Dame Judi Dench drops in at The Mount School in York

Award-winning actress Dame Judi Dench is still working at the age of 89, and she was in York last night at the Grand Opera House on stage talking about her life alongside the author and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth.

Dame Judi performed to a packed auditorium and to celebrate the event, the theatre dedicated a seat to her - the very first seat dedication at the venue since the theatre was refurbished in 2022.

Recommended reading:

• Top York school fails to meet standard in three key areas
• School appoints new head teacher after recent inspection
• York private school to start teaching boys again

During the show Dame Judi shared an anecdote of why she wanted to go to The Mount because she loved the uniform – blue shirts with the white collar, and she had thought, theatrically, ‘what a costume!’ 

The audience also loved the tale of how The Mount’s ‘wet walks’ (walking in the rain) were not to her taste, so she called her parents from a local telephone box to collect her and her friend who enjoyed a cup of tea in the warmth of her house in Heworth. When they were due back from the walk her parents would use a watering can to sprinkle water on them before dropping them off round the corner from school to help them get away with it.  

Ahead of the show, The Mount School sent Dame Judi a Mount teddy bear to wish her luck. Inside the bear was a message voiced by Junior School pupil Arabella Kelly, saying ‘Judi Dench, Break a Leg Love from The Mount School!’ Dame Judi loved the teddy and kept it beside her on stage for the show.  

And while back in the city she took time out to visit her old school in Dalton Terrace to see pupils and staff there.

Dame Judi Dench at The Mount School (Image: Supplied) During the impromptu visit, she met Arabella and gasped ‘Are you the bear?’ Together they named the bear George, after George Fox who founded Quakerism. ‘He will be much treasured. He will be going home to meet 45 other bears. Thank you so much for doing that’ effused Judi.  

Dame Judi grew up in Heworth with her parents, Eleanora and Reginald Arthur Dench, and brothers Peter and Jeffery. She attended The Mount School - where she revisited in 2000 to lay the foundation stone for a new school sports hall.

Judi Dench (far left in the first row standing) pictured in a Mount School group in July 1952 (Image: Newsquest) Regarded as one of Britain's best actresses, Judi has amassed a myriad of accolades over her lengthy career, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards and seven Olivier Awards.

Dame Judi won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her performance as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love in 1998.

In the year 2000, the actress - who now lives down south - returned to York to receive the honour 'Millennium Person of the Present' award at the city's Mansion House, also visiting The Mount.

2000 - Dame Judi Dench chats with Mount School girls about eye brow rings after unveiling the foundation stone for the Mount School Sports Hall (Image: Garry Atkinson) Some of our archive photos date from the 1950s when Judi cut her acting teeth in amateur dramatics by taking part in the York Mystery Plays.

In the 1954 Mystery Plays, Judi played an angel alongside Kenneth Parsons who played Adam and Jane Southern as Eve.

Three years later, she played the role of the Virgin Mary in the 1957 Mystery Plays.

The young Judi Dench, in the role of the Virgin Mary, watches over the baby Jesus in the 1957 Mystery Plays (Image: Newsquest)