Dame Judi Dench has said she believes her appearance in the James Bond films have acted as a lure to draw a younger generation to the theatre.

The 78-year-old actress played the head of MI5 and James Bond’s boss in seven films, starting in 1995 with GoldenEye opposite Pierce Brosnan, and bowed out of the franchise last year when M was killed off in Skyfall with Daniel Craig as 007.

Dench told the Reader’s Digest her 17-year stint was meant to act as “bait” to inspire the Bond audience to become theatregoers.

“The reaction to Bond comes from lovely young chaps of about 11 and they have no idea what else I’ve done, and nor should they be bothered,” she said.

“But they like to have met somebody who is in Bond and that’s wonderful because I think: ‘Well, there’s an audience who would maybe go into a theatre’.

“It’s to bait people for the theatre really. I never want people to not go to the theatre. I want it always to last.”

The Oscar and Bafta winning actress said the stage was where her heart lies.

“The thing I like best is the theatre,” she insisted.

“We used to go to Stratford in rep and you could play Lady Macbeth in the afternoon, Beatrice in Much Ado at night and the next day you could play Adriana in The Comedy of Errors.

Dench will next appear on the big screen in Philomena, the true story of Philomena Lee, an Irishwoman who set out to track down the child she was forced to give up for adoption as a teenager.

Despite over 50 years in the business, Dench confessed: “I’m far more nervous now than I was.

“But that’s something you just have to deal with. It’s something you don’t broadcast too much because nerves create adrenalin.”