THAT SAUCY DAME JUDI

REVIEWED - MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS Stephen Frears's racy new film, set in 1930s Soho, is fine fun so long as it stays light-hearted, writes Michael Dwyer

JUDI Dench should start ordering that Oscar night frock now - the incomparable dame is a shoo-in as a best actress nominee for her delightful performance in Mrs Henderson Presents. Inspired by true events, we are told in an opening caption, the movie begins in 1937, as wealthy septuagenarian Laura Henderson is initially bereft and soon bored by widowhood. "I have to smile at everyone," she protests. "At least in India you could look down on people."

To amuse herself, she buys and reopens a disused Soho theatre, the Windmill, and with the help of wily manager Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) - known as VD to the staff - she comes up with a ruse to avoid the rigid censorship laws, by staging tableaux vivants featuring naked women, which is acceptable to the Lord Chamberlain (Christopher Guest) as long as the undraped performers do not move a muscle. The dancers are initially reluctant, but times are hard.

Entertaining through its first half and designed with a keen eye for period detail, the film founders when it turns serious. The newcomers in the cast include singers Will Young and Camille O'Sullivan demonstrating their musical flair, and Thelma Barlow, who plays Mavis on Coronation Street and is a delight in her belated film debut, after 50 years of acting, as Mrs Henderson's friend, Lady Conway.

Dench is on scintillating form, the elegantly barbed wit in Martin Sherman's screenplay tripping off her lips as she delivers the lines with such panache that one can forgive the film almost anything - except, perhaps, when Hoskins follows the example of the Windmill performers and bares all.