Dame Judi Dench has shared a fresh behind-the-scenes story about her exit from the James Bond series. In her new memoir, the 91-year-old actress says Daniel Craig was the one who suggested killing off her character, M, in the 2012 film Skyfall. Dench also explains why she did not cry when producers told her the news, and what she really thought about being replaced by Ralph Fiennes.
Dench’s Memoir Shares the Story
The revelation appears in Dench’s book, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, written with actor Brendan O’Hea. An extract was published by The Times magazine ahead of the book’s release. The memoir came out in the UK on October 22, 2026, through Penguin Books, and arrives in the US on November 3, 2026, from St. Martin’s Press.
Dench played M, the head of MI6, in eight Bond films across two eras. She first took the role in 1995’s GoldenEye opposite Pierce Brosnan, becoming the first woman to play M in the franchise. She continued through Brosnan’s final Bond film, Die Another Day in 2002, and then carried the character into Craig’s run, starting with Casino Royale in 2006.
The Dinner Where M’s Fate Was Decided
Dench writes that she was taken to The Wolseley restaurant in London by producer Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson, and Skyfall director Sam Mendes. Craig was not at the meal, she recalls. There, the group told her they planned to kill off M.
“They outlined the plot and told me they were going to bump me off,” Dench writes.
The actress jokes that the decision was partly her own fault. From GoldenEye onward, she had been asking to get out from behind M’s desk. While the rest of the film unit travelled to Monte Carlo and St Petersburg, Dench said she spent only three days in Watford. She kept asking producers to let her leave the office setting.
“Well, they did finally let me out from behind my desk … and they shot me,” she writes.
Then comes the line that has drawn the most attention:
“Apparently, it was Daniel’s idea to have me killed.”
Dench adds one more detail about how M’s exit was handled on screen. Before her character died, she had to be “sacked” by Ralph Fiennes, who took over as M. Dench does not hide her feelings about that scene.
“But first I had to suffer the indignity of being sacked by Ralph Fiennes. A*******!”
‘Drunk With Power’ as M
The memoir also looks back at what Dench enjoyed most about playing M. She says the role gave her a rare kind of authority on a film set.
“I loved playing M because it was great to be able to tell all those men where to get off; put them in their place,” she writes.
She points to her first scene with Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye, where M calls Bond a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur.” That line became one of the character’s most memorable moments.
“I was drunk with power,” Dench writes.
The actress also jokes that the power did not carry over into real life. She says she wore “very nice suits” and pretended to understand Q’s gadgets, even though she cannot work an ironing board at home.
Not every Bond film was a smooth experience. Dench names Tomorrow Never Dies as her most challenging shoot. She says the film had too many last-minute rewrites, which made it hard to learn lines. On one occasion, she got home at 10pm and a motorcycle courier arrived with a dozen new pages to learn before a 5am pickup the next morning.
She speaks more warmly about directors Michael Apted, who made The World Is Not Enough, and Martin Campbell, who directed GoldenEye and Casino Royale. Dench says she “adored” working with both of them.
Why the Reports About Crying Were Wrong
When M was killed in Skyfall, some press reports said Dench had cried when producers told her she was being replaced. In the memoir, she denies that directly.
“It was reported in the press that I’d cried when they told me I was being replaced. Of course I didn’t cry,” she writes.
Dench points to the length of her run in the role as the reason she felt no need to shed tears. She says she spent 20 years and made eight Bond films, which she notes is one more than Roger Moore, the longest-running 007 at the time.
Her reaction is not bitterness about leaving the series. The memoir shows a performer who had been asking for a change of scenery for years and who understood that M’s death would serve the story of Skyfall. The film was directed by Sam Mendes and became one of the most acclaimed entries in the Bond series. M’s death, shot by the villain Raoul Silva, gave the film an emotional ending and allowed the franchise to reset its cast of supporting characters.
A Cameo After Death
M’s story did not end completely with Skyfall. Dench returned for a brief appearance in Spectre in 2015. The scene used a video recording of her character, giving her a final on-screen moment in the Craig era even after M had died.
That cameo means Dench’s time in the Bond series stretched across 20 years and eight films, from GoldenEye in 1995 to Spectre in 2015. She is the only actress to have played M across two different Bond actors’ eras, first with Brosnan and then with Craig.
Book Release Details
Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It? is a 368-page memoir written in conversation with Brendan O’Hea, a longtime friend of Dench. The book covers her childhood in York, her stage career in London’s West End and on Broadway, and her Oscar-winning performance in Shakespeare in Love.
The UK edition was published by Penguin Books on October 22, 2026. The US edition from St. Martin’s Press is out on November 3, 2026. The book is available in hardback, eBook, and audiobook formats. The audiobook is narrated by Brendan O’Hea and runs for 10 hours and 20 minutes.
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Dench’s Bond memories are only one part of the memoir. She also writes about living with age-related macular degeneration, her feelings about the word “retire,” and her candid views on several projects from her long career. The Bond section adds a clear answer to a question fans have asked for years: who decided that M should die in Skyfall? Dench’s memoir points to Craig.
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