The last of the Blonde Bombshells (Judi Dench)

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It’s nearly 11 years since we last watched ‘The last of the blonde bombshells’. We wanted something fairly light and not too long to watch last night, and this seemed to fit the bill. I vaguely recalled that it starred Judi Dench, and that it referenced her character’s past as a showgirl. But that was all I could remember.

I’d quite forgotten that the opening scenes are rather sombre. Elizabeth (Judi Dench) recounts, off screen, that the story begins after the funeral of her husband. We see her dressed in black, and snippets of the service. We also see her daughter Patricia (Felicity Dean) and son Edward (Nicholas Palliser). They’re evidently a bit more conventional than their mother, and try to persuade her to think about her future.

Patricia has a daughter, Joanna (Millie Findlay) whom Elizabeth often looks after. The two are very close. And when Joanna hears her grandmother play the saxophone, she’s very impressed. We were too, although we later discovered that Judi Dench does not play the sax, but learned some scales for this film. She sees a street busker, Paul (Dom Chapman) and starts to play too. Her son and daughter are horrified.

Joanna learns that her grandmother was part of a stage act known as the ‘Blonde bombshells’ in World War II, and encourages her to find the members, so they can play at her school dance. Elizabeth enlists the help of Patrick (Ian Holm) who used to play the drums in the act, and who was evidently somewhat promiscuous. Their first attempts at finding former members lead to disappointment, but then they start to find them, though it’s hard to persuade most of them to meet up.

Interspersed between the action in the present day, there are flashbacks to some of the Blonde Bombshell acts, where the young Elizabeth is portrayed by Romola Garai. They all live rather sleazy lives, with the continual worry of bombs dropping on them. 

There are a lot of well-known actors in this film whom even I had heard of - not just the ones mentioned above. And they’re excellent as the mis-matched elderly women who still have a talent for music, and who are eventually persuaded to get together. Not that their first attempts are very successful, but, perhaps inevitably, they do manage to produce a good sound by the time they’re booked for Joanna’s school dance, with one of their members arriving at the very last minute.

It’s all very well done, with the flashback scenes fitting seamlessly into the film as Elizabeth remembers some of her rather vivid past. Among other things we see Patrick’s personality, seducing almost all the other members of the band. There’s some humour in this, which is billed as a rom-com, although the romance - from Elizabeth’s point of view - is quite low key, and we don’t know until almost the end whether anything will come of it. 

This film was originally made for television in 2000, and lasts just under 90 minutes. There aren’t any extras on our DVD.  The rating is 15, which slightly surprised me; although there are plenty of references to Patrick’s various liaisons during the war, there’s nothing shown, and no nudity or other ‘adult’ images. Neither is there any violence. There are a few instances of ‘strong’ language, and plenty of smoking and drinking portrayed, as would have been normal in the war years. 

However, there are themes that could be hard for some children to deal with, including dementia and alcoholism, and it’s not the kind of story that would appeal to anyone under the age of about fourteen or fifteen anyway. 

Definitely recommended.  

Review copyright 2026 Sue's DVD Reviews