**The Armour is a trilogy of plays being performed at The Langham starring Finty Williams (daughter of Dame Judi!). Here, she talks us through her role and reveals what it’s like to follow in the footsteps of a national treasure… **
We caught up with Finty Williams in The Langham hotel’s enormous Infinity Suite. ‘I’ve nicknamed it the In-Finty Suite,’ she tells us with a twinkle of that impish humour we know and love from her mother, Dame Judi Dench.
Finty, 42, is at the hotel to prepare for its upcoming immersive theatre event. The Armour is a specially commissioned trilogy of plays – set in the present, the ’70s and the 1800s – performed at the hotel to an intimate audience (to include Dame Judi, we’re told) in cycles at half-hourly intervals.S Club 7’s Hannah Spearritt is also to star.
The 1970s-set play will see a couple come for an interview at the BBC recording studio that used to be in the hotel, while the 2015 segment features a pop star trying to revive her flagging career. Finty’s piece will take us back to 1871, where she plays Eugenie, long-suffering wife of Napoleon, newly moved to London from France. ‘He’s got gout and she’s caring for him and trying to inspire him to get back to what he does best,’ says Finty.
So does Finty get acting tips from mum Judi? ‘Yes, all the time! She’s quite clever about it,’ laughs Finty, adding that Judi is ‘extraordinarily beautiful’ and, ‘If she wasn’t my mother, I’d want her to be my best friend.’ She’s relaxed about the mother/daughter career comparisons, too. ‘I don’t aspire to have her career, or to be as talented as her, because I’d feel like I was shooting myself down in flames. If you have a parent who is that successful and set them as a benchmark, then everything is going to be disappointing.’
Come and join us! See ‘The Armour’ with the Grazia Theatre event, 7.30pm on 27 March at The Langham W1. Tickets are £40 and include a post-show talk with cast, including a glass of fizz and nibbles in the pop-up Barouche Bar. Email boxoffice@defibrillatortheatre.com with your name and ticket requirements to reserve spaces