The Judi Dench Collection

Dame Judi Dench is one of the most celebrated stars of stage and screen. She is the winner of an Academy Award®, two Golden Globes, an unprecedented seven Olivier Awards, and numerous BAFTAs. At the BBC, she has appeared in a dazzling range of material from sitcoms to Shakespeare. This collection contains nine star-studded BBC productions spanning four decades and ranging from the Feydeau farce Keep an Eye on Amélie to Ibsen's Ghosts with Kenneth Branagh, Michael Gambon and Natasha Richardson and Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard with John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft and Ian Holm. And tucked away among the bonus features is a 1996 interview in which she sings "Send in the Clowns" from her Olivier-winning performance of A Little Night Music, just one of the many gems in this glorious testament to one of the greatest performers of our time.

Includes the following productions: The Cherry Orchard (1962), Talking to a Stranger (1966), Keep an Eye on Amélie (1973), The Cherry Orchard (1981), Going Gently (1981), Ghosts (1987), Make and Break (1987), Can You Hear Me Thinking? (1990), Absolute Hell (1991)

The Cherry Orchard (1962)
In 1962, BBC aired this Royal Shakespeare Company production of Chekhov’s masterpiece with an all-star cast featuring Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Sir John Gielgud, Dame Judi Dench, Dorothy Tutin, Ian Holm and Paul Hardwick. Madame Ranevsky and her daughter Anya return home from Paris to find that their beloved family estate and cherry orchard are to be auctioned off to pay debts. Lopahin, a former serf on the estate who is now a wealthy landowner proposes razing the home and cherry orchard and dividing the estate into plots that could be leased at great profit. The family, however, continues to hold out hope that their beloved home can somehow be saved from destruction.

Talking to a Stranger
The production for which Dame Judi Dench won her first BAFTA, Talking to a Stranger is a collection of four plays by John Hopkins. A grown up brother and sister go home to visit their elderly parents, but a series of emotional developments lead to shocking resolutions. The action takes place over a single weekend, with each play written from the viewpoint of a different character. It is considered one of the first authentic masterpieces written directly for television.

Keep an Eye on Amélie
In this hilarious French farce by Georges Feydeau, confirmed bachelor Marcel is to inherit one million francs, but there’s a catch. He must get married. Wanting both the money and to remain a bachelor, he persuades the coquette, Amélie, to pretend to be his fiancée. But events don’t go according to plan.

The Cherry Orchard (1981)
In this production of The Cherry Orchard, directed by Richard Eyre and starring Bill Paterson and Timothy Spall, Dench plays the role of Madame Ranevsky. She was awarded the BAFTA for Best Television Actress in 1981 for her combined work on this, Going Gently, and her sitcom A Fine Romance. Also featured on this disc is a discussion between Dame Judi Dench and Richard Eyre, filmed in 2002.

Going Gently
Based on the novel by Robert C.S. Downs, this play is the story of two elderly men forced to share a room in a hospice while undergoing cancer treatment. One is a retired university lecturer and the other an uneducated former salesman. In addition to sharing a room, they share a strong mutual dislike of each other. Dench plays their nurse in a BAFTA-winning performance.

Ghosts
The publication of Ghosts in 1881 caused an uproar and almost ruined Ibsen. It was banned across Europe and the sales of his other plays plummeted. Its themes of moral degradation—out-of-wedlock children, venereal disease, incest, infidelity, and euthanasia—proved too shocking. Te play remains shocking even for modern-day audiences. Captain Alving was a respected man in his community, and on the tenth anniversary of his death, Mrs. Alving is preparing for the opening of an orphanage in his honor. This effort, however, is really an attempt by Mrs. Alving to mask her hidden disgust with captain Alving who in reality was a cheating, immoral philanderer who bequeathed a deadly legacy to his son Oswald.

Make and Break
In Make and Break, Michael Frayn (Noises off!, Copenhagen) adapted his own play about the boss of a building components firm who is so entrenched in his work that he overlooks the affections of his devoted secretary…that is until a trade fair in Frankfurt. Make and Break won the Evening Standard award for Best Comedy when it premiered in 1980 in the West End.

Can You Hear Me Thinking?
Dame Judi Dench and her real-life husband, Michael Williams, play another married couple in this BAFTA-nominated tale of a family whose lives are shattered when their 16-year-old son develops schizophrenia. At first, he turns violent and has to be hospitalized. When he is released, the full implications of his illness strike home.

Absolute Hell
In this once scandalous black comedy by Anthony Ackland, Dench plays an oversexed, alcoholic proprietor of a bohemian nightclub in post-World War II London, a gathering place for an assortment of lost souls. Five years after this BBC production, Dench won an Olivier Award for reprising the role in the West End.

The Cherry Orchard (1962)

RSC Production Directed by Michael Saint-Denis
Directed for Television by Michael Elliott
Written by Anton Chekhov
Translated by John Gielgud
Theater Design by Abd’Elkader Farrah
Adapted for Television by Norman James
Music Arranged by Brian Priestman

Talking to a Stranger

Directed by Christopher Morahan
Written by John Hopkins
Produced by Michael Blakewell
Original Music by Wilfred Josephs

Keep an Eye on Amélie

Produced by Douglas Argent
Associate Producer: Patrick Cargill
Written by Georges Feydeau
Translated and Adapted by Caryl Brahams and Ned Sherrin
Original Music by Johnny Dankworth

Make and Break

Directed by Michael Darlow
Written by Michael Frayn
Produced by Shaun Sutton

Absolute Hell

Directed by Anthony Page
Written by Anthony Ackland
Produced by Simon Curtis
Original Music by Jason Osborn

The Cherry Orchard (1981)

Written by Anton Chekhov
Directed by Richard Eyre
English Version by Trevor Griffiths
From a Translation by Helen Rappaport
Produced by Ann Scott
Original Music by Nick Bicat

Ghosts

Directed by Elijah Moshinsky
Written by Henrik Ibsen
Translation by Michael Meyer
Produced by Louis Marks

Can You Hear Me Thinking?

Directed by Christopher Morahan
Written by Monty Haltrecht and Beverly Marcus
Executive Produced by Richard Broke
Produced by Ruth Caleb
Original Music by Ilona Sekacz

Going Gently

Directed by Stephen Frears
Written by Thomas Ellice
Written by Georges Feydeau
Based on the Novel by Robert C.S. Downs
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Original Music by George Fenton