James Bond and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel star Dame Judi Dench has opened up about her experience of being visited by the police for 'stealing a deer'.

The 88-year-old actor was speaking at the Stratford Literary Festival when she recalled the time she and her late husband had to herd a deer back into a park after it flew out onto the road.

After successfully herding it away from the roadside, the couple were soon visited by police when officers appeared at their front door.

Police received reports of the film star and her husband stealing the deer when this couldn't be further from the truth.

Judi Dench noted that this report bore a striking resemblance to a crime apparently committed by playwright William Shakespeare hundreds of years before.

Speaking at the literary festival, the James Bond actor who plays M in Eight said: “Michael and I had come from the theatre and suddenly, in front of us, a deer shot out of the park.

"We stopped and with enormous difficulty, we got the deer back into the park.

“The very next day the police came and said, ‘We hear you were seen taking a deer out of the park?’

"Michael said to them, ‘Well we’re in jolly good company, as William Shakespeare was caught for the same thing… the difference being we were putting it back’.”

This came as the star revealed she was writing a new book about her previous Shakespeare roles.