Judi Dench shuts down 'boring' retirement question

Everyone needs to stop asking Judi Dench if she is going to retire - she’s sick of it.

The veteran actress, 84, continues to enjoy a wide-ranging career and this year saw her in cinemas as William Shakespeare’s wife in All is True), a KGB spy in Red Joan and soon she’ll be seen as Old Deuteronomy in the Cats movie.

Speaking at the opening of the Ashcroft Playhouse in Croydon, South London, Dench was once again asked when she’ll be hanging up her acting boots.

“I am so bored of the question,” she said, according to the Daily Mirror.

“You retire in order to walk, paint or travel. All those things,” she added.

“Well, I get to do that. I am doing the job that I would retire to do.”

Cats will be in cinemas on 20 December 2019 and she appears alongside Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, James Corden, Rebel Wilson and Jason Derulo.

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Dench was meant to appear in the original West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical but had to drop out after suffering an injury to her Achilles heel.

She was scheduled to play Jennyanydots and Grizabella when the accident occurred during rehearsals - she fell off the stage - weeks before its opening in 1981.

"I snapped my Achilles tendon and went into hospital and I was all in plaster (cast)," Dench told USA Today.

Now she finally gets to achieve her Cats ambition.

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“What’s lovely for me is that is has come full circle doing it again,” the actor said. “It’s been wonderful.”

The Oscar-winning star shows no signs of slowing down though as 2020 looks to be even fuller.

She will appear in Artemis Fowl, Blithe Spirit and Six Minutes To Midnight, which are all in post-production and expected to be released next year.

Never stop, Dame Judi Dench.