DAME JUDI DENCH RECALLS POSTING DEAD RAT THROUGH NEIGHBOUR'S DOOR

Dame Judi Dench has disclosed that she posted a dead rat through a neighbour's letterbox during her childhood. Speaking on the BBC's This Natural Life podcast, the 91-year-old described the incident as "a terrible story" and explained that her older brothers had enlisted her help in the prank. The rat was parcelled up and accompanied by a note reading "please give us our balls back", referencing cricket balls that the neighbour, Miss Lazenby, had refused to return after they landed in her garden.

Dench stated that Miss Lazenby would not throw back or return the cricket balls after the boys hit them over the fence during games in the garden. Her brothers found the dead rat in the barn and asked Dench to deliver it through the neighbour's door, which she agreed to do. Dench acknowledged that the attempt to retrieve their sports equipment "probably" did not succeed.

Dench was appointed a dame in 1987 for services to acting. She has reduced her professional commitments in recent years owing to health difficulties. In 2012, Dench revealed a diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration, a degenerative eye condition that she identified as a major cause of sight loss in the United Kingdom, though she noted it does not result in complete blindness.