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For her honesty and optimism

The lack of good roles for older women in film or on stage is an enduring problem.
"We're not seeing much of a change from that Jane Austen view that the important thing for a woman is getting the right partner and everything is interesting up until that point," she says. "Perhaps there was some truth in Jane Austen's days about your lot being predictable after you'd gone past marrying age. Nowadays, you see a whole new interpretation of life after 45 for women but it's not reflected in the writing."

Yet she remains optimistic, confident that the pressure is building for stories that relate to the lives of those ignored by the youth-oriented, dumbed-down market with its staple diet of coming-of-age tales and frothy romance.

"I'm glad to be this age at this time," she says. "When it comes to theatre and cinema audiences, our generation likes going to the theatre - we're not sitting at home knitting. We want to go out to the cinema … there's a market for more grown-up stories about these exciting women today."

For speaking out about the lack of opportunities for older actresses.

I just wish there could be a little more movement towards encompassing the older woman."

Maggie Smith and Eileen Atkins, she argues, look like energetic Bohemian girls in real life, "vibrant, passionate, expressive and fun". But in character they have to conform to the stereotype of the old lady.