Dame Judi Dench would ''kill somebody'' if she got behind the wheel of a car.

The 84-year-old actress suffers from macular degeneration - which is a medical condition which can result in blurred or no vision in the centre of the visual field - and has had eight injections in one eye to slow the rate of deterioration, but has said she has now gotten to the stage where she can no longer safely drive a car.

She said: ''A couple of years ago I stopped driving, which was one of the most traumatic moments of my life. It was absolutely appalling. But I just know I'll kill somebody if I get behind the wheel of a car now.''

The 'Red Joan' star can no longer read the newspaper and struggles to read scripts, but said she's ''coping''.

She added: ''I can't read the paper now, I can't do the crossword, I can't read a book. But, you know, you cope.''

Judi has managed to ''fool people'' on set into thinking everything is okay, but has admitted she's worried people will think she's being rude and ignoring them when in fact she just can't see them.

The 'Skyfall' actress explained: ''On a film set you learn where everything is. It's ok if you can get away with it. It's all acting, after all. Fooling people. It's what I do. What worries me is some people don't know, and they think, 'Ooh, get her - she cut me dead!' when I didn't see them at all.''

And Judi said she doesn't know when her sight will fail completely.

Speaking to the Radio Times, the 'Shakespeare in Love' actress said: ''I don't ask. I don't want to know. I can see enough ... You adapt to it. So I ignore it altogether.''