# Didn't Judi Dench already do this movie 20 years ago? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 4, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509 "2017-09-04T20:37:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/1 "2017-09-04T20:37:53Z")
Went to see “The Trip to Spain” and saw a preview of “Victoria and Abdul,” in which Judi Dench as Queen Victoria is depressed until she strikes up a friendship with a commoner and their relationship is disapproved of by Victoria’s advisors and heirs. This sounds a lot like the 1997 movie “Mrs. Brown,” in which Judi Dench as Queen Victoria is depressed until she strikes up a friendship with a commoner and their relationship is disapproved of by Victoria’s advisors and heirs. I’m thinking I don’t need to see this. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/2 "2017-09-04T21:23:23Z")
Judi Dench. But yeah, it’s a well-mined seam. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/3 "2017-09-04T21:25:02Z")
It’s a different commoner this time–Indian guy instead of Scottish guy. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/4 "2017-09-04T21:39:50Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#): > > It’s a different commoner this time–Indian guy instead of Scottish guy. Ah, true, but both charmingly ethnic! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/5 "2017-09-05T00:45:58Z")
Also, both films are based on true stories. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/6 "2017-09-05T01:17:44Z")
Did you like The Trip to Spain? I saw it as a TV show and thought it was pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/7 "2017-09-05T02:00:16Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Did you like The Trip to Spain? I saw it as a TV show and thought it was pretty good. I actually laughed out loud a lot. I like all those movies. I mean they’re pretty much all the same but it’s my kind of thing. I just didn’t like the cliffhanger ending. I wish I had access to the full episodes. I wanted a bit more food porn and description of what they were eating. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/8 "2017-10-12T19:41:52Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > This sounds a lot like the 1997 movie “Mrs. Brown,” in which Judi Dench as Queen Victoria is depressed until she strikes up a friendship with a commoner and their relationship is disapproved of by Victoria’s advisors and heirs. Did “Mrs. Brown” play it as though they were intimate? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/9 "2017-10-12T20:03:29Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Did “Mrs. Brown” play it as though they were intimate? Yes. Why do you think they called it “Mrs. Brown”? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/10 "2017-10-12T20:17:41Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Yes. Why do you think they called it “Mrs. Brown”? Ah. ---
**Author:** ![Grumbacher\_Red](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Grumbacher\_Red](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumbacher_Red)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2017, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/11 "2017-10-16T03:50:18Z")
I thought the same thing when I saw the trailer. I did like Mrs. Brown, but I think I will skip Victoria and Abdul. I have a love-hate relationship with Queen Victoria, and right now I am leaning more towards hate. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2017, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/12 "2017-10-16T04:01:39Z")
Reminds me when I saw “Black Book” in theaters a decade ago. That movie features a beautiful Jewish woman who is enlisted in WW2 to seduce a German officer. While watching the “upcoming attractions” before the movie, the trailer for “Lust Caution” came on… …in which we saw a beautiful Chinese woman enlisted in WW2 seduce a Japanese officer. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2017, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/13 "2017-10-16T09:58:30Z")
There’s a sort of trilogy of films showing that Queen Victoria was more interesting than she has traditionally been portrayed - _Young Victoria_ (2009), _Mrs Brown_ (1997), and _Victoria & Abdul_ (2017). There’s also a 2001 TV movie called _Victoria & Albert_. Some sources say that that’s good too, but I haven’t seen it. ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2017, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/14 "2017-10-17T01:28:56Z")
And, Victoria lived a real long time, so I’m thinking Dame Dench has at least three more movies there. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2017, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/15 "2017-10-17T02:04:28Z")
> [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](#): > > And, Victoria lived a real long time, so I’m thinking Dame Dench has at least three more movies there. Well, 81 years. Long, but hardly Queen Elizabeth’s mother long. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2017, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/16 "2017-10-17T03:54:42Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There’s a sort of trilogy of films showing that Queen Victoria was more interesting than she has traditionally been portrayed - _Young Victoria_ (2009), _Mrs Brown_ (1997), and _Victoria & Abdul_ (2017). There’s also a 2001 TV movie called _Victoria & Albert_. Some sources say that that’s good too, but I haven’t seen it. Also a recent TV series, which I found so-so: [Victoria - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_(TV_series)) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2017, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/17 "2017-10-17T11:12:30Z")
She’s an interesting character study - there’s a complicated backstory and a long life through which her essential characteristics played out. Rotten childhood, no father (hence the initial obsessive crush on Lord Melbourne), wilfulness as a young woman upsetting the old-fashioned court flunkeys of the 1830s (“pert” was the least of their insults), appallingly self-centred obsessions transferred to Albert, and therefore equally self-centred and demanding as a mother, matriarch and widow (which rather damaged much of her family for at least three generations - George V supposedly summed it up as he is quoted as saying “My father was scared of his father, I was scared of my father, and I’ll damn well make sure my sons are scared of me” - and they were). Hence too the wilfulness with which she dug her heels in over both John Brown and the Munshi. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2017, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/18 "2017-10-17T11:59:39Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There’s also a 2001 TV movie called _Victoria & Albert_. Some sources say that that’s good too, but I haven’t seen it. I was just watching part of that yesterday. It’s a little heavy on the royals-worship, but pretty good, especially about the time right before 18-year-old Victoria becomes queen. Great cast–Nigel Hawthorne, David Suchet, Diana Rigg, Peter Ustinov. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2017, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/19 "2017-10-17T20:01:00Z")
I’d say the only intriguing thing about the film is that it’s directed by Stephen Frears, who is light years a better director than John Madden (who did _Mrs. Brown_ before boosting Dame Judi to her Oscar in _Shakespeare in Love_. Still may not be enough to get me through the doors, though since it does feel awfully familiar… ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509/20 "2017-10-17T23:01:21Z")
> [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](#): > > And, Victoria lived a real long time, so I’m thinking Dame Dench has at least three more movies there. Hopefully next time around she can direct her lascivious glances at that old but suave Spanish footman played by George Hamilton. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/didnt-judi-dench-already-do-this-movie-20-years-ago/795509.md?page=2)