Dame Judi Dench has been a fixture of stage and screen for more than six decades, with a career that’s ranged from Shakespeare to James Bond.
One of Britain’s most celebrated actors, she’s won an Oscar, ten BAFTAs, and a legion of fans with her sharp wit, expressive voice and ability to steal a scene with just a look.
When she was invited onto Desert Island Discs – BBC Radio 4’s long-running programme that asks famous guests to choose the eight songs, they’d take with them to a desert island – Judi Dench didn’t hesitate when asked to name her all-time favourite track.
“This is Sinatra, who I think I’ve probably chosen every time I’ve been ever asked to choose a record. I can’t be anywhere, actually, without Frank Sinatra. Michael and I saw him at the Albert Hall”.
“And we went to a pub for a drink beforehand. Michael started crying in the pub before we even got there. He said that Sinatra got more people in and out of bed than anyone in history. Of course, he’s quite right”, she recounted, before playing Sinatra’s ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’.
Her seven remaining favourite tracks she picked include: Peter Maxwell Davies’ ‘Farewell to Stromness’, – about which she commented: “I’ve chosen it because my passion is Scotland. We used to go every single year, Michael and I, and Finke. And I am absolutely bewitched by it” – her brother Jeffrey Dench & Jackie Williams’s ‘Sonnet 18, Shall I Compare Thee’, Dorothy Collins’ ‘Losing My Mind’, and Miles Davis’ ‘Blue in Green’.
She also told stories about two of her choices. First, Count Basie’s ‘All Right, Okay, You Win’: “Well, my very first night in New York, I went to Birdland. And as we arrived, there were two men at the door”.
“This man hit the other one straight through a plate glass door and down the stairs. I thought, oh, this is living. And it was Count Basie and Joe Williams that night. It was thrilling”
Next up was Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’: When we went to America, we were there for six months with Vic. And I knew nothing about jazz. And John Neville, who was leading the company, jazz was his passion. And gradually I got introduced to jazz. Which then was all in kind of underground cellars and things”.
“I mean, it was just magical. And one of the nights, I think it was in San Francisco but it may not have been, I saw Billie Holiday and I heard her sing ‘Strange Fruit’”.
Finally, the film icon picked something to listen to that isn’t quite melodic. “This is something that I listen to regularly. It’s the shipping forecast. Every night that I hear it, I go right round the country listening to them all”.