There are few actors today that embody the grace, grit and talent of Dame Judi Dench. She’s one of the main reasons the GBH Drama Club loves Cranford, the delightful series about a group of women in rural 19th century England. Dench’s mischievous performance stands out among a star-studded cast. It’s no surprise that during her impressive career, Dench has been nominated for seven Oscars, won one, and has also won a Tony, two Golden Globes and four BAFTAs.

From playing an iconic Shakespeare role to leading an action blockbuster to taking on parts in smaller independent films, here are some of Judi Dench’s best roles.

Lady Macbeth in 1979’s Macbeth

Dench launched her acting career performing Shakespeare's plays, so it makes sense that she was spellbinding as the ambitious Lady Macbeth. She played opposite Ian McKellen in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth in 1979, performed at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon. The play is filmed against stark black backdrops on a circular stage, allowing the performances to take center stage. In an interview with the BBC, Dench offered her analysis of the iconic character: “I didn’t think she is a bad person, I think that she has a passion for her husband… gradually the rift gets wider and wider between them. Her pain is absolutely paramount, and that is, in a way, what she dies of. She has nothing left and nothing to live for. That’s the tragedy of it.”

Queen Elizabeth in 1998’s Shakespeare in Love

Only an actress as noble and dignified as Dame Judi Dench could portray royalty. The romantic comedy is an ode to Shakespeare, and Dench embodies Queen Elizabeth, in all of her flamboyant style. Notably, she is only on screen for a total of eight minutes, but she makes the most of every moment in her magnetic monologues. Dench’s commanding performance led to her winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. When she picked up her Oscar, she joked, “I feel, for eight minutes on the screen, I should only get a little bit of him.” We disagree — she deserves the whole Oscar.

M in the James Bond films

One of Dench’s best-ever roles was as a Bond girl — but no, not that kind. She played M, the head of MI6, for almost 20 years, a run culminating in 2012’s Skyfall. Dench was masterful as the first woman to hold the role, guiding Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig through seven films, starting with 1995’s GoldenEye. She was incredibly popular in the role, and delivered one of the best lines of the whole series in GoldenEye, calling Bond "a sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War whose boyish charms [are] wasted on me.”

Barbara Covett in 2006’s Notes on a Scandal

Dench excels at playing regal characters, so Notes on a Scandal gave her a chance to show off a darker, more disturbing side in a contemporary story. She acted opposite Cate Blanchett in this psychological thriller about a complicated relationship between two women, based on the book by Zoë Heller. She plays a schoolteacher who discovers a disturbing secret about Blanchett’s character, and everything starts to unravel. Both Dench and Blanchett were nominated for Oscars for their roles.

Philomena Lee in 2013’s Philomena

On the surface, Philomena is a story about an unlikely friendship between two people who team up to investigate a mystery. But thanks to Dench’s powerful performance, the film has a much deeper message about family, spirituality, and forgiveness. It’s based on the true story of Philomena Lee, played by Dench, who had become pregnant as a teenager and is sent to a convent, where nuns put her child up for adoption. A journalist played by Steve Coogan helps her track down her son in America. Dench has a chance to show off her comedy skills, but her tense and emotional journey of discovering her son’s fate is the heart of the film. She picked up an Oscar nomination for the role.

Stream Cranford now on GBH Passport.