Actress Judi Dench is battling to save her sight.

The James Bond star said in an interview published on Saturday she had been diagnosed with macular degeneration, an eye condition which can cause blindness, and that her eyesight was already so bad that she couldn't even read her own scripts.

Diagnosed with macular degeneration ... British actress Dame Judi Dench. Credit:AP

The 77-year-old told the Daily Mirror that she was relying on friends and family to keep her up to speed with her lines.

"It's usually my daughter or my agent or a friend and actually I like that, because I sit there and imagine the story in my mind," she told the newspaper during an interview at a London hotel.