, but so many people didn't know. 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.800 I often think that when people are very critical of 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.679 food in Britain in the fifties or even the sixties, 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.080 Britain had come out of a war, They came out 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.280 of rationing, they came out of kitchen gardens where people 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:19.240 didn't have food. And to go from that to you know, 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.640 grand cuisine or to cooking, it seems so unfair to 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:27.800 criticize a nation that had suffered food wise, to being 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:30.880 critical of, you know, the way they cooked. You know. 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:34.000 So I feel it must have been very tough. 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:37.440 Yes, it was. It was just a question of giving 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:39.760 you something that filled you, yeah, you know. 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:41.920 Yeah, But also I mean, I love the idea of 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.640 your mother cooking a goose, or cooking duck, or cooking 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:47.360 the food that was getting We. 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:51.280 Grew on vegetables. We grew the vegetables in the garden 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.760 and next door it was the most wonderful pear tree. 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:59.880 And my brother and I, Jeff, the younger of my jib, 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.160 used to get a rake and rake the pears off 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:08.360 the tree into the garden. Yeah, it was quite a 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:09.080 lot of pears. 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.320 What would you do? What would you was illegal? Was it? 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:16.880 Because it wasn't your tree tree? Okay? There? What would 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.040 you remember? What your mother would cook with the pears? 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:20.600 Which is st them? Or would you have I. 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:22.880 Think she would, yes, I think she would student or 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:24.000 we just get them, you know? 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.040 Yeah, delicious fruit pears, aren't they do? Still like them? 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:28.440 I like pears. 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:32.199 I quite like pears. Yeah, I've got a picture of 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:34.080 few in the garden actually recently. 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:36.520 What's your garden like? Did you have a garden? 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:40.960 I have a beauti crow. Yes. I grew trees, mostly trees. 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:45.320 There were lots of different trees. But we have some 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:49.880 apples and one of them is a Russic which is 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:53.480 very nice. And we have, as I say, these pear trees. 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.079 We had a wonderful green gage tree, but it came 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:56.959 down in a storm. 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:11.520 Yeah, gage is very very sprink cages. The River Cafe Cafe, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:15.040 our all day space and just steps away from the restaurant, 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:19.680 is now open. In the morning an Italian breakfast with cornetti, 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:24.040 chiambella and crostada from our pastry kitchen. In the afternoon, 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.800 ice creamed coops and River Cafe classic desserts. We have 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:32.320 sharing plates Salumi, misti, mozzarella, busquetto red and yellow peppers, 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:36.280 Vitello tonado and more. Come in the evening for cocktails 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.640 with our resident pianist in the bar. No need to book, 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:53.280 see you here, so doing the menus. Eliza had a 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:55.360 blank sheet of paper she came in the morning. It's 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:57.640 rather like your house. You go in the fridge, you 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:01.000 see what's there, you see what's been ordered. You've sort 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:04.200 of also, you know, we're always thinking about what I 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:08.160 always say, what would I watch you for lunch? Today? 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:12.360 You're not coming to my house, and I beg you are. 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.000 I was so excited to make this beautiful clam taggerini, 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:20.920 which I know Ruthie's is one of Ruthie's favorite pastas. 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:26.600 Where we cook the bongolay in advance with garlic and parsi, 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.320 storks and chili, and then we pick all the clams 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:33.120 out of their shells and reduce the white wine and 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.720 the olive oil and the butter, and then we toss 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.520 that through fresh handcuff taggoerini, which is one of my 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:39.960 favorite things that I've ever had. 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.840 Had a bit of a cafe, and. 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.560 We've also got this amazing slow cooked pheasant and partridge 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.720 sauce which is a ragou that we make with lots 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.840 of different wildbirds at this time of year, and we 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.800 put chestnuts and mince panchetta in. That's really wonderful. 0:15:57.160 --> 0:15:59.880 Now we're really talking about perfect. 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.880 We do write our menu every day. 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:10.160 It makes it special and exciting, which is what a 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:12.280 restaurant should be and isn't very much. 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:22.280 When you left this Mother's wonderful family of theater and 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.320 cooking geese and sitting around the table and singing songs 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:32.160 and having friends over, it sounds so warm and so inclusive. 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:34.360 What was it like when you actually then came to 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.600 London and food wise? Were you on a budget? Did 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:45.200 you have to cook it out? What did you do? Never? 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:49.880 I had to tell you a story. Okay, when I 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:54.000 was awarded the Obe and my agent at the time 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:57.120 had been in Central with me, Julian Belfridge. He came 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:02.880 down to lunch and I gave him lamb cutlets. I 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:06.040 made an enormous effort. He finished them, and whatever I 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:10.880 gave him I can't remember for a dessert. And he 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.679 sat back and he said, well, I'll tell you something, Judy, 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:19.719 He said, you didn't get the open for cooking. 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:23.760 Nothing like having a support of It's good to be told, 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:28.919 isn't it. It's good funny there was what did you 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:30.960 eat there? You are going. 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.320 To when we were old that when we got well, 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.720 when we got to Central, Oh, it was, it was glorious. 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:41.560 We used to go to it was somewhere in Kensington 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:45.480 High Street. But we used to also go to a 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:51.480 restaurant called a Capernina in Soho and that was the 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:52.639 greatest treat. 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.879 So that was Italian food. That was Italian food. It 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:58.439 was absolutely and it was affordable. You could do so 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:00.240 they're on a student budget. 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.960 Just about just about. But you it were nice to 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.080 be taken there. I must say, that was an enormous treat. 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:09.000 Do you remember a kind of multicultural restaurants. Do you remember 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.560 Indian because a lot of you know, the cheapest food, 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:16.760 certainly when I came in the sixties was Greek, Indian, Chinese. 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:19.840 I mean that was a huge treat to be able 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:26.640 to eat, you know, to eat Chinese and as always say, Italian. 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:31.000 And it was a real luxury suddenly to be able 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:33.920 to go to go or be taken to somewhere, and 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.760 you have the luxury of really the choice of things 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:41.120 to have to eat. And you know, I'll never take 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:41.840 that for granted. 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:44.679 I don't think were you ever hungry as a student? 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:46.160 Did you were the days? 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:50.280 I don't think so. I don't ever remember that. 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:52.440 You probably had a grant, did you? In the days 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:52.960 when they. 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:56.840 Know I didn't have a grant. I lived in QA 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.719 Queen Alexandra's house, which is right by the Albert Hall 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:04.720 where Central was, and so all that was I don't 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:05.640 know how my phone. 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.040 They did they did. That's good. 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:11.320 So we were lucky. 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:17.000 Yeah, and suddenly started getting roles at the National Theater and. 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.520 I went straight to the VIC. But I mean, I've 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:29.160 never been I've never been a good cook or even 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.040 any cook of any kind, so you will I have 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.320 tried I have tried. I can do two things. I 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.680 can make white sauce and I can make gravy. 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:41.560 Well that's pretty good, I'd say, that's all. 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.720 I can do. But I used to at the VIC. 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:47.760 Alec mccowran was at the VIC at the same time 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:49.439 as me, and he used to live in the King's 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.840 Road but three minutes from my flat. We used to 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:58.159 have Sunday lunch together and he used to cook, and 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.600 he used to always it would be a very usual thing. 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:04.680 We were in the importance together and you know we 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:06.560 knew each other, frank, but he used to send me 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:10.560 a little note saying, would the gravy Queen or the 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:15.879 white sauce Queen come on Sunday and have lunch? And 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:17.119 he did all the rest. 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.240 You were at the old firkt. Who are the directors 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:20.560 that you? 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:25.119 Oh, Michael Bental, Yeah, Michael Bentle at the VIC and 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:31.920 Doug his seal and oh it was housey days. I 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:37.000 loved it. And I despite having had not very good 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.719 notices as Ophelia, which is my first part, I remember 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:44.520 Michael Bentele said he said, we'll just get over these notices. 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.240 He said, you will get better, and he said I'll 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.119 go on employing you and you can play small parts 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:52.679 and walk on, but you can stay at the VIC. 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:58.240 And you know that that was such I was so 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:03.080 lucky and then a National and then Nottingham Playhouse with 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:06.240 Johnny Neville, Who's Hamlet? When I went to the VIC 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:10.360 and we took he was we were the very first 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:12.200 company to ever go to West Africa. 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:13.720 Do you remember that very well? 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:17.359 I remember it very well. Indeed there set plays were 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:22.720 Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Arms and the Man. 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:24.200 What was the audience? 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:26.679 Young children, young people at school? 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:30.440 And because it was that the British Council was a 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:34.200 British council And do you remember the culture of food there? 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:34.600 I do? 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:39.120 I do? The food the food a kind of stew 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:41.880 probably are quite meat based. 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:43.000 Might well have been. 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.119 Which which actually is a question I also like to 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:47.879 ask would when you act, when you're in a play, 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:50.000 do you eat before? 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:51.080 Do you know after? 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:53.280 You need to tell me about you you're in a play. 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:55.359 You might be doing a matinee. 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:56.840 And sometimes, if you're lucky for it, do you get 0:21:56.840 --> 0:21:57.720 to eat in the place. 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:00.760 I know you have a story about that's one. But 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:03.480 if you're if you might not be eating in the play. 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:06.080 So there's a day you're in a play in the 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:08.120 West End or at the National or at the Old 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:10.840 Vic and you wake up in the morning and you 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:13.680 know you have a matinee and you have an evening performance. 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.760 Judy Dench, what would you what would your day be like? 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:22.280 In terms of I probably, I'd probably I'd have coffee 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:25.879 in the morning or tea. I wouldn't eat very much. 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:31.320 I wouldn't eat much before. I'd eat just something before matinee, 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:40.400 not much, not lunch, and mostly eat afterwards after. 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:44.320 The evening performance or after the matinee, after the evening before. 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:47.960 That's a very I like going to see a friend 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:51.400 of friends I have in the theater and then going out. 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:53.960 They always like to go out for dinner afterwards, and 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:56.320 there's some joyousness is dinner. 0:22:57.000 --> 0:22:59.200 It is wonderful as long as you don't have a 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:02.200 match in the other next stay. Do you know that's tricky, 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:06.679 But I'm in the luxury of doing do shows and 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:09.280 knowing you're going out to dinner off TWI yeah, it's 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:10.400 just glorious. 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:12.480 And then other nights you would just go home and 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:16.320 crash or was there a kind of Probably? I always 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:19.320 say that there's sort of links between the theater of a 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:21.919 restaurant and the theater of the theater. You know that 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:25.160 we have a kind of curtain up at a certain time, 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:29.720 and then there's the performance, and then there's after the performance. 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:33.320 And if I do an evening, I can sometimes do 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:37.240 a night where the curtain goes up, somebody walks in 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:39.960 and you're ready and you know it's going to be 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:43.399 a great night, or you just know sometimes even just 0:23:43.400 --> 0:23:46.320