Dame Judi Dench is a huge fan of ‘Downton Abbey’.
The 80-year-old actress says she hasn’t ruled out guest-starring alongside her close friend Dame Maggie Smith on the TV series in the future.
Asked if she would appear on the show, she said: "I don’t know, who knows? I love watching it. I’d miss watching it [if I were in it]."
The British star recently teamed up with Maggie, 80, again to star in the ‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ and admits she enjoys working with her friends because they have developed their own "shorthand."
She said: "Maggie and I were at the Old Vic together in 1958! We’ve done plays together, films together. The same with Bill Nighy and Celia Imrie. You have a shorthand with someone you know very, very well. I love being part of a company. I’d never consider doing something on my own, like a monologue."
The ‘Skyfall’ star, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for ‘Shakespeare in Love’ and has been nominated seven times, didn’t initially set out to become an actress.
She said: "I trained as a theatre designer. That’s what I was going to be. In the ’50s I went to Stratford to see King Lear with this incredible set. I can remember thinking, ‘I’m not ever going to have imagination to make a set like that.’ If I did, maybe I would have gone on to be a designer. When I watch [performances], I watch with a designer’s eye as well as an actor’s eye."
But she is glad that not all of her family want to follow in her footsteps.
She said: "My grandson [Sam, 17] doesn’t want to be an actor at all, and I’m glad. It’s so ephemeral."
Meanwhile, Judi insists she hasn’t changed since being made a dame by the Queen in 1998.
She told PEOPLE magazine: "I’m exactly the same person and behave the same. No curtsying, no bowing.
"I find [the royal family] utterly charming, doing an unenviable job – the pressure.
"It’s forever being in the public eye, forever being criticised. I think they do a brilliant job."
Dame Judi Dench loves Downton Abbey
