JUDI DENCH

OFF THE RAILS (2022)
Starring Kelly Preston, Jenny Seagrove, Sally Phillips, Ben Miller, Franco Nero, Judi Dench, Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips, Andrea Corr and Peter Bowles. Directed by Jules Williamson.

Three friends, now in their 50s, recreate an interrail journey from their youth across Europe to fulfil the dying wish of their close friend whose place is taken by her 18-year-old daughter. With lost passports, train strikes and romantic entanglements thrown their way, they must put old feuds aside to complete the journey within five days and remind themselves that age is only a number.

BELFAST (2022)
Starring Jamie Dornan, Caitriona Balfe, Judi Dench, Ciarán Hinds, Lara McDonnell, Gerard Horan, Turlough Convery, Gerard McCarthy, Bríd Brennan and Sid Sagar. Directed by Kenneth Branagh.

A personal and joyful story about the power of memory, set in late 1960s Northern Ireland. At the center of the film is Buddy, a young boy on the cusp of adolescence, whose life is filled with familial love, childhood hijinks, and a blossoming romance. Yet, with his beloved hometown caught up in increasing turmoil, his family faces a momentous choice: hope the conflict will pass or leave everything they know behind for a new life.

REVIEWS Belfast - A monochrome telling of a rose-tinted story

SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT (2021)
Starring Judi Dench, James D'Arcy, Jim Broadbent, Eddie Izzard, Carla Juri, David Schofield, Kevin Eldon, Nigel Lindsay, Maria Dragus and Franziska Brandmeier. Directed by Andy Goddard.

Summer 1939. Influential families in Nazi Germany have sent their daughters to a finishing school in an English seaside town to learn the language and be ambassadors for a future looking National Socialist. A teacher there sees what is coming and is trying to raise the alarm. But the authorities believe he is the problem.

RED JOAN (2019)
Starring Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Tom Hughes, Tereza Srbová, Laurence Spellman, Kevin Fuller and Ciarán Owens. Directed by Trevor Nunn.

In a picturesque village in England, Joan Stanley, lives in contented retirement. Then suddenly her tranquil existence is shattered as she’s shockingly arrested by MI5. For Joan has been hiding an incredible past; she is one of the most influential spies in living history...

Cambridge University in the 1930s, and the young Joan, a demure physics student, falls intensely in love with a seductively attractive Russian saboteur, Leo. Through him, she begins to see that the world is on a knife-edge and perhaps must be saved from itself in the race to military supremacy.

Post-war and now working at a top secret nuclear research facility, Joan is confronted with the impossible: Would you betray your country and your loved ones, if it meant saving them? What price would you pay for peace?

ALL IS TRUE (2019)
Starring Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Kathryn Wilder, Jack Colgrave Hirst, Matt Jessup and Lydia Wilson. Directed by Kenneth Branagh.

The year is 1613, Shakespeare is acknowledged as the greatest writer of the age. But disaster strikes when his renowned Globe Theatre burns to the ground, and devastated, Shakespeare returns to Stratford, where he must face a troubled past and a neglected family.

Haunted by the death of his only son Hamnet, he struggles to mend the broken relationships with his wife and daughters. In so doing, he is ruthlessly forced to examine his own failings as husband and father. His very personal search for the truth uncovers secrets and lies within a family at war.

TEA WITH THE DAMES (2018)
Starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins. Directed by Roger Mitchell.

Dames Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins spend a weekend together at the retreat once shared by Plowright and Laurence Olivier, looking back on their lives and remarkable careers.

REVIEWS Tea with the Dames - Delightful yet without substance

TULIP FEVER (2017)
Starring Alicia Vikander, Dane Dehaan, Zach Galifianakis, Judi Dench, Christoph Waltz, Jack O'Connell, Holliday Grainger, Matthew Morrison, Cara Delevingne and Tom Hollander. Directed by Justin Chadwick.

An artist falls for a young married woman while he's commissioned to paint her portrait during the Tulip mania of 17th century Amsterdam.

REVIEWS Tulip Fever - Symptoms include nausea and irritability

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (2017)
Starring Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Derek Jacobi, Josh Gad, Penélope Cruz, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Olivia Colman and Willem Dafoe. Directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Thirteen strangers stranded on a train, where everyone's a suspect. The world's greatest detective must race against time to solve the puzzle before the murderer strikes again.

REVIEWS Murder on the Orient Express - A first-class mystery

VICTORIA AND ABDUL (2017)
Starring Judi Dench, Ali Fazal, Adeel Akhtar, Simon Callow, Michael Gambon and Eddie Izzard. Directed by Stephen Frears.

The extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria’s remarkable rule. When Abdul Karim, a young clerk, travels from India to participate in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, he is surprised to find favour with the Queen herself. As the Queen questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance with a loyalty to one another that her household and inner circle all attempt to destroy. As the friendship deepens, the Queen begins to see a changing world through new eyes and joyfully reclaims her humanity.

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN 3D (2016)
Starring Eva Green, Samuel L. Jackson, Asa Butterfield, Judi Dench, Chris O'Dowd, Rupert Everett and Allison Janney. Directed by Tim Burton.

Sixteen-year-old Jacob follows clues that take him to a mysterious island, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores the abandoned bedrooms and hallways, he discovers that its former occupants were far more than peculiar; they possessed incredible powers. And they may still be alive.

REVIEWS Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children - Burton's charming children's film on Blu-ray
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Not so peculiar

THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL (2015)
Starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie, Tamsin Greig and Richard Gere. Directed by John Madden.

The expansionist dream of Sonny, who has more claims on his time than he has available, considering his imminent marriage to the love of his life, Sunaina. Sonny has his eye on a promising property now that his first venture, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful, has only a single remaining vacancy – posing a rooming predicament for fresh arrivals Guy and Lavinia. Evelyn and Douglas have now joined the Jaipur workforce, and are wondering where their regular dates for Chilla pancakes will lead, while Norman and Carol are negotiating the tricky waters of an exclusive relationship, as Madge juggles two eligible and very wealthy suitors. Perhaps the only one who may know the answers is newly installed co-manager of the hotel, Muriel, the keeper of everyone's secrets. As the demands of a traditional Indian wedding threaten to engulf them all, an unexpected way forward presents itself.

REVIEWS The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - Comfortingly familiar

PHILOMENA (2013)
Starring Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Mare Winningham, Barbara Jefford, Ruth McCabe, Peter Hermann, Sean Mahon, Anna Maxwell Martin and Michelle Fairley. Directed by Stephen Frears.

The true story of one mother’s search for her lost son. Falling pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to the convent of Roscrea to be looked after as a “fallen woman”. When her baby was only a toddler, he was whisked away by the nuns to America for adoption. Philomena spent the next fifty years searching for him in vain. Then she met Martin Sixsmith, a world-weary journalist as cynical as Philomena was trusting. Together they set off for America on a journey that would not only reveal the extraordinary story of Philomena’s son, but also the powerful bond that grew up between Philomena and Martin.

REVIEWS Philomena - A journey worth taking

SKYFALL (2012)
Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear and Ola Rapace. Directed by Sam Mendes.

James Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

REVIEWS Skyfall - Think on your sins

CHOCOLAT (2001)
Starring Juliette Binoche, Alfred Molina, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Leslie Caron, Carrie-Anne Moss, Aurelien Parent Koenig, Lena Olin, Peter Stormare and John Wood. Directed by Lasse Hallström.

A young French woman returns to the vast silence of West Africa to contemplate her childhood days in a colonial outpost in Cameroon. Her strongest memories are of the family's houseboy, Protee - a man of great nobility, intelligence and beauty - and the intricate nature of relationships in a racist society.

ARTEMIS FOWL
Starring Ferdia Shaw, Lara McDonnell, Judi Dench, Josh Gad, Nonso Anozie, Tamara Smart, Miranda Raison, Nikesh Patel, Adrian Scarborough and Joshua McGuire. Directed by Kenneth Branagh.

12-year-old genius Artemis Fowl, a descendant of a long line of criminal masterminds, finds himself in a battle of strength and cunning against a powerful, hidden race of fairies who may be behind his father’s disappearance.