“Sometimes dreams come true”: when Judi Dench and Mick Jagger shared a stage
Some worlds are never supposed to collide, just as there are some you never realised were a match until they did. No one would have thought to put Dame Judi Dench and Mick Jagger together, but according to the actor, it was a dream come true.
When you think about it, this is a pretty wild thing to have on her bucket list. After all, as far as hopes and dreams go, you’d probably be right in assuming that Dench has pretty much done it all. Aside from her acting credits, which range from playing just about everything you can think of, she has also been involved in a variety of different creative pursuits, many of which fulfilled or exceeded her own personal goals.
And when she’s not living out her dreams for work purposes, she’s enjoying them in her own time, immersing herself in the various threads of artistic storytelling. For instance, as a major music lover, Dench appreciates a range of different genres and styles, from the pioneering classical realms of figures like Ralph Vaughan Williams to the jazz greats like Miles Davis.
Some of her favourite songs of all times are ones she can really lose herself to, like Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’ and Davis’ ‘Blues in Green’ with Charlie Parker, while her favourite song of all time, Frank Sinatra’s ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’, isn’t just a song she particularly enjoys; it’s one that she credits to being exactly where she is today.
In fact, to Dench, Sinatra wasn’t just a great singer, but he was someone who had the power to unite people, as she revealed when she recalled a moment when she and her late husband, actor Michael Williams, saw him perform at the Royal Albert Hall. According to Dench, her husband broke down in a pub before they went into the show, moved by the fact that Sinatra could get “more people in and out of bed than anyone in history”.
This wasn’t her first experience with realising the sheer power of musical community, nor was Sinatra the first singer she ever felt besotted by. In fact, another figure who made it onto her bucket list was none other than the rock ‘n’ roll fireball himself, The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger. Dench had always dreamed of one day sharing the stage with the iconic frontman, though likely understood that such a wish was nothing more than a mere pipe dream.
However, thanks to the powers that be (and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth), Dench’s dream came true during a conversational show called What’s The Play? What’s The Part?. While planning the show, Brandreth worked on the ultimate surprise for her and contacted Jagger in the hopes that he would show up unexpectedly.
“She told me once her dream was to share a stage with Mick Jagger. They had never met before. Sometimes dreams come true,” said Brandreth, adding that when he asked Jagger to join them, he didn’t think twice. The energy in the room when he appeared was palpable, made even more special by the fact that the singer also made a speech about Dench’s legacy and magnetism as an actor.
As far as bucket lists go, it’s probably safe to say that Dench has well and truly fulfilled hers. And if her t-shirt at the time, which said “Rock & Roll”, wasn’t indicative of how perfect such a moment turned out to be, then it was surely her recital of ‘The Parting’ by Michael Drayton, in which she read that she was “glad with all my heart”.
