Dame Helen Mirren believes she could have been a competitive racing driver.

The 80-year-old actress is "foolishly vain" about her skills behind the wheel and is convinced that if she hadn't had such a successful screen career, she'd have done just as well on the race track.

She told People magazine: "I'm rather foolishly vain about my driving. I'm sure I could have been a racing car driver."

Although Helen - who is married to director Taylor Hackford - turned 80 last month, she insisted she doesn't "recognise" birthdays because "life rolls on" and isn't interested in extravagant celebrations.

She said: "Honestly, I don't celebrate birthdays. I don't recognise them because life just rolls on,.

"I expect to be very, very nicely treated on my birthday. That's all I want. Cup of tea in bed in the morning."

But the Red star doesn't expect a lie-in if she does get her cup of tea.

She admitted: "If I'm still in bed after 8 o'clock, I start feeling guilty. There's always stuff to do."

One thing that Helen dislikes about getting older is the way they can be written off by younger generations.

She said: "People who are retired have had extraordinary, productive, challenging, difficult, professional lives, and they're not finished. It doesn't suddenly screech to a halt.

"Younger people cannot comprehend the fact that the older generation had sex, had fun, danced, were obsessed with their hair and their weight. And of course, the older people are looking at them and going, 'You know what? We've done that. We've been there.' "

And the Oscar-winning actress hates being thought of as "sweet" just because of her age.

She fumed: "One thing that I find galling as I get older is the sort of patronising condescension: 'Oh, that's so sweet.'

"I hate the word feisty. I'm alive. Don't give me those sort of awful labels."

Over six months in 2024 and 2025, Helen had a string of projects on the go, including 1923, MobLand and The Thursday Murder Club but she enjoyed her "intense" schedule.

She said: "It was intense, but you just get into the rhythm of it.

"Sometimes you have what I call a bit of a 'car crash of projects,' and they all want to go at the same time."