Dame Judi Dench has revealed she squeezed a dead rat through her neighbour's door during her childhood. The 91-year-old actress told the BBC's This Natural Life podcast that the prank was in retaliation for her brothers' cricket balls not being returned after they were hit over the fence.
Retaliation for Unreturned Cricket Balls
Dame Judi explained that her brothers frequently played cricket in the garden and would often hit balls into neighbouring gardens. A lady named Miss Lazenby never returned the balls. According to Dame Judi: "This is a terrible story, 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?' So I did go and squeeze it through Miss Lazenby's door, Miss Lazenby was rather red about it, saying, 'please give us our balls back', we wrote this message, it was tied on the dead rat."
Outcome of the Prank
When asked if they eventually got their balls back, Dame Judi replied: "Probably not… I don't think we were allowed to play cricket again." The anecdote highlights a mischievous side to the acclaimed actress.
Illustrious Career
Throughout her seven-decade career, Dame Judi has won an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards, and seven Olivier Awards. She made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company and later worked for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is also known for playing M in eight James Bond films, from GoldenEye (1995) to Spectre (2015), and for roles in series such as A Fine Romance and As Time Goes By. Most recently, she voiced The Fridge in The Magic Faraway Tree.
