Judi Dench her role in "The Winter's Tale", breaking her own record with her eighth win as a performer. Next, she co-starred as Cecily Neville, Duchess of York to Benedict Cumberbatch's Richard III in the second series of the BBC Two historical series "The Hollow Crown". The same year, she was cast alongside Eva Green and Asa Butterfield in Tim Burton's dark fantasy film "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children". Dench played Miss Esmeralda Avocet, a headmistress who can manipulate time and can transform into a bird. The film garnered mixed reviews from critics, who felt it was "on stronger footing as
Judi Dench In his review of the film, James Berardinelli from "ReelViews" remarked that he felt that Dench's character served no more "useful purpose than to give [her] an opportunity to appear in a science-fiction movie". She followed "Riddick" with a more traditional role in Charles Dance's English drama "Ladies in Lavender", also starring friend Maggie Smith. In the film, Dench plays one half of a sister duo and takes it upon herself to nurse a washed up stranger to health, eventually finding herself falling for a man many decades younger than she. The specialty release garnered positive reviews from critics, with