Sara Cox’s team drove out to Dame Judi Dench’s cottage this week, and the stories that came back were gold. Dench revealed that when Pierce Brosnan came for lunch, he spotted her doormat reading “I’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond” and loved it, even though she’d forgotten it was there “all the time”. She also told Sara about firing a gun for the first time on Skyfall, keeping the spent cartridges as cufflinks, and admitted getting “more and more frightened” with each Bond film despite loving the job.
Listen: The doormat and the broken wind story
The frankest moment came from her old friend Brendan O’Hea, who co-wrote her new memoir ‘Is It Too Late To Make A Run For It’. He told Sara on air about a trust exercise years ago where he lowered Judi to the floor and she broke wind, saying “any kind of respect I had for you went out the window.” Dench didn’t deny it, laughing that she’d “never told that story before.”
Sara also ran a special segment called “She Dame, She Saw, She Questioned”, where Dame Elaine Paige, Dame Emma Thompson, Dame Joanna Lumley and Dame Floella Benjamin sent in questions for Dench, including Emma Thompson asking about her drunkest night ever (answer: vodka at the Old Vic in her first season, with no memory of what followed). Dench finished by reciting a Shakespeare sonnet live in the studio, accompanied by Sara on various silly instruments, which left “everyone in the room with tears in their eyes” according to one texter.
Listen: Dame Judi Dench recites a Shakespeare sonnet
Anthony from Wednesbury swooped into Let’s Hear It For The Noise after the booked contestant dropped out, scoring six points, just short of Louise from Northampton’s unbeaten eight from the day before, so the Sara Socks stayed with Louise.
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