Helen's fab at 80 'LIVE YOUR LIFE FULL!'

This dame shares her days of showing off are far from over

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She's currently lighting up screens in TV series Mobland, playing a hardened crime boss, and matriarch Cara Dutton in 1923. But instead of putting her feet up, she's plunged head-first into her new project, filming the cosy mystery movie The Thursday Murder Club.

At 79, Helen Mirren is quite possibly the hardest-working septuagenarian in Hollywood. Just don't mention it to her!

"I'm older," muses the White Bird actor, who turns 80 in July. "I'm sure I'll go all pear-shaped soon. But I'm not interested in being young. I'm interested in being exactly who I am.

"I never thought I'd be 79. I'm not full of youth but I am life full. I much prefer that phrase."

Since 1991, when she began her 15-year star turn as Detective Jane Tennison in the acclaimed British police TV drama Prime Suspect, Helen has been on a roll.

Of course, before then, she'd already built a solid acting career. And thanks to her infamous 1975 interview with iconic British chat-show host Michael Parkinson, she'd also cemented her reputation as a woman not to be dallied with.

In the pair's frosty exchange, Michael asked if Helen felt her "physical attributes" had hindered her career.

The staunch feminist shot back, "I can't think that can necessarily be true.