Dame Judi Dench confirmed to play M, filming January to March

Dame Judi Dench has signed on the dotted line and will return to her favourite theatre in the West End in a play that has poignant memories for her - reports the Daily Mail.

The great actress will play Judith Bliss in Noel Coward's Hay Fever, which begins performances at the Haymarket Theatre in April.

Peter Hall will direct her, with Peter Bowles as her stage husband, and Belinda Lang.

The last time Judi played the Haymarket it was alongside her best pal Maggie Smith in David Hare's Breath Of Life.

For whatever reason, Judi didn't fully enjoy being in that play, so she's loath to repeat it on Broadway. The producer Robert Fox is hoping Vanessa Redgrave will open Breath Of Life in New York instead.

In 1999, Judi and her late husband Michael Williams did a version of Hay Fever for BBC radio.

When Hall suggested the play to her earlier this year she said yes almost immediately (she always jokes that she finds it difficult to say no to Hall).

Anyway, Judi and the cast will start rehearsals in March as soon as she has finished playing 'M' in the new James Bond film "Casino Royale", which is scheduled to start filming early in the New Year.



Judi is working with director Richard Eyre and Cate Blanchett on the screen version of Zoe Heller's novel Notes On A Scandal.

She's also an Oscar contender with her title role in Stephen Frears's delightful comedy Mrs Henderson Presents, about the heyday of the old Windmill Theatre.

A tour starts at the Theatre Royal Bath from February 6 and goes to Salford, Newcastle, Warwick, Malvern and Cambridge.

Thanks to `JP` for the alert.

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