In a bid to tell the story of one family member, staff at Benthall Hall in Broseley have reached out to star of stage and screen, Dame Judi Dench.
In 1957, the director of the Old Vic in London took a chance on a young woman straight out of drama school, casting her as Ophelia in a production of Hamlet.
67 years later and you might have heard of her - now, national treasure, Dame Judi Dench.
In 1957, the director of the Old Vic in London took a chance on a young woman straight out of drama school, casting her as Ophelia in a production of Hamlet.
67 years later and you might have heard of her - now, national treasure, Dame Judi Dench.
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NewsTranscript
00:00So, we've got a story of Michael Bentall. Michael Bentall was one of the family members of the Bentall family, of Bentall Hall.
00:08Michael was the artistic director at the Old Vic Theatre during the mid-1950s into the 1960s,
00:14and he cast the biggest names of theatre and screen at the time, such as Richard Burton and Vivien Leigh.
00:21And one name that he started the career of was Dame Judi Dench.
00:26So, when Michael retired from the Old Vic Theatre, he was given three volumes of books,
00:32and in the first volume of books contained signatures of lots of people he worked with, such as Vivien Leigh.
00:39But one signature we're missing is of Dame Judi Dench.
00:44So, for years we've been trying to get a hold of other people to see if we can get a signature, any possibility.
00:51Not come up with trumps so far, but recently one of my volunteers found a contact who knows Judi Dench,
01:00and is someone who works with her, so we got in touch, and we received a letter back from the Dame herself.
01:07And the signature is finally coming to Bentall, so we can display it alongside her photo, which is in one of the books too.
01:14In the letter she states that without Michael she wouldn't have a career at all,
01:19which is a big achievement for Michael, who isn't a name that people know, he's not famous, he wanted to make names of his stars,
01:27so it's our job now to make Michael the star.
01:30She knows we're here now, and she knows that we're telling Michael's story,
01:34so to have Judi come here on a visit would be lovely one day.