S Poddar
Dame Judi Dench, one of Britain’s most celebrated actresses and members of the royal family, has been talking about her deep sorrow after losing a great friend and colleague, the recently deceased famous stage and screen star Dame Maggie Smith. Dame Judi Dench was among the several celebrated guests that appeared at the Cheltenham Literature Festival to answer questions from the audience. It was actor Brendan O’Hea who put forward a series of questions directed at the actress on Dame Maggie Smith. She fought back tears visibly, but couldn’t find words for her emotions. She trailed off before cutting herself short when asked about a prior comparison she had likened grief to petrol.
Just 89 years old when she died, Dame Maggie Smith- for many, the embodiment of the fiery but poised Mrs Mcrone in Harry Potter and Violet, Countess of Grantham, in Downton Abbey– has been remembered with tributes from fans and colleagues alike, including King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who declared her a ‘legendary figure of the stage and screen’. At the end of the day, Maggie Smith’s long career has been marked by mounds of approbation and admiration.
Dench and Smith shared much more than professional kudos; the two women were good friends whom they had known for decades. The two women share a similar birthday, and with the passing of years, Dench and Smith had many collaborative performances. In 2004, she starred again with Smith in the emotive drama Ladies in Lavender, concerning a drama involving two sisters befriending a young stranger. In fact, they also appeared in the 2015 sequel to the 2011 blockbuster movie, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which revived their screen pairing again.
The connection they shared was beyond their profession, including the case of the 2018 documentary Nothing Like a Dame. The film provided glimpses of the personal lives of four great British actresses: Dench, Smith, Joan Plowright, and Eileen Atkins as they reminisced about their careers and lifetimes. Dench and Smith did some teasing exchanges in the movie that left viewers with an understanding of the depth of affection and mutual regard they held for each other.
During the Cheltenham Literature Festival, Dench was asked how she copes after losing people she loves. She remembered her husband Michael Williams, who died in 2001. Dench has previously compared grief to petrol, saying it gives something. O’Hea remembered that previous statement and asked what she meant with the analogy. Dench was quick to assent, seizing on the emotional energy grieving brings, but again, her words dropped away as she becomes viscerally affected by the memories of the lost loved ones.
Dench has spoken previously about finding solace in her work after the death of her husband, “Sometimes you have to do a play, and it is really painful,” she said in an interview with The Times some years ago. “But I also found it unbelievably cathartic. You steel yourself and use what you’re going through as energy. Like petrol. It has helped me cope with the pain.” She hasn’t said a lot about the interview during this year’s festival but her words before provide some insight into how she copes with the pain.
O’Hea, thinking she’s not liking something, had subtly shifted the conversation away by asking about the trees she plants in her home in Surrey in remembrance of the ones who have left this world. Now with a bit of mirth, Dench says some trees seem to sprout a pattern that reminds her of the person they are memorialised for. She even could crack a smile when she mentioned the tree planted in memory of actor Bob Peck, who died in 1999, “won’t grow,” injecting some levity into otherwise bleak conversation.
The death of Dame Maggie Smith marks the demise of an era in British acting. Accused of having a sharp wit and a fearless stage presence, Smith’s career spanned eight decades. With strict but caring schoolteacher in the Harry Potter series where she played Professor Minerva McGonall, becoming a darling figure for generations, she still remains one of the most loved for her work as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the classic British drama series Downton Abbey, which she herself narrates.
Tributes poured in for Smith, speaking of both her professional successes and the warmth of her spirit and intellect. She “was a fierce intellect, had a gloriously sharp tongue, could intimidate and charm in the same instant, and was, as everyone will tell you, extremely funny,” co-star Daniel Radcliffe of the Harry Potter movies said. King Charles III called her “a national treasure” while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Maggie “was beloved by so many for her great talent.”
The Smith awards speak for themselves. In 1970, she won two Academy Awards for her performance in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the other for the movie California Suite in 1979. She has gained four more Oscar nominations; therefore, she has seven Bafta awards that prove her as one of the most renowned actresses of her generation.
She is still grappling with the loss of her beloved friend. In paying tribute to Dame Judi Dench, these tributes show evidence not only of the close personal bond between the two women but also of the gigantic legacy Dame Maggie Smith left behind-a legacy that is bound to inspire generations of actors and audiences around the world.”.
