Film and theatre star Judi Dench says she's battling blindness,

LONDON - Actress Judi Dench says she's battling to save her sight.

The James Bond star told the Daily Mirror newspaper that she had been diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition that can cause blindness.

In an interview published Saturday she said that her sight was already so bad she couldn't read her scripts and even had difficultly distinguishing the people she was dining with.

The 77-year-old actress made her Shakespearean debut in 1957 at London's Old Vic and has since taken on a vast number of theatre, film and television roles.