Dame Judi Dench has admitted she's a huge fan of Downton Abbey, and the actress hasn't ruled out making a guest-star appearance alongside close friend Dame Maggie Smith on the ITV period drama series in the future.
Dame Judi Dench
Asked by PEOPLE magazine if she'd even consider joining the show, she replied: "I don't know, who knows? I love watching it. I'd miss watching it [if I were in it]."
Recently teaming up with Maggie for sequel movie The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, she went on to say she enjoys working with her friends because they're developed their own form of "shorthand".
"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."
Despite winning a huge amount of awards and nominations in her career to-date, including the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Shakespeare In Love, Dame Judi never originally set out to make acting her career.
"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."
She is however glad that not all of her family are hoping to follow in her footsteps, adding: "My grandson [Sam, 17] doesn't want to be an actor at all, and I'm glad. It's so ephemeral."
Meanwhile, Judi insists that being made a Dame by the Queen back in 1988 hasn't changed her, saying: "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."
Tagged in Bill Nighy Celia Imrie Dame Judi Dench