Dame Judi Dench has revealed she once saved a dying fairground fish by giving it "the breath of life".

The actress, who said she could not say a "single word" about the plot of the new Bond film, told Graham Norton she had not even seen two of her three most recent roles.

Speaking on BBC One's Graham Norton Show, she said she would watch My Week With Marilyn and J Edgar when she was "a bit removed" from them.

The star, who co-owns a racehorse, said she did not like watching it race because she was too "nervous".

She said: "I once gave the breath of life to a fish that was dying.

"I blew in his mouth which I knew I shouldn't because he had gills but nevertheless he's now called Lazarus and is double the size."

Dame Judi, who made her name on stage and in television before her film career took off, said it was "thrilling" to make it in Hollywood after her Oscar nominated role in the 1997 film Mrs Brown.

She said: "It came late. It came with Mrs Brown and suddenly I got a movie career and I went back to America after 38 years.

"I went back and everyone in America said, 'So apart from Mrs Brown and M in the Bond film, what other work have you done?' and I thought, 'Well, that would be the whole of Shakespeare and Chekhov'. But, it was wonderful."

:: See the full interview on The Graham Norton Show on BBC One at 10.35pm on Friday.