Dame Judi Dench has seen every show Eddie Izzard has done.
The 82-year-old Oscar winner stars as Queen Victoria in the new Stephen Frears film ‘Victoria and Abdul’ alongside the actor-and- comedian who stars as her son Bertie – who became King Edward VII – and the actress admitted she is a huge fan of Izzard’s stand-up routines and TV programmes.
Speaking the UK premiere of ‘Victoria and Abdul’ at London’s Odeon in Leicester Square, she said: "We have seen every show he has ever done. He’s a genius."
‘Victoria and Abdul’ follows the final days of Queen Victoria and her unlikely bond with Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal) and Dench – who worked with the filmmaker five times – admitted she thinks it is a "story worth telling".
She said: "What attracted me was that we didn’t know this area of her life and I thought that Lee Hall’s screenplay was really very beautiful and the chance to work with Stephen again. I’ve worked with him five times now. And I think it was a story worth telling."
The film marks the first time a movie has ever been shot inside Queen Victoria’s home in Osborne House, where she also died, and Dench’s co-star Izzard said shooting on set added "reality" to the film.
He told BANG Showbiz: "No film has ever been shot in there before. So we were shooting the actual scenes and actual words.
"We wrote them but conversations and arguments like that probably happened in that very house, on the very stairs and in the very corridor.
"It was beautiful. Especially this one scene when she is leaving Abdul. Lightning is flashing and Judi is walking down this corridor and I am standing there on my own just looking at her.
"It added that reality to it. It was good. Osborne House will hopefully benefit from this."
Dame Judi Dench is an Eddie Izzard super-fan
