Judi Dench accidentally video called co-star Ben Whishaw from the bath

Dame Judi Dench has revealed that she accidentally video called fellow James Bond actor Ben Whishaw from the bathtub.

The Oscar-winning actress, 88, said she had made the call – mistakenly on video – to friend Chris Logan for his birthday after her daughter, actress Finty Williams, suggested she phone him.

At the time, she said Mr Logan was having a walk with the actor Ben Whishaw, who starred as Q in Bond films Skyfall and No Time to Die, in Regent’s Park.

Speaking on the Zoe Ball and Friends podcast from BBC Sounds, Dame Judi said: “I can’t see at all, my phone is anathema, I don’t know what all those buttons are for.”

“I went up to get dressed and ready and I ran my bath and I got into my bath and I thought: ‘Oh I must send Chris Logan a happy birthday (message).’

“So I picked up my phone ... and I pressed something and said ‘Chris, happy happy’ and I just saw these two people turn and go [gasps].

“Well, it was FaceTiming them, I don’t know about FaceTime, poor Chris, happy birthday.”

“What a birthday message, you can’t top that,” Ball laughed.

Dame Judi also quipped that as well as dislike for her phone, she was “as deaf as a post”, to which host Ball said she would speak loudly.

The veteran actress appeared on the podcast to promote her new book, Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays The Rent, which includes a series of conversations with her friend, actor and director Brendan O’Hea.

She joked that all her Shakespeare roles over the years remain “the only thing I can remember”, adding: “I can’t remember anything else, I couldn’t remember what I did last week … but I do remember reams of Shakespeare.”

“How he understood everything – anger, jealousy, envy, love, hate –, anything that you care to feel or mention,” Dame Judi added.

Asked about how the book came about, Mr O’Hea said: “The idea came before lockdown and I just started to do a bit of research and Jude quite liked the idea of me just interviewing her and then offering it to the archive department at Shakespeare’s Globe … it evolved, it never set out to be a book.”

Dame Judi revealed that she “used to always stand in the wings and watch every single performance” while she worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late 50s and early 60s.

She also said that a tunic worn by her late husband, Michael Williams – who died in 2001 aged 65 – for a performance of When Thou Art King where he played Henry V was found in an “emotional” moment.

A female costume collector wrote her a letter saying she had the item, and sent it to Dame Judi.

“It was the first thing I’d ever seen Mikey in, long before we were married,” she said.

When Thou Art King is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s plays of Henry IV parts 1 and 2 and Henry V into three parts.

Dame Judi said her family realised that her brother Jeffery Dench – who died in 2014 – was also in the same production and the costume was designed by his wife Ann Curtis.

“Fint was in tears, Sammy (Dame Judi’s grandson) was in tears and Judi was so emotional,” Mr O’Hea said, after the pair revealed it was given to Finty for her birthday.

“It was just a beautiful moment to see the whole family reunited and also reunited through Shakespeare,” he added.