BBC star Jay Blades formed an unlikely friendship with Dame Judi Dench after they met three years ago while appearing in The Repair Shop. Jay, 54, became friends with the lady after helping her restore a pocket watch that belonged to her late husband Michael Williams.

Now the good friends will appear on screen with 89-year-old Judi in the Channel 4 documentary ‘Dame Judi & Jay: The Odd Couple’.

They learn more about each other’s very different life paths and childhoods and reflect on the different careers that have shaped their lives.

Jay shared a special moment with the Oscar-winning actress when Judi walked him to the grave of her late husband Michael William.

Jay also visited the Old Vic Theatre in London, where Judi performed in various stage productions for decades.

According to The Mirror, Judi said: “Jay had never been to a London theatre before and so we chose the Old Vic as I had spent the first four years of my career there.”

“It was very moving for me to revisit this place and I think Jay shared many of those feelings with me.”

During the scenes, Jay read an excerpt from Shakespeare’s work that he described as “magical.”

“It was like having the best teacher you could have in your life. It was like going back to school, which is a terrible experience for me, but with Dame Judi it was magic – absolute magic,” he said.

At first he found the whole experience daunting because he found reading aloud difficult.

In 2021, he spoke about his battle with dyslexia in the BBC documentary “Learning to Read at 51”.

He said: “It was intimidating and scary because I don’t read aloud. I don’t do that, but when she was doing things she hadn’t done in a long time and testing boundaries, I said, ‘I’m going to do that too.'”

This comes after he split from his wife Lisa Marie Zbozen earlier this summer, shocking his fans. They both took time off from their professional commitments but later returned.

Lisa, 44, a fitness personal trainer, has been married since 2022.