Dame Judi Dench has revealed that she once shoved a dead rat through her neighbour's letterbox, tied with a note demanding the return of cricket balls. The 91-year-old actress shared the anecdote on the BBC's This Natural Life podcast, describing it as a 'terrible story' from her childhood in York.
How the Incident Unfolded
Dench recounted that her elder brothers, Jeffery and Peter, often played cricket in the garden and repeatedly hit balls over the fence into a neighbour's property. The neighbour, a woman named Miss Lazenby, consistently refused to return the balls. 'The boys used to play cricket in the garden, and they used to be always batting the balls over into the other gardens, and there was a lady called Miss Lazenby, and she never ever would throw the ball back, or give us the balls back,' Dench said.
One day, the brothers found a dead rat in the barn and devised a plan. 'And once the boys found a dead rat in the barn, and they parcelled it up, and they said to me: 'Judi, will you just go round and put this through Miss Lazenby's door?'' Dench recalled. She complied, squeezing the dead rat through Miss Lazenby's door with a note attached that read: 'Please give us our balls back.'
The Aftermath and Dench's Career
When asked if the tactic worked, Dench replied 'probably not'. She added that her brothers were subsequently forbidden from playing cricket. Despite this childhood mischief, Dench went on to become one of Britain's most celebrated actresses, portraying iconic roles such as Queen Elizabeth I, M in three James Bond films, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice. She stepped back from acting in 2024 due to declining health, telling the Chelsea Flower Show that year: 'No, no, I can't even see.'
