Dame Judi Dench fears she 'will lose the plot' due to her deteriorating eyesight and short-term memory loss. 

The legendary actress spoke frankly about her health and her former friendship with disgraced American producer Harvey Weinstein in a wide-ranging interview with the Radio Times, ahead of her 91st birthday on Tuesday. 

Judi admitted she can no longer see the television and has to rely upon her team of assistants to help her with day-to-day tasks. 

The screen star was diagnosed with Age-related Macular Degeneration in 2012, which can cause permanent and rapid central vision loss, and is the number one cause of vision loss in people over 50. 

'It's a crusher', said Judi, after revealing both her eyes are beyond treatment as they are in the progressed 'wet' stage of AMD.

 'I miss seeing Clive Myrie doing Mastermind, but I can hear the questions', Dame Judi added, when asked about what she missed. 

The actress had to give up driving, embroidery and even going out alone. 

Despite these challenges, Judi continues to work by having friends and colleagues read her scripts aloud, which she then learns using her photographic memory. 

And the actress admitted while she can reel off reems of Shakespeare's soliloquys, she 'can’t remember what I’m doing tomorrow, I swear to you'. When asked if she fears she will 'lose the plot', she answered: 'Oh yes.' 

Dame Judi then asked the interviewer to consult her assistants, who confirmed they help run her life. 

Elsewhere in the interview, Dame Judi touched upon working with Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey in Hollywood. 

The actress remains friends with Kevin, 66, who was cleared of sexual assault allegations against four men during a UK trial in 2023. 

'Kevin has been exonerated and I hear from Kevin, we text', she said. 

The pair worked together in films like The Shipping News, with the actress defending her 'good friend' in 2018, just months after the actor was hit with the allegations. 

Recalling the time after her husband Michael Williams' 2001 death, she said previously: 'I went to do The Shipping News with Kevin Spacey, and Kevin was an inestimable comfort and never mentioned he knew I was in a bad way. He cheered me up and kept me going.' 

Dame Judi also reflected on working with disgraced producer Weinstein and controversially said he may be deserving of forgiveness. 

Weinstein was convicted of various sex crimes in both New York and California. 

The producer is on trial again because an appeals court found that his New York trial was tainted by prejudicial testimony and overturned that conviction.

Dame Judi said: 'I knew Harvey and I knew him well and worked with him, and I had none of that experience – very fortunately for me,' she said.

'I imagine he's done his time… I don't know, to me it's personal – forgiveness. I just think…'

Weinstein was the producer of Judi's first big Hollywood film, Shakespeare In Love, which earned her the best supporting actress Oscar in 1998 for her role as Elizabeth I, despite spending a total of just eight minutes on screen. 

When the allegations first surfaced, Dame Judi said she was horrified by the claims and in a statement offered her sympathies to those who have suffered. 

She told Newsweek in 2017: 'Whilst there is no doubt that Harvey Weinstein has helped and championed my film career for the past 20 years, I was completely unaware of these offences which are, of course, horrifying, and I offer my sympathy to those who have suffered, and wholehearted support to those who have spoken out.'

The actress will next appear on screen in her upcoming Channel 4 documentary, Judi Dench: Shakespeare, My Family and Me.  

It follows Dame Judi delving into Danish archives to find out if her eight times great-grandfather may have met Shakespeare in 1606, the year he wrote three of his greatest plays.

Having played nearly every key female part in the Bard’s canon, Dame Judi will look back on the special place the words and worlds of Shakespeare have had throughout her luminous career on stage and screen.

Dame Judi Dench told Channel 4: 'It has been such an adventure to explore the possibility that an ancestor of mine might just have got within touching distance of my hero William Shakespeare.

'All the years I've spent playing Shakespeare and feeling a genuine, genuine passion for him and his work, to be on a journey where you might be stepping closer to him, it's beyond my wildest dreams.'

Dame Judi Dench for the Radio Times Christmas Issue on sale nationwide on Tuesday 9 December.