Dame Helen Mirren holds her stomach in to make her look good. The 65-year-old actress is often applauded for her toned midriff and says the secret behind it is to make sure she’s breathing in at all times.

“Holding your tummy in is another trick for making you look and feel good. I don’t know why, but I do, by nature, hold my tummy in.”

Although she has been happy to strip off in many movies, Helen admits she’s not entirely comfortable with her body and dresses to flatter it: “Bits of my body are all right, but bits of me are horrible. To be honest, anything from the waist down I don’t really like. Four-inch platforms give you great height and make your legs look unbelievably long. I used only to be able to get them in stripper shops, but now you can buy them everywhere - although, unfortunately, that means everyone else has discovered the trick too.”

The Oscar-winning actress also hit out designers who don’t cater for older women.“My big complaint is, why aren’t more dresses made with sleeves? I don’t want to wear a frumpy jacket over a sleeveless dress and it enrages me that it’s so difficult to find anything beautiful with sleeves. If you think of Elizabethan dresses or turn-of-the-century fashions, there are some amazing things you can do with sleeves, so why do so few designers put them on their dresses?”