A statue of Queen Victoria, memorial trees and a swimming pool: Judi Dench’s garden – in eight poignant items
A visit to Dame Judi Dench’s garden in Surrey is bittersweet.The 2.4-hectare (six-acre) plot contains enough trees – about 100 – to count as an arboretum.Among them is a carpet of wild garlic and a wildlife pond from which rabbits like to sip.But each of these trees represents someone she knew who has died.
As her eyesight has nearly gone, Dench, who features in the latest episode of the Royal Horticulture Society’s new podcast, Roots, navigates her way around the garden via memories and smell.Here, she shares her stories of the garden and discusses the items that mean the most to her.Dench was married to the actor Michael Williams for 30 years before he died of lung cancer in 2001.She is about to plant a young oak tree, sent to her by her daughter, Finty, and her grandson, Sammy, in commemoration of their wedding anniversary.“It was just a little kind of stick when it arrived.
And now it’s full of buds at the top,” she says.“So, when we’re all together, probably in the next few weeks, we’ll choose a place to plant it.”All her family are keen swimmers, Dench says, and they “make great use” of the pool on the lawn.She takes laps regularly.An area of the garden comprises white flowering plants, which is another way in which the actor remembers her husband.
“He would plant things and he decided that should be the white garden,” she says.“He’s present in the garden.” The space also contains beautifully scented white lilac trees, which are her favourite.Dench is passionate about trees; one of her earliest memories is lying in her pram looking up at the leaves of an oak.She has spent years campaigning to protect trees and woodlands.
Each tree has personal meaning.“This magnolia is Dingo, who was a friend of my brother’s who was at school with him,” she says.“He was always in our house.“There are so many people here.I have over 100.
That’s a lot of people to have lost, but that’s what happens when you get to 91, I guess.”Dench says it’s wonderful to watch the wildlife in her pond.“We see a lot of it in this garden,” including water voles and “a great many ducks”, deer, rabbits and a badger.Dench loves the wild garlic that carpets her garden.“I can smell garlic around me at the moment,” she says.
“In a few weeks, it’s just one mass of white flowers.It’s very, very beautiful.I went out to our local farm shop last year and saw a packet of it for quite a price.And I thought: oh, hello, I’ve got a business!”A severe-looking statue of the monarch rises imposingly from a hedge.Dench says she took it home as a souvenir from the set of the 2017 film Victoria & Abdul, in which she played the queen.
“After the film, the film company said: ‘Would you like her?’ And I said: ‘Do you know, I think I would.I’ve got a very good place for her.’ And indeed I have, because she’s not seen by anybody.She’s very private.”Dench refuses to garden, as she has a phobia of worms.
“It comes from being at my kindergarten school in York.A worm jumped into my sandal and I couldn’t get it out.” She has a gardener called Joe, “who does it beautifully”.
From Lee Cronin’s The Mummy to Zayn: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Lee Cronin’s The MummyOut now You probably know what The Mummy is, but do you know what a Lee Cronin is? Allow us to assist: he’s the Irish director responsible for effective indie horror The Hole in the Ground and the highest grossing entry in the Evil Dead franchise, Evil Dead Rises. His version of this classic horror sees a journalist (Jack Reynor) and his wife (Laia Costa) reunited with their child who went missing in the desert eight years ago, with nightmarish consequences.The Wizard of the KremlinOut now Jude Law is, wait for it, Vladimir Putin, with Paul Dano as fictional spin doctor Vadim Baranov in a new thriller from Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper). Based on the l’Académie française prize-winning debut novel from Giuliano da Empoli.Miroirs No 3Out now German director Christian Petzold returns with a new film (the title refers to the piano solo by Ravel) starring his regular collaborator Paula Beer as a classical piano student recuperating in rural idyll afrer a dramatic car crash
Lost Federico García Lorca verse discovered 93 years after it was written
A previously unknown verse attributed to Federico García Lorca has been discovered 93 years after the celebrated Spanish poet and playwright is believed to have jotted it on the back of one of his manuscripts.Lorca is thought to have written the eight-line poem in 1933 while working on the collection Diván del Tamarit, a homage to the Arab poets of his native Granada.The newly discovered verse was found on the reverse of a manuscript of one of the Tamarit poems – Gacela de la raíz amarga – which the flamenco singer and Lorca enthusiast Miguel Poveda bought from a German antiquarian.It has since been verified by the Lorca expert Pepa Merlo and will feature in a forthcoming book.The brief verse, composed three years before Lorca was murdered in the early days of the Spanish civil war, reveals the poet’s familiar preoccupation with the passing of time: “The clock sings / I count the hours mechanically / Seven o’clock; twelve o’clock / It’s all the same / I am not here / It is the mark of flesh / That I left behind when I departed / So as to know my place / Upon my return
Stephen Colbert on Trump’s Vatican feud: ‘Damn, the pope just read you for filth’
On Thursday night, late-night hosts weighed in on Donald Trump’s tense back and forth with the pope over the war in Iran, high gas prices and outlandish details from a new biography of Robert F Kennedy Jr.On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert focused on Maga’s escalating feud with the pope. Reacting to comments by the House speaker, Mike Johnson, that Pope Leo XIV misunderstood the concept of the just war doctrine, Colbert said incredulously:“Correcting the pope on Catholic theology is a little like going into the woods and saying: ‘Excuse me Mr Bear, do you really think this is the appropriate place for you to be pooping? Who’s going to clean that up?”Colbert went on to explain that the “just war” is a concept of Catholic doctrine that goes back to the earliest days of the church. “It must be in self-defense once all peace efforts have failed,” said the host. “Only then can the war can be said to have ‘just cause’
‘Packaging evil into something funny’: is making fun of Trump now just ‘clownwashing’?
During Donald Trump’s first term, as his lies distorted reality and gaslighted Americans, Stephen Colbert said his goal was to remind his audience: “Hey, you’re not crazy.”But watching political comedy during Trump’s second term – be it a deranged Saturday Night Live impression of a cabinet member, or a rapid-fire late-night monologue full of ICE jokes – it’s hard not to wonder: are we placating ourselves from the enormity of Trump-induced horror?It’s not a new concern, of course. Weak mockery of Nazi leaders may have allowed Germans to “let off steam” while the regime solidified its power. Decades later, as The Daily Show was taking off, some pundits feared it encouraged apathy by rolling its eyes at the political sphere. As the US inches closer to autocracy, how can comedy work against repression, rather than sanitizing its targets – call it “clownwashing”?“We are in a hyper-individualistic, transactional, consumerist kind of culture
A statue of Queen Victoria, memorial trees and a swimming pool: Judi Dench’s garden – in eight poignant items
A visit to Dame Judi Dench’s garden in Surrey is bittersweet. The 2.4-hectare (six-acre) plot contains enough trees – about 100 – to count as an arboretum. Among them is a carpet of wild garlic and a wildlife pond from which rabbits like to sip. But each of these trees represents someone she knew who has died
Kimmel on Trump’s AI images: ‘Someone’s been looksmaxxing!’
On Wednesday night, late night hosts discussed Donald Trump’s fondness for religious AI images, a new way to protest ICE and Maga’s reaction to the Pope condemning the Iran war.On Jimmy Kimmel Live, the host addressed Trump’s habit of posting AI images of himself.“You know he thinks artists make these?” asked Kimmel, before showing an image of Jesus cradling Trump posted by a Maga account. “He thinks they’re paintings for real; he doesn’t realize this is an AI thing. And check out the chin and cheekbones on him
Growing knowledge, growing yield: British wine-making comes of age
Survivors of alleged sexual abuse by former owner of Harrods want enablers to face justice
UK’s OnlyFans tops $3bn valuation amid talks to sell stake to US investor
Finance leaders warn over Mythos as UK banks prepare to use powerful Anthropic AI tool
England run in 12 tries as Kildunne sparks demolition of Scotland in Women’s Six Nations
The Crucible holds tribute to former player and commentator John Virgo