‘I’m all yours, Jay’: Dame Judi Dench and Jay Blades strengthen friendship in one-off TV special

​While Blades and Dench know one another for their professional success, they’ve had a lot to catch up on regarding the decades of life they lived before their serendipitous meeting.

Blades was raised in Hackney, east London, working as a labourer and in factories as a young man before finding TV fame, while Dench made her stage debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company, sparking an illustrious seven-decade career which has earned her an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards, and seven Olivier Awards.

So, what better way to get to know each others’ pasts than to visit the very places that made them?

In Dame Judi & Jay: The Odd Couple, the pair of friends go down memory lane and, together, explore the places and people that made them who they are today.

“The first time I met her we just hit it off,” recalls Blades, 54, of his first encounter with Dench.

“Her driver handed her over to me – in the sense of he gave me her handbag and then gave me her hand, Kevin is his name, and he said, ‘Right, she’s all yours, Jay’. And she said, ‘Yes, I am. I’m all yours, Jay.’

“Dame Judi came to the [Repair Shop] barn for a special episode that we were doing for the Edinburgh TV Festival where she brought in a pocket watch. It was her husband Michael’s pocket watch.

“Steve Fletcher worked his magic on it, and we got it engraved on the back with MW – she loved it.”

“Sometimes, if you’re very lucky, you get to meet someone and find you’re totally on the same wavelength,” says Dench, 89, of her connection with Blades.

“What fun I had filming this programme with Jay, sharing memories of our past, both so different, finding we have the same sense of humour. I could have gone on filming for days.”

Travelling together across the UK, including exploring London and Stratford-upon-Avon, Blades and Dench share cups of tea, candid chats and even the stage as they introduce each other to the special places, people and moments that have shaped their lives.

“It was important for the Dame to understand where I had come from,” says Blades.

“Reason being is that not many people like myself, who are from that area, make it in a successful way.

"Being able to bring someone, such as the Dame, back to my old hunting ground – it was probably one of the most powerful things I’ve done on TV.”

Blades gives Dench a tour of Ridley Road Market in Dalston, even getting her flogging plantain to the locals, though he notes that while this was the site of many childhood memories, “the London of today is completely different”.

“I don’t feel a sense of community like there was in the 70s and 80s. A little pocket of it, where I feel there’s still a community, is probably Ridley Road Market. It’s still kind of the same,” he says.

“It’s not as busy as it used to be – most people are shopping online. I go to places in their familiar surroundings, but the people are not the same.

"It’s not the same community, probably because we’ve all grown up now, is the easiest way to put it.”

For Dench, the renowned Old Vic theatre in Waterloo was a pivotal location to visit, taking her back to the defining early days of her career.

“Jay had never been to a London theatre, 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 same emotion.”

Going through this experience together was eye-opening for both friends, since despite coming from, Blades says, “completely different walks of life”, they were able to “show each other their personal sides that then becomes a personal side to the other”.

“I learnt about his family, where he lived and generally got to know him as a good friend,” adds Dench, who didn’t shy away from being front and centre on a Ridley Road Market stall or practising her record-scratching techniques at The BBE Record Store with Blades.

“The most important thing for the Dame (and she doesn’t like me saying her age) is that, as an 89-year-old, her philosophy in life is that she wants to be interested by everything she’s doing,” says Blades.

“So, she’ll give everything a go. She’s up for it. I hope I’m going to be like that when I’m 89 because, when you see someone who doesn’t have to work (she’s done enough for the stage, screen, film and TV, she doesn’t have to do anything else) but she’s willing to do this… she’s willing to go around with me on a job, it’s just a ‘wow’ moment. You’ve got to take your hat off to her, really.”

Ultimately, the pair say, the nostalgic one-off programme celebrates the joy of friendship no matter your age, of connecting with people on a deeper level and, as Dench says, “the joy of finding someone you know will be a friend for the rest of your life”.

“Going down memory lane with someone dear to you is something I would urge everyone to do,” adds Blades.

“This show has given me memories and a friendship I will cherish forever.”

“It’s all about friendships,” he says.

“That’s all it is.”

l Dame Judi & Jay: The Odd Couple is on Channel 4 at 9pm on Sunday August 18.