Dame Judi Dench brilliantly portrayed Iris Murdoch's heartbreaking decline from Alzheimer's disease in Sir Richard Eyre's Oscar-winning 2001 film Iris, while Kate Winslet played the novelist in her vibrant younger years. Now, Sir Richard has been forced to witness the same agonising descent in real life. The celebrated director has revealed that his beloved wife, Sue Birtwistle, is suffering from Alzheimer's. 'My wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's early on in lockdown,' says Sir Richard, 82, a former artistic director of the National Theatre. After her more direct approach, Meghann says they 'very quickly became really, really good buddies... and that was how it happened'.