National treasure and Oscar winner Dame Judi Dench has admitted that she posted a dead rat through the letterbox of her neighbour's house when she was a child18:51, 12 Jul 2026Dame Judi Dench may be a national treasure famed for playing the Queens of England, but it turns out she wasn't always a model neighbour. The star recently admitted that she once shoved a dead rat through her neighbour's letterbox.‌Dench, 91, revealed what she did on the BBC's This Natural Life podcast. She started by admitting to host Martha Kearney that it was a "terrible story" and clarified that it was the idea of her two older brothers, Jeffery and Peter.‌She said: "The boys used to play cricket in the garden, and they used to be always batting the balls over into the other gardens, and there was a lady called Miss Lazenby, and she never ever would throw the ball back, or give us the balls back.‌"And once the boys found a dead rat in the barn, and they parcelled it up, and they said to me, 'Judi, will you just go round and put this through Miss Lazenby’s door?'"The actress, who has played both Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, continued: "So I did go and squeeze it through Miss Lazenby’s door. Miss Lazenby was rather red about it saying, 'please give us our balls back'. We wrote that message, it was tied on the dead rat."‌Dench was asked if the message and the rat were successful in forcing Miss Lazenby to give back the balls, to which she said "probably not". She added that her brothers were banned from playing cricket shortly after.Since her rat-posting days in York, where she grew up, Dench has gone on to build a tremendous career as one of the UK's most beloved actors. She has played iconic characters, including the two queens, M in three James Bond films and the snobby Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride & Prejudice.For her role as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare In Love, she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, despite only being in the film for eight minutes. She has also been nominated for several more Oscars including for her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown. Alongside her Oscar, she has also won ten BAFTAs across film and TV, two Golden Globes, two SAG awards, seven Oliviers and a Tony.‌Dench quietly retired in 2024, due to poor health. She later revealed that she had age-related macular degeneration which causes a gradual deterioration of the eyesight. When asked at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2024 if she had any new work coming up, she said: "No, no, I can't even see."Jeffery, meanwhile, became a big name in the world of theatre. He was an actor best known for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and played roles including Sebastian in The Tempest, Ratty in Toad of Toad Hall and Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night. He died in 2014, aged 85.Article continues belowUnlike his siblings, Peter Dench did not become an actor. He instead studied medicine and became a GP, working in York for decades before he died in 2017. He was 91 at the time.Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .