Legendary actress Dame Judi Dench and TV host Jay Blades first met three years ago, when Judi appeared on The Repair Shop in the hope that the talented restorers could work their magic on a pocket watch that belonged to her late husband, Michael Williams. Now good friends, the pair have embarked on a special journey together for a new one-off documentary, The Odd Couple , in which they learn more about each other’s very different lives, and during which Jay shared a heart breaking moment with the Oscar-winning actress, when Judi took him to the grave of her late husband Michael Williams. The show came about thanks to Judi’s daughter, Finty, who suggested when chatting with Jay that he and her mum should work together.
“We were having a chat; I was just seeing how her mum was doing,” Jay, 54, remembers. “She said, ‘Mum would love to work with you,’ And I said, ‘I'd love to work with her,’ ‘Think of some ideas Jay,’ is what she said. So, I did, and we started thinking about places we could go together - places that she holds dearly to her, and places I hold dearly to me.
” One of the places Judi takes Jay in the documentary is The Old Vic theatre in London, where she has appeared in many stage productions over the years. “Jay had never been to a London theatre and so we chose The Old Vic as it had been a place where I spent the first four years of my career,” she says. “I found it a very emotional place to revisit and I think Jay shared much of the .