Judi Dench Goes By". The Dame was sparkly and downright ravishing." As with most of the original cast, Dench reprised the role of Evelyn in John Madden's "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" (2015), the sequel to the 2011 sleeper hit. The comedy-drama was released to lukewarm reviews from critics, who found it "as original as its title – but with a cast this talented and effortlessly charming, that hardly matters". From April to May 2015, Dench played a mother, with her real-life daughter Finty Williams playing her character's daughter, in "The Vote" at the Donmar Warehouse. The final performance was broadcast
Judi Dench Harold Pinter from the Aidan Higgins novel, directed by David Jones, in which she played one of three spinster sisters living in a fading Irish mansion in the Waterford countryside. Dench made her debut as a director in 1988 with the Renaissance Theatre Company's touring season, "Renaissance Shakespeare on the Road", co-produced with the Birmingham Rep, and ending with a three-month repertory programme at the Phoenix Theatre in London. Dench's contribution was a staging of "Much Ado About Nothing", set in the Napoleonic era, which starred Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson as Benedick and Beatrice. She has made numerous appearances