My favourite place – as long as I’m not in the film

She is an ardent campaigner in a small community’s fight to save its cinema – but the films that Dame Judi Dench will not be watching there are her own.

At a weekend event to raise funds to reopen Oban’s only cinema, the Oscar-winning actress revealed her intense dislike of watching herself on the silver screen.

At 76, Dame Judi is living proof that there is still plenty of work out there for the more mature woman.

But inside her head she is a much younger model – and she does not want to see her illusions shattered.

Speaking at a fund-raising dinner hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Argyll in the surroundings of Inveraray Castle, Dame Judi admitted that she had never watched many of the films she has starred in.

“When you hear yourself recorded, you say ‘That’s not me’. If you think you are a tall, willowy blonde of 49 and you see you are not, then it’s depressing. I would rather stay in a fantasy world.

“I have never seen A Room with A View, never seen Chocolat, never seen The Shipping News all the way through, never seen The Importance of Being Earnest.”

Dame Judi is one of several famous patrons of the Oban Phoenix Cinema, which is being reborn after a £160,000 community buy-out of the former Highland Theatre, which closed last summer and will reopen after renovations are completed.

Recalling former visits to the theatre with her husband Michael Williams, who died in 2001, she said: “[We] came to Oban 34 years ago. We came up with a tent and a very small daughter.

“We came up every single year, not only to Oban but to Plockton and as far as Skye.

“We didn’t come to go to the cinema, but if you have rain after rain after rain, and you have exhausted walking and all those kind of things, the Highland Theatre was a wonderful place where you could go and dry off your clothes.”

Dame Judi was the guest of honour at Saturday night’s dinner, where food and wine were donated by Argyll businesses.

The duke said it was important to be able to access local amenities. “You don’t always want to go to Glasgow to do your shopping or go to the cinema,” he said.

Community fund-raising support for the Phoenix was strong, he said. “I think it shows great strength of character. It’s great that the community can actually do that.

“We are going through hard times, and I think that the strength and support for the cinema shows it is relevant today. It’s one of the focal points of Oban.”

Dame Judi became a patron of the Oban Phoenix after a local community group approached a host of celebrities for their help in saving the cinema.

Other patrons include Dougray Scott, Tilda Swinton, John Hannah, Rowan Atkinson, Ed Crozier, Robbie Coltrane, Bill Forsyth, Clive Anderson and the Duke of Argyll.