'I can't do a play any more'

Dame Judi Dench told presenter Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday that at 91 she has stopped performing because of her sight. She said she cannot read and cannot see Barnett's face.

Living with macular degeneration since 2012

Dench was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 2012, a condition that causes progressive sight loss and affects her work and independence.

• •In 2014 she said reading had become difficult but that she would keep working as long as she could.
• •By 2023 she could no longer see on film sets and relied on friends to teach her scripts through repetition.
• •Last year she said she could no longer go out alone because she feared walking into objects or falling over.
• •She said she can no longer recognise faces and sometimes hugs strangers by mistake.

What she cannot see and what she keeps

Some losses are small and personal. She said she missed this summer's bluebells.

Her trees remain with her: she knows what they look like partly through memory. On growing older, she said there is nothing to say for it and that she does not think about it too much.

Besotted by the sonnets, and a memoir ahead

What sustains her is Shakespeare. Dench said the sonnets sum up human feelings simply, through rhythm alone.

She added: "It's the rhythm of it. It's the rhythm of your heart." She was speaking ahead of the publication of her memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, written with theatre director Brendan O'Hea.

A career of more than seven decades

Dench's career spans more than seven decades.

• •She won an Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.
• •She appeared as M in eight James Bond films.
• •Her Shakespearean roles have included Juliet, Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra.

Dench spoke ahead of the publication of her memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, written with theatre director Brendan O'Hea.