Oscar-winning British actress Judi Dench says she can no longer act or read
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The gist
British actress Judi Dench, 91, says sight loss means she can no longer act or read.
Her 2012 macular degeneration diagnosis now limits work she has done for decades.
Background
Dame Judi Dench is an Oscar-winning British actress, 91, who won a best supporting actress Academy Award for Shakespeare in Love (1999) and played "M" in James Bond films from GoldenEye (1995). She was diagnosed in 2012 with age-related macular degeneration (AMD, an eye condition that damages central vision). Her sight loss has increasingly affected her work, with her previously speaking about struggling to see on film sets and having difficulty learning scripts. The interviews come as her memoir Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, written with Brendan O'Hea, is released.
How it unfolded
- 2012Dench is diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
- Oct 15, 2026She tells Yours Magazine her sight loss has affected her: she can't see the television or bright light, calling it "not good" and "just a boring thing."
- Oct 16, 2026Dench is among more than 100 current and former cast and crew of The Archers calling on the BBC to keep the programme in Birmingham.
- Oct 20, 2026Excerpts from her memoir, published in The Guardian, describe 2019's Cats as a "waste of all that goodwill and talent."
- Oct 22, 2026She tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme she "can't be on stage," "can't do a play any more," "can't do a film any more" and "can't read any more."
- End of October 2026 (UK)Her memoir Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, written with Brendan O'Hea, is released in the UK.
- Nov 3, 2026The memoir is released in the U.S.
Who’s saying what
- Dench
- She says her sight loss has affected her and that she can no longer be on stage, do a play or film, or read.
- Dench
- On being out of work, she says "I hardly dare say that it has not happened to me. I don't want to tempt fate."
- Dench
- On the 2019 film Cats, she says "I can't bear it" and calls it "a waste of all that goodwill and talent," while adding "there were no villains in the making of Cats."
Still unverified
The BBC says moving The Archers recordings is part of wider cost-saving measures and that alternative options are being explored.