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Dame Judi Dench stars in exclusive new look at spy drama 'Red Joan'


Skyfall star Dame Judi Dench has returned to the world of espionage for her new film Red Joan.

The 84-year-old acting titan has teamed up with acclaimed theatre director Trevor Nunn for her first spy film since exiting the James Bond franchise back in 2012, taking on the role of the eponymous Joan Stanley.

Based on Jennie Rooney’s novel of the same name, Red Joan is inspired by the true story of Melita Norwood, an infamous Cold War double agent, who supplied state secrets to the KGB for around 40 years before she was unmasked in 1999.

Read more: Dench takes on gender-flipped role in Artemis Fowl

The drama, in cinemas nationwide from 19 April, is set across two time periods with Dench playing the elderly Joan at the age her spy career was unmasked. Kingsman: The Golden Circle star Sophie Cookson plays the young Joan in 1938 when, as a Cambridge physics student, she’s recruited by the Russian secret service.

We’re thrilled to share some of the Oscar-winner’s performance in the film in an exclusive new clip, which shows Joan revealing her arrest to Ben Miles’ concerned Nick.

Dame Judi Dench in <i>Red Joan</i> (Lionsgate)
Dame Judi Dench in Red Joan (Lionsgate)

Here’s a synopsis for the film: The year is 2000 and Joan Stanley (Dench) is living in contented retirement in suburbia at the turn of the millennium. Her tranquil life is suddenly disrupted when she’s arrested by MI5 and accused of providing intelligence to Communist Russia.

Cut to 1938 where Joan is a Cambridge physics student who falls for young communist Leo Galich and through him, begins to see the world in a new light.

Working at a top-secret nuclear research facility during WWII, Joan comes to the realisation that the world is on the brink of mutually assured destruction. Confronted with an impossible question – what price would you pay for peace? – Joan must choose between betraying her country and loved ones or saving them.


Red Joan is in cinemas 19 April.