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 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. Carrying on seems to be something Sheila does well. “I think there is something odd about me actually,” she laughs. “I do recover so well. I think my immune system is good at getting me better. I had coronavirus and for two days I was really ill, and then I was fine. In old age you have to make up your mind that it is not going to get you. You have to keep changing your approach to life.”
out. I knew if I did not do the play, it would not go ahead. I went on and there was blood dripping.” “It’s difficult not to be angry, isn’t it?” she says. “I have just turned 90. I won’t be here much longer, realistically, and I would like to leave the world a happy place. But there are natural disasters… and then, of course, the ever-lasting worry about the planet. It’s terrifying. And we are not taking it as seriously as we should.