Dame Judi Dench confesses sending dead rat to neighbour as revenge

Dame Judi Dench has confessed to carrying out a gruesome childhood prank after a neighbour repeatedly refused to return cricket balls that landed in her garden.

The 91-year-old actress shared the story during an appearance on the BBC’s This Natural Life podcast recalling how her brothers came up with an unusual plan for revenge.

According to Dench her brothers Peter and Jeffery often played cricket in the garden and regularly hit balls into neighbouring properties. One neighbour Ms Lazenby had a habit of keeping them.

“The boys used to play cricket in the garden, they used to always be batting the balls over into the other gardens,” Dench said.

“There was a lady called Ms Lazenby and she would never ever give us the balls back – this is a terrible story.”

She explained that her brothers once found a dead rat in the barn wrapped it up with a note and asked her to deliver it.

“They parcelled it up and they said to me, ‘Judi, would you just go round and put this through Ms Lazenby’s door’,” she said.

Dench admitted she went through with it, adding that the note read: “Please give us our balls back.”

“So I did go, and squeezed it through Ms Lazenby’s door,” she said. “Ms Lazenby was round in about an hour and a half, I think. I don’t think we were allowed to play cricket again.”