Dame Judi Dench says the eye condition she has lived with since 2012 means she can no longer perform on stage or in film, and can no longer read.
The actor, who is 91, was speaking to Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, BBC News reported. The interview was broadcast on Thursday 22 October, UK time, according to The Guardian.
She went through what she can no longer do, one thing at a time, according to BBC News.
“I can’t be on stage. I can’t do a play anymore. I can’t do a film anymore. I can’t read anymore.”
The interview went on to cover her sight, the people she mistakes for others, ageing and Shakespeare.
A Diagnosis in 2012
Dench was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration, known as AMD, in 2012, according to BBC News.
Her sight has changed in stages since then, and The Guardian has set out the steps.
In 2014 she said her eyesight made reading difficult. By 2023 she could no longer see on film sets, and she relied on friends to teach her scripts.
In 2025 she said she could no longer go out alone, The Guardian reported. On the Today programme, she said the work itself had stopped.
An Almost Hug
The condition also catches her out with people, and she told that story against herself. She described what happens when she gets it wrong.
“I go up to lots of the wrong people and give them an almost hug and say: ‘Oh sorry, didn’t realise’,” she said, according to The Guardian.
She gave an example from the summer of 2026, too.
“They said this summer was absolutely sensational with bluebells; I couldn’t see one,” she said, The Guardian reported.
When the conversation turned to ageing, she kept her answer short, BBC News reported.
“There’s nothing to say for it at all. [I] don’t think about it too much.”
The Memoir and the Career
Dench was speaking before the publication of her memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, which she wrote with theatre director Brendan O’Hea, according to The Guardian.
The career behind that memoir is a long one.
She won the best supporting actress Oscar in 1999 for playing Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love, BBC News reported. In 1995 she first played M in GoldenEye, the first woman in the role.
She went on to play M in eight Bond films, according to ABC News. Her awards include an Oscar, a Tony and seven Oliviers.
On stage, her Shakespeare roles include Juliet, Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra, The Guardian reported.
By her own account, performing has never been easy.
“For me, always frightening, but that’s part of it,” she said, ABC News reported.
More from screen and stage is in prw’s Entertainment archive.
Still Besotted by the Sonnets
Her love of Shakespeare has not gone with her sight.
“I am besotted by the sonnets, I just love them,” she said, according to The Guardian.
At 91, by her own account on the Today programme, plays, films and reading are behind her. The sonnets, she said, she still loves.
Sources: BBC News, “Dame Judi Dench: ‘I can’t do a play, a film or read anymore'”, 22 October 2026 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6ly09v09lnjo); The Guardian, “Judi Dench says sight loss means she can no longer perform but she is still ‘besotted by’ Shakespeare’s sonnets”, 22 October 2026 (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/oct/22/judi-dench-sight-loss-macular-degeneration-shakespeares-sonnets); ABC News, “Dame Judi Dench can no longer act due to worsening eyesight”, 23 October 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-23/judi-dench-says-worsening-eyesight-means-she-can-no-longer-act/107301570)
Photo: Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Judi Dench on stage at the London Palladium in March 2023.