Dame Judi honoured by university

Dame Judi Dench has been honoured by Scotland's oldest university for her work on stage and screen.

The Oscar-winning actress was given an honorary degree at a ceremony at St Andrews University.

Dame Judi, 73, said she was surprised but delighted to be made a doctor of letters.

After the ceremony, she said: "I had never been to St Andrews before, so I'm very pleased and I'm going to boast about it a lot."

She added: "It was very embarrassing, you know. You see a photograph of yourself and that's embarrassing and then you have to stand up in front of a lot of people while someone says the whole of your life to you.

"But it is a huge day of celebration and I'm frightfully pleased to have been asked."

'Idyllic childhood'

Dame Judi was given the honorary degree alongside Dr Simon Fraser Campbell, a top chemist who led a team which discovered the drug Viagra along with other medicines.

Dr Campbell was made a doctor of science.

The congregation at the University's Younger Hall were told Dame Judi had an idyllic childhood in York, although she did not have a television until after the Coronation in 1953.

Graduates in the audience laughed as Professor Lorna Hutson of the University's School of English reeled off a lengthy list of accolades she has won.

Dame Judi played Queen Victoria in the film Mrs Brown.

She won an Oscar for portraying Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare In Love and has starred as M in a string of James Bond films.

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