I don't fear being cancelled, says Dame Sheila Hancock

Dame Sheila Hancock doesn't have any worries about being "cancelled".

The 90-year-old actress has revealed that because of her age, she doesn't have any fears about anything she says publicly.

Speaking to the BBC, Sheila explained: "If I say something outrageous and I'm cancelled, I'm shortly going to be cancelled by death anyway.

"It gives me a sort of 'oh dear I don't care, because I'm going.'"

The veteran actress has enjoyed huge success during the course of her career.

But Sheila was actually told during her younger years that she didn't meet the beauty standards of the day.

She explained: "I had acne, so I had a bad skin. Somebody saw me in Bromley Rep doing a performance as a model and they asked me to go and see them in the office.

"He sat me under a lamp and said, 'Well, you'll have to have plastic surgery because my nose is so odd, you know?'

"So I didn't fit the pattern of what is best to look like as a woman, really, in those days."

Sheila turned to the Quaker faith in the 1980s after she was diagnosed with cancer, and the award-winning actress feels it's been a massive benefit for her over the years.

Sheila shared: "When I got cancer, I knew there was something missing in my life. There was a level of spirituality, it was lacking.

"[With the] Quakers I was immediately at home. [There was] this marvellous thing of worshipping in silence. But it's not meditation. It's not going in on yourself, it's going out, it's reaching out for something."

Asked if it's helped her to cope with setbacks in her life, Sheila replied: "Oh God, yes."