Sloping off for winter

It’s time to hit the ski slopes. MARION McMULLEN looks at celebrity snow lovers

2003

Prunella Scales and Sir Roger Moore took to the slopes for Tesco’s Christmas marketing campaign. The Fawlty Towers actress played housewife Dotty who seduced the former James Bond on a ski slope and invited him back to her chalet for a “Christmas surprise”.

2007

Russian President Vladimir Putin was spotted speeding down a slope at the Krasnaya Polyana skiing centre, outside the Black Sea resort of Sochi, which later hosted the Winter Olympics in 2014.

1956

Hollywood film star Rita Hayworth headed to Megeve in the French Alps to enjoy a winter holiday with her daughters Yasmin and Rebecca. The star of Pal Joey and Gilda once said: “I like having my picture taken and being a glamorous person. Sometimes when I find myself getting impatient, I just remember the times I cried my eyes out because nobody wanted to take my picture.”

1995

The royal children started enjoying snow breaks from an early age and Prince William, Prince Harry and their cousins Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice all went together to Klosters in Switzerland.

1965

Princess Margaret and her then husband Anthony Armstrong Jones in the Cairngorms, Scotland.

1973

Formula One motor racing driver Francois Cevert switched from the race track to the mountain slopes to enjoy some time off with a girl friend at a ski resort in Villars Sur Ollan, near Montreux, Switzerland.

1962

British film actress Suzanne Leigh, pictured here aged 17, who had won medals for skiing in Switzerland tries out her skill on Hampstead Heath – falling over in the snow. She went on to star with Elvis Presley in the 1966 film Paradise, Hawaiian Style.

1993

Princess Diana was a familiar figure on the ski slopes and encouraged her sons Prince Harry and Prince William to learn to ski.

Here she’s ready for a winter break in Lech, Austria.

1969

Princess Anne’s love of horse riding and sport is well-known and she added skiing to the list when she joined ski coach, Joel Usannaz in the French Alps.