Dame Judi Dench, who portrayed 007’s boss M in eight James Bond films over 20 years, claims that Daniel Craig was responsible for having her character die in 2012’s Skyfall.

Variety published an excerpt from Dench’s new memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run For It?, wherein the Oscar winner recalled how she found out that M was going to be killed off.

“I was taken to the Wolseley restaurant by Barbara, Michael and Sam [Mendes, the director] – I don’t think Daniel Craig was there – and they outlined the plot and told me they were going to bump me off. My own fault, I suppose,” Dench said, in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner. “Ever since GoldenEye, when the entire film unit went off to Monte Carlo and St. Petersburg and I only had three days in Watford, I’d been begging them to let me out from behind my desk. Well, they did finally let me out from behind my desk … and they shot me.”

Dench – who first played the role in 1995’s GoldenEye opposite Pierce Brosnan in his debut as James Bond – then named who decided it was time for her M to finally get the ax. (Dench’s M did make a posthumous cameo in Spectre.)

“Apparently, it was Daniel’s idea to have me killed. But first I had to suffer the indignity of being sacked by Ralph Fiennes. Arsehole [laughs],” Dench said.

Dench also revealed that 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies was the most difficult Bond film to make, citing “a general air of chaos” that consumed the production.

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