Judi Dench stuns with likeness to Queen Victoria in new movie

A new movie poster has been released for Victoria & Abdul, showing our favourite Dame Judi Dench as Queen Victoria in the upcoming film for the first time, and the transformation is incredible. 

Victoria & Abdul is an upcoming British-American biographical film directed by Stephen Frears and written by Lee Hall and is based on the book of same name by Shrabani Basu.

It explores the true story of an unexpected friendship between Queen Victoria and a young Indian man, Abdul Karim.

According to BBC, Abdul Karim arrived in England from Agra when he was just 24 and was given to Queen Victoria as a ‘gift from India’ where Karim was invited to present a ceremonial coin to Queen as part of Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee celebrations in 1887.

We're proud to present the official poster for Victoria & Abdul #WT pic.twitter.com/fLVXd9kUey

— Working Title (@Working_Title) May 30, 2017

Shrabani Basu, the author of the book told the BBC that Queen Victoria and Karim had an unusually close relationship. 

“On some occasions, she even signed off her letters with a flurry of kisses – a highly unusual thing to do at that time,” Basu said.

“It was unquestionably a passionate relationship – a relationship which I think operated on many different layers in addition to the mother-and-son ties between a young Indian man and a woman who at the time was over 60 years old.”

The film will show how Karim became the Queen’s confidant, and taught her to write in Urdu and tutored her on Indian affairs. It’s not Dench’s first time as Queen Victoria, however – she played the monarch in the 1997 film Mrs Brown, about Victoria’s close relationship with servant John Brown, played by Billy Connolly. 

Will you be interested in seeing Victoria & Abdul when it is released?