Dame Judi's Globe success

Dame Judi in Last of the Blonde Bombshells

Dame Judi Dench has won a Golden Globe award for her performance in the BBC film Last of the Blonde Bombshells.

The British actress, whose husband Michael Williams died earlier this month, was not at the ceremony in Los Angeles to collect the award.

Her husband's funeral service was held last week in the village of Outwood, in Surrey.

More than 300 family and friends attended, among them Royal National Theatre director Trevor Nunn and Sir John Mills.

The award is Dame Judi's second success at the Golden Globes. In 1998 she was honoured with the best actress award for Mrs Brown.

Academy award

This time around she won for best actress in a film made for TV.

She had also been nominated for the award for best supporting actress in a movie, but lost out to Kate Hudson.

The actress first came to the attention of Hollywood with her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown in 1998 when she was nominated for an Oscar.

She failed to win the Academy Award but a year later returned triumphantly to collect the trophy for best supporting actress for Shakespeare in Love when she again played a queen, this time Queen Elizabeth I.

She is also well-known in America for her role as spy chief M in the recent James Bond movies, starring Pierce Brosnan.

In Last of the Blonde Bombshells Dame Judi plays a grandmother who, encouraged by her grand-daughter, seeks out friends with whom she played in a World War II band.