07 March 2023 , 20:00
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It may come as no surprise that legendary actress Dame Judi Dench is related to royalty - but it's a Shakespearian link which leaves her in tears.
The 88-year-old delves deep into her family history on tonight's Who Do You Think You Are? and discovers that her ancestors have a connection to her first professional acting role.
Judi, whose first experience of the theatre was at the age of seven watching her eldest brother Peter in Macbeth, made her professional debut in 1957 playing Othelia in Hamlet at the Old Vic.
"I'm passionate about Shakespeare," says Judi at the start of tonight's Who Do You Think You Are?
"I would like to meet him and say, 'Have you got any other plays up your sleeve? Have you anything for someone in their 80s? A rather good part, sitting down most of the time.'"
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But she is unaware that her family extends back to Denmark - and the real-life castle that inspired the setting for Hamlet.
Dame Judi Dench was shocked to discover her royal connection (BBC/Wall to Wall Media Ltd/Stephen Perry)When Judi finds out that her 6x great-grandmother came from Copenhagen, she exclaims: "Well they kept that quiet. Nobody has ever in our family mentioned Denmark."
The biggest discovery comes when Judi is told her 10x great-aunt was a lady in waiting to the Queen of Denmark during the 16th century.
She served the Queen in Kronborg Castle in Denmark, which is famed for being the setting for Elsinore in Hamlet - her first-ever professional production.
"This link, the very first part I played at the Old Vic was Ophelia in Hamlet," she says. To suddenly be told an ancestor of mine was actually in Elsinore. That’s very, very, very difficult to take in with everything else.
Wiping away tears, she adds: "I’m going to bore the pants off people."
During her illustrious career, Judi has performed in many of The Bard's plays and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1961.
Judi Dench in Romeo and Juliet at the Queen's Theatre in 1965 (Mirrorpix)
Judi with her father, Reginald, in the dressing room at the Old Vic after her performance in Hamlet as Ophelia in 1957 (BBC/Wall to Wall/Dame Judi Dench)She has played roles such as Juliet, Lady Macbeth and Ophelia, but most famously won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1998 for her role as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.
Her family's connection to Shakespeare is made all the more remarkable due to her parents' ties with the theatre.
Her dad was the GP for York theatre, her mother was its wardrobe mistress, and the actors often stayed at the Dench household.
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Judi speaks very fondly about her parents, who grew up in Ireland and met at Trinity College Dublin before moving to York - where she was born.
The actress describes her mum, Eleanora Olive Jones, as "funny and fiery" but explains she had no relations at all that they ever met.
While her father, Reginald Arthur Dench, was born in Dorset and brought up in Dublin before becoming "the most wonderful doctor".
He served in the Leinster Regiment during the First World War but barely spoke about the horrific scenes he witnessed during fighting in France.
Judi never met any of her mother's relations (BBC/Wall to Wall/Dame Judi Dench)
Dame Judi Dench's father, Reginald , who signed up for the war in 1915 (BBC/Wall to Wall/Dame Judi Dench)While speaking to a historian, she discovers her father injured his knee during his training before he even went to war and spent time in hospital after an operation.
Judi remembers he father walking in a funny manner but had no idea about how he received the injury - and gets another shock when she finds out he did it "jumping".
That knee injury saved her father from fighting in The Battle of the Somme - one of the bloodiest battles in all of human history.
The most amazing discovery is that Reginald got a Military Cross and bar, which means he got the award twice. Out of an army of 6.5million soldiers only around 3,000 received the medal twice.
Her father bravely orchestrated a mission to go into the German's front line trenches to gain intel on the enemy, then acted as a 'shepherd' in no man's land to make sure his men got back.
"I'm so pleased. I feel very proud of him," says Judi. "He was always a hero in my eyes but now he's more of a hero."
*Who Do You Think You Are? airs tonight on BBC One at 9pm
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