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.
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