“I mean I love them but I never like to speculate on these things,” she adds at Nicole Farhi’s debut exhibition of sculptures, From The Neck Up at Bowman Sculpture, St James, central London. Dame Judi, who was accompanied by her partner David Mills to the designer’s private view, has been nominated for the Best Actress Oscar five times – for Philomena, Mrs Brown, Iris, Mrs Henderson Presents and Notes on a Scandal – but it has so far eluded her. She did at least win Best Supporting Actress in 1998 for her role as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love. Her next film, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, will be released in Britain in February.