Maureen Lipman says female screen stars such as Joan Collins, 87, ‘think they are 34’ 

For generations actresses have bemoaned their short shelf life.

But Maureen Lipman says it’s ‘fair enough’ that older actresses find themselves ‘thrown on to the scrapheap’.

Dame Maureen, 74, who plays Evelyn Plummer in Coronation Street, said there is ‘a certain amount of invisibility’ at her age.

But she told Radio Times: ‘Consider Just a Minute, where you’ve got Sheila Hancock with a lot to say for herself – and she’s over 80.’

She added: ‘I don’t sit around thinking about my absence from society, because I’m too busy getting on with life.

‘Yes, maybe we do get thrown onto the scrapheap after a certain age, but that’s fair enough, isn’t it? The same thing happens to a leaf on a tree.’

Discussing the difficulties of being an actress in her mid-70s, she said: ‘Though Maggie Smith and Judi Dench have done all right, there’s not a lot of drama work out there for older actresses.

‘And you have to understand that every older actress still thinks that she’s 34. Look at Joan Collins.

‘And just because you’re 74, it doesn’t mean that you believe it.

‘Whenever I talk to young people, I can never understand why they don’t invite me out clubbing. I can dance and I’m good fun.

‘When Rula Lenska and I used to share a flat in Manchester, we had a blast. We called ourselves The Rock and The Hard Place.’

Miss Lipman, who played Jane Lucas in ITV’s Agony and Trish in Educating Rita, also said she wants to work as long as she has her ‘health’.

‘I’ve lost a lot of friends and that really makes you realise that you should do the work while you can still get it,’ she said.

‘When I was 71, I did panto in Richmond, flashing my legs and thinking nothing of it. So I’ll keep working for as long as I’ve got my health.’