It’s been an exceptionally busy year for Judi Dench, but you’d be hard pushed to tell. In spite of an exhaustively busy schedule she remains every bit as lively, personable and downright charming as audiences have come to expect. Taking a rest, it’s fair to say, appears to be the last thing on her mind.

With work currently underway on Skyfall over at Pinewood Studios, it was always likely that Bond would be a hot talking point, but the topic arises much sooner than anticipated. We’ve barely exchanged greetings when her phone goes off and the Bond theme plays out in all of its polyphonic glory. She is, of course, incredibly apologetic as I stifle a laugh. “God, I’m an amateur,” she exclaims bashfully.

The self-deprecation seems somewhat unjust. After all, very few ‘amateurs’ could legitimately be considered national treasures but, naturally, she downplays such praise. Her role in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, as a British retiree who ups sticks and moves to India, reunites her with her Shakespeare in Love director, John Madden, for a third time. It’s a working partnership for which Dench still clearly has a great affinity, having garnered a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her brief role as Elizabeth I, and it’s plain to see that the opportunity to work together remains a big draw years later.

“It’s always enjoyable working with John, no question about it,” she states enthusiastically. “He creates an atmosphere on a set that’s entirely conducive to doing the job and he knows very well what he wants. It makes it much easier because it’s not easy, but he makes it easy.”

The role appealed for personal reasons too. Having lost her husband, actor Michael Williams, to lung cancer in 2001 she fully empathised with her character’s position. “Suddenly Evelyn’s left without her husband and then, realising that she hasn’t got any money, she doesn’t want her independence suddenly taken away from her by going and sponging off her son and his family. She wanted to retain a bit of herself and was up for a bit of an adventure too.”

And an adventure it certainly was. The cast and crew jetted off to Rajasthan for a nine and a half week shoot at the end of 2010, an experience that Dench embraced with open arms. “I wish I’d gone when I was much younger. I loved it. Really loved it.”

Of course, not everyone necessarily felt the same way. “I think at first Tom Wilkinson had his reservations.” She lets out a telling laugh. “He was quite funny, but I think everyone embraced it to a certain extent. How could you not?” But if the shoot in India was a high point, the real highlight was yet to come.

February 2011 saw Dench fly out to Los Angeles for a two-week stint on J. Edgar working with Clint Eastwood, an experience that she emphatically describes as “heartstopping.”

“I’ve said it before, but he, in a way, goes beyond legend. Sometimes, when you meet somebody, there’s a huge thing about the way you think that the legend has overdone it. But with Clint, legend hasn’t done enough. I think he’s unbelievably special.”

The experience was profoundly affecting for her. “I’ve never imagined anything like it before and I’ve never imagined anything like it since. He is incredibly highly regarded and when you work with him you see why. Nobody says ‘action’ or ‘rolling’ or ‘be quiet’ or anything. And he doesn’t say ‘cut’. Nobody shouts. He just says ‘stop’. And you’re lucky if you get more than three takes.”

The level of admiration she has for her peers is self-evident, although it’s curious to find out how she feels about today’s notions of celebrity culture and the fall of the Hollywood icon.

“I suppose it’s something like that isn’t it? You’ve still got Al Pacino and people still talk about Brando and Paul Newman. I suppose there are waves of that. We talk still about Sir John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and Alec Guinness, but very soon there will be people who won’t talk about them because they won’t know them, which is a great pity.”

So what’s changed? “Mystery’s not the right word because it sounds too effete, but there’s no kind of magic. The rarer and more difficult it was to actually be in touch with people, the greater the awe was. And now, because everything is so accessible, maybe we won’t have heroes like that so much. There was a time when you didn’t know about people and you didn’t know about their private lives. It wasn’t done to find out everything about them. Familiarity breaks that down I think. Just let their performance speak for itself.”

There’s no doubt that her performances do, although she’s typically self-deprecating when it comes to discussing her career. “I’m really not good at choosing parts for myself,” she concedes. “I’ve only ever done roles where someone has come to me and said ‘this is a very good part for you’. They’ll tell me the story and that’s it. But I’m not a good chooser at all. I just want to keep on working.”

There is, of course, one choice she made many years ago that remains a firm favourite and one that she can always rely on people rallying to see her in; that of M, James Bond’s stern but strangely endearing superior, a part that she clearly relishes throwing herself back in to every couple of years. “I think everyone thinks I’m like that person,” she says with a smile.

It’s also one of the few roles that she looks back on with a sense of bewilderment. “It came completely from left-field and my husband got very, very excited: ‘How thrilling living with a Bond woman.’ But it’s still wonderful and it’s lovely being a part of all that. ‘How am I going to get the better of Bond this time?’ I wonder that from day to day.”

This interview was originally conducted for Little White Lies in November 2011. A full transcript can be found here.