VIDEO: Interview with Dame Judi Dench and Eddie Izzard at Isle of Wight's Osborne House

Superstars Dame Judi Dench and Eddie Izzard visited the Island to attend a black tie gala held in honour of Dame Judi becoming a patron of the Friends of Osborne House.

At just over five foot Dame Judi makes an unlikely pairing with Eddie Izzard. However, sat together, the pair immediately begin laughing and sharing a private joke over a glass of champagne.

Having spent three weeks at Osborne House last summer filming Victoria and Abdul, they are clearly thrilled to be back in familiar surroundings.

“It’s just lovely to be back,” says Dame Judi. “Normally a film set that you’ve been on breaks up as soon as you finish filming. However, we’ve suddenly come back in and known everywhere and recognised everything.”

In Victoria and Abdul, Dame Judi reprises her role as Queen Victoria — having previously starred as the royal in the 1997 film Mrs Brown. However, she is adamant she not be known for just playing royalty.

“No, I don’t play Queens,” she says pounding the table with a smile. “I played Titania a couple of times, Queen of the faeries, doesn't really count. And I played Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria twice and Cleopatra. That's all in sixty years.”

Eddie remarks that what is so great about Dame Judi is the scope of her talents.

He says: “She's in touch with the teenage girl in her, you know.

“Judi has this young force inside her… Judi can play whatever she wants to.”

The film, directed by Stephen Frears, was the first to be shot inside the walls of Osborne House.

“It was fun, wasn’t it?” Eddie says, as they share a smile.

“We were all together all that time,” Dame Judi adds. “We were all in the same hotel in Cowes, which was glorious, and in the evenings we would all sit around one little fire pit outside and have a drink and all go off to bed. It was like a theatre company, not a film company.”

They explain that normally working on a film is not such a close-knit experience. Eddie says: “Sometimes someone can be in half a film, but if you’re in different scenes you just won’t meet up with then.”

The duo describe the cast as “naughty youngsters” when they were unleashed on the house for filming.

Dame Judi says: “English Heritage were nervous — and rightly so!”

Eddie adds: “We were a little bit like, 'Can we go here?'... 'No, don't go there!' Because obviously they want to protect everything so had to say, 'No don't put your foot on that!'”

“There is a little corner up there where we were all were, they were doing another scene nearby so we were all kept there. We sat and played games,” says Judi.

Eddie says: “Yes, and didn’t we stick things on our heads?”

“I’m afraid we all behaved like children,” says Dame Judi.

“It was a like a bunch of schoolkids being allowed in Osborne House.”

Eddie reveals that he played the house piano, and Judi remarks that the last person to play it was probably Prince Albert himself.

He says: “I played the piano, I’m afraid, which I don’t think has been played in 150 years.

“I just love pianos and that got me on it, but they were like ‘don’t ever touch it again!’, so probably no one is going to play it again.”

One particular scene that gets the pair laughing involved Dame Judi and an excessive number of boiled eggs. Much of the film features Queen Victoria eating, with the director requiring that Dame Judi become increasingly “messy”.

Dame Judi says: “There was a scene in bed, and I had to have a boiled egg. And we did the scene all morning. At the end of the morning our props man said, ‘Are you interested in knowing how many eggs you’ve just eaten?’”

Eleven was the answer, an excessive number by anyone’s count, but Dame Judi laughs and says: “It says more the fact that they had no affect on me whatsoever.”

“No, because he cooked them nicely, didn’t he?” adds Eddie.

The cast, particularly Dame Judi, had many long days when filming but they still found time to explore the Island. Dame Judi is no stranger to the IW having visited before, and fondly remembers Carisbrooke Castle.

“We got out on a Sunday, here and there,” says Dame Judi. “We got out and went right round the Island.”

During their time here, Eddie also performed at Shanklin theatre, doing a benefit for IW charities.

He says: “When we went to Shanklin theatre that was fun, because it’s something to give back to the IW, and a day off for the company.”

Of course, the reason they are visiting is because the Dame has taken up a position as Patron of the friends of Osborne House. So can we expect to see her on the Island in future, perhaps at the IW Festival, or Cowes week?

“I would love to say yes,” she says. “If that’s possible and I’m invited, of course I will be here. Absolutely like a shot.”