Given her history playing royals – particularly the award-winning turn as Victoria in Mrs. Brown back in 1997 – you can almost imagine directors needing someone to fill the role shining a signal of a crown in the sky to summon Judi Dench. She's back in the crown for Stephen Frears' Victoria And Abdul, which has put out its first trailer and poster.
Frears, who worked with the actress on Philomena, here has her reprising one of her most famous performances in another true story of QV finding an unexpected connection with someone in her court.
Here, around the time of her Golden Jubilee in 1887, we find a queen once more disconsolate. Depressed by the state of the world and still lonely at the top, she has the distinct impression that her servants and family – especially Bertie, the Prince Of Wales (Eddie Izzard) are simply waiting for her to keel over. So she's unexpectedly delighted to befriend a young man named Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), sent from India to work for her. Through his eyes, she begins to appreciate the wider world, and her own life, once more.
Given that it's been 20 years since Dench played Victoria last time, we're wondering about the chances for another movie (though if we're honest, we just want her to live forever), but perhaps will have to settle for a cinematic universe where she befriends a wide variety of characters, including a talking chamber pot called Eustace. Or, you know, not that.
Tim Pigott-Smith, Adeel Akhtar, Simon Callow, Michael Gambon and Olivia Williams are all part of the cast for Victoria And Abdul, due in cinemas on 15 September.