NO STOPPING HER- 'I WENT ON STAGE DRIPPING WITH BLOOD - YOU CAN'T LET PEOPLE DOWN'

SHE HAS JUST TURNED 90, BUT STAGE AND SCREEN LEGEND DAME SHEILA HANCOCK IS STILL GIVING THE ARTS HER ALL

- MARC BAKER

While Dame Sheila Hancock still has a zest for life and relishes being a working actress, she concedes that her body is beginning to fail her. 

The star has owned a home in Luberon, France, for the past 30 years, but says when she visited for the first time after the pandemic, something had changed.

"The last time I went after lockdown, I realised I've aged," she says. "Driving down to get there, I found it nervewracking for the first time in my life. I also had to climb over [the edge of] the bath to have a shower - silly things like that.

"I used to go over several times a year and that's not the case now. It takes too long to go by train. I have got to give it up and it is breaking my heart."

The 90-year-old recently starred opposite Sanjeev Bhaskar in Unforgotten, and will soon be appearing alongside Timothy Spall in BBC One's The Sixth Commandment - a true drama based on murderer Ben Field.

Sheila has confronted the stigma around ageing in many of her screen roles, including Jimmy McGovern's Moving On, where she played a widow whose children wouldn't accept her new partner, and in 2017's Edie, a film about an 83-year-old who decides to climb a mountain.

"Old age has got a lot to do with letting things go, letting friends go," she admits. "That is difficult when you have to let go of a way of life. All sorts of things go. But you can adapt and you can prepare for old age."

She adds, "I have got funny handles stuck on the wall. I don't need them yet, but I may need them to get me up the stairs. Also, you have to think, 'Will I have to go into a home?' You have to otherwise I will get dumped somewhere horrible. So I advise people of my age to prepare."

The Isle of Wight-born star has experienced her fair share of health scares.