AN aspiring North-East director has told of his shock after Dame Judi Dench agreed to star in his first film.

Chris Foggin, 26, met the much-loved star of the West End, James Bond films and As Time Goes By while working on hit BBC series Cranford and this year’s film adaptation of Jane Eyre.

Making ends meet as a third assistant director, the former Framwellgate School, Durham, pupil told Dame Judi of his dream of becoming a director.

He said: “I told her I’d love to direct her and she said: ‘Yes, let’s do it’.

“It was a surreal moment. I was like: ‘Wow’.”

Within months, Mr Foggin was directing the 76-year-old dame in Friend Request Pending, a 12-minute comedy about two elderly ladies who turn to social networking website Facebook to try to land a date with a local vicar.

Filming took place in Ealing, London, over two days in May.

Mr Foggin said: “I thought: ‘This is an opportunity I’ve got to run with'. It took a few months to find the right project.

"I wanted to get it right and do something which would challenge Judi as well. It was an incredible experience.

"Judi’s such a wonderful person to be around. It was a giggle too – she’d never used Facebook or a laptop before.”

Mr Foggin was born in Sunderland and grew up in Newton Hall, Durham, where his parents still live. He graduated from Northumbria University three years ago and moved to London shortly afterwards, after a stint working in a sandwich shop.

Friend Request Pending will have a press screening on Monday night, before getting its UK premiere at the 55th British Film Institute London Film Festival on Friday.

Mr Foggin hopes it will then be shown at film festivals around the globe, including Sundance, in Utah, US, in January, and Berlin, Germany, in February.

After that, he hopes to direct his first feature film. But his long-term dream is to make a movie about his native North-East, showing it in its best light.

Mr Foggin has also worked on W.E., directed by Madonna, who he said was “great fun”.