Dame Eileen Atkins

The Crown series one and Doc Martin star Dame Eileen Atkins (83) chats to Yours about the monarchy, regrets and the importance of discipline

Keep your brain active

I try to learn something new each day – like a couple of verses of a poem – to flex my brain muscles. I also do a crossword every morning. Acting keeps your brain active and keeps you young, I think. You meet all kinds of people, many of whom are young and that’s great fun. I like spending time with young people – you learn such a lot and get a different perspective on things. I don’t intend to retire any time soon.

The Queen is my role model

Whenever I’m not looking forward to getting up in the morning, I think of the Queen who’s almost ten years older than me and is probably going to a factory-opening that day – and she’s not complaining. I have a completely illogical view of the monarchy. I dislike the aristocracy but I love the Royal Family.

You have to move on

It happens all the time with actors. Once a job has finished, it’s finished. There’s no point in me wishing that I was in the second series of The Crown, as Queen Mary died in the middle of series one. You learn to move on to the next role.

I struggle with anger

If I have a regret in life it’s that I haven’t always been able to control my temper. I have to admit to having a ferocious one – it’s in my genes and both my parents actually died mid-temper. It will probably happen to me, too! You can say sorry afterwards but that never makes up for the hurt you may have caused people. Like my parents’ tempers, mine dies down very quickly when it flares up and I actually feel quite good afterwards. But it’s horrible for people who happen to be on the receiving end of it.

My acting love

Nothing makes me happier than working with first-rate actors. So often, it happens that not everyone is good but fortunately in both The Crown and Doc Martin, in which I play Martin’s Aunt Ruth, everyone is terrific. That gives me intense pleasure.

Brisk can be good

I think there is a great need among young people for a rather stern, disciplined person in their lives. I can tell that from the fan mail I get for Aunt Ruth in Doc Martin I get letters from youngsters saying they approve of the way Ruth tells people off and chastises them when they do something wrong. These days, everybody wants to feel that they’re loved all the time and Ruth – and myself personally – isn’t afraid of being disliked. Ruth is forever saying, ‘Pull yourself together and face facts’, and a friend of mine says I’m like that all the time. I am quite brisk – but I think brisk can be good.

Too much love?

Family members constantly saying ‘Love you’ all the time to each other drives me a bit crazy. ‘Love you’, ‘Love you’, Love you’. . . I can’t bear it and it all becomes a bit meaningless, doesn’t it? If you say it all the time and have to end every conversation with it? I don’t know... maybe it’s a good thing to do but no one in my family said it all the time – in my case it was fine because I always knew I was loved, but perhaps not all kids do.