Ageing can bring a variety of unwelcome surprises, from digestive changes to disrupted sleep.

But if you’ve noticed you’re having trouble reaching overhead, getting dressed or lying down comfortably due to shoulder stiffness, you might be dealing with more than just typical aches.

You could be experiencing frozen shoulder, a condition that affects women at a disproportionately high rate, particularly during midlife.

And while you may be tempted to quietly chalk it up to getting older, experts say that’s exactly the kind of thinking that can delay the care you need.

Those who have developed frozen shoulder are in good company. Amy Poehler, Naomi Watts, Amanda Peet, Sheinelle Jones, Jenna Bush Hager and Teri Hatcher have all spoken publicly about their own experiences with the condition – shining a light on something that many have suffered through in silence, assuming it was simply part of ageing.

But just because it’s common, it doesn’t mean it’s something to ignore. Here’s what you should know about frozen shoulder and what to do if you think you have it.

Known medically as adhesive capsulitis, frozen shoulder is a condition in which your shoulder becomes painful, stiff and tough to move over time.

“Frozen shoulder occurs when the connective tissue around the shoulder joint thickens and tightens, which results in limited movement,” said Rachael Jones, a family nurse practitioner and senior vice president of clinical client strategy at the fertility and family well-being company WIN.

“It can feel like the shoulder is ‘locking up,’ which can make daily tasks such as getting dressed, reaching overhead, lifting your arm or even sleeping feel incredibly uncomfortable.”

The condition can look different from person to person, but there are some telltale signs to watch for.

“Common symptoms of frozen shoulder include persistent shoulder pain – which is often worse at night – along with a gradual loss of motion and difficulty reaching, lifting or rotating the arm,” Jones explained.

“It can also show up in more subtle ways, like trouble reaching behind your back, avoiding certain movements because of discomfort or sleep disruption due to shoulder pain.”

Frozen shoulder doesn’t happen all at once. It actually develops through three phases.

“The first is a freezing phase, when pain increases,” Jones said. “The second is a frozen phase, when stiffness becomes more pronounced, and the third is a thawing phase, when recovery begins.”

She noted that the full cycle typically lasts between one and two years, which is part of why catching it early makes a difference.

Some people are more likely than others to experience frozen shoulder. And while men are more prone to some shoulder injuries linked to physical wear and tear, frozen shoulder doesn’t follow that pattern. It’s actually women who bear the greater burden.

“It is most common in adults between 40 and 60, especially women over 50, as well as people undergoing hormonal shifts or metabolic conditions,” Jones said.

“Frozen shoulder seems to be more common in women in this age group because it often coincides with perimenopause and menopause, as hormonal changes may increase the likelihood of musculoskeletal issues. Women may also experience a more gradual onset, sometimes assuming it is just normal ageing or overuse, which can delay care.”

She broke down the role that menopause can play in the development of frozen shoulder.

“As oestrogen declines, inflammation levels can change, collagen and connective tissues become less elastic, and the body’s healing capacity may slow. Musculoskeletal concerns – including joint stiffness and frozen shoulder – are regularly experienced during this transition. While menopause may not be the sole cause, it can trigger or worsen frozen shoulder.”

The good news is that frozen shoulder is treatable, and there’s quite a bit you can do, both at home and with professional support.

“Treatment for frozen shoulder can include physical therapy, which is a cornerstone of recovery, anti-inflammatory medications and in some cases, corticosteroid injections,” Jones said.

“At home, practical strategies to treat frozen shoulder include daily gentle stretching such as pendulum swings and wall walks, using heat before stretching to loosen tissue, applying ice after activity if there is inflammation and staying hydrated.”

Other strategies she listed include adjusting your sleep position so as “to avoid lying directly on the affected shoulder” and eating anti-inflammatory foods like fatty fish, leafy greens, berries and turmeric.

“The key is consistency without pushing through sharp pain,” Jones said. “If symptoms persist and home remedies are not enough, physical therapy is strongly recommended. In some cases, steroid injections may reduce inflammation and improve mobility. In rare and severe cases, minor surgical intervention may be considered.”

She also highlighted the importance of not waiting: “Early evaluation is important because it can help prevent prolonged stiffness.”

With the right support, those afflicted with frozen shoulder can reduce pain, increase shoulder function and return to their regular activities. Jones urged women in particular to resist any urge to simply endure shoulder pain as an inevitable part of getting older.

“Women should not ignore shoulder pain as ‘just ageing,’” she said. “If pain is lingering or mobility is decreasing, early intervention can make a difference.”

Dwayne Johnson has spoken candidly about missing out on an Oscar nomination for his role as mixed martial arts legend Mark Kerr in the sports biopic The Smashing Machine.

The former WWE star earned widespread praise for his transformation into the troubled MMA pioneer in the Benny Safdie drama, with many critics hailing it as the best performance of his career.

While it earned him a Golden Globe nomination and plenty of Oscar buzz, no Academy Award glory followed.

The wrestler-turned-actor has now revealed to Esquire that his disappointment at this awards snub has only fuelled his determination to push himself further in Hollywood.

“It would have been incredible to get nominated for an Oscar,” he explained, before adding: “I realised very quickly that it’s a rare thing to reach this pinnacle where you’re even having these conversations. And it’s exciting!”

Dwayne continued: “It would have been amazing. I wish it happened. But it didn’t.

“But in no uncertain terms did I ever think, ‘Oh, that doesn’t matter’. I always thought it mattered. And it has lit a fire in my spine, which is: Let’s go back to work.”

In December, Dwayne reflected on the experience of making The Smashing Machine to IndieWire, telling them he needed to take on the role and step outside his comfort zone for his “soul”.

“I need to challenge myself and I need to listen to my gut and my instinct and this little voice that has now become very resounding, banging on my rib cage, ’You must do this. A change has to happen, and it’s scary, and that’s K,” he said, before adding that he didn’t want to “wake up 25 years from now” and regret not having taken on the role.

Despite its critical acclaim, The Smashing Machine underperformed at the box office, but at the time, Dwayne felt like the film was more than just about numbers and making money.

“My relationship with success for The Smashing Machine is not a number,” he told IndieWire. “And it may sound convenient, but I mean this from the heart, it’s just peace. Being at peace with it, and being at peace with the performance.”

The Smashing Machine also starred Oscar nominee Emily Blunt and UFC’s Ryan Bader, and when it premiered at last year’s Venice International Film Festival, it received a 15.5-minute ovation and won the Silver Lion.

Looking ahead, Dwayne is already preparing for his next collaboration with Benny Safdie on Lizard Music.

His next film is the live-action reimagining of Disney’s Moana, which is released in cinemas in July.

Andy Burnham is likely to become Labour leader and prime minister without a contest if he wins next week’s Makerfield by-election, a former aide to Keir Starmer has said.

James Lyons told the HuffPost UK podcast Commons People that “we will see a significant number of MPs nominating Andy in a way that makes it very difficult for the prime minister to fight on”.

In those circumstances, Lyons said Starmer could agree to “some sort of stable and orderly transition” to Burnham.

The prime minister has told ministers that he will stand in a Labour leadership contest if one is triggered.

But Lyons, who was No.10 director of communications between 2024 and 2025, said that once his former boss is confronted with the reality of the situation he faces, he will be forced to think again.

He said: “The prime minister can survive, the question is ‘will he’, and I think if Andy Burnham is elected next Thursday, I don’t think he will.

“I think there’s every chance that what we will see is a coronation and we will see a significant number of MPs nominating Andy in a way that makes it very difficult for the prime minister to fight on.

“I know in his heart he will want to [fight on], he definitely feels he is the best person to be leading the country during this omni-crisis that has been created by the conflict in the Middle East and the conflict in Europe.

“Under those circumstances, if a sizeable proportion of the parliamentary party don’t want you, I think it’s very hard to carry on.”

Lyons added: “All things are possible on this earth, but if an overwhelming majority of the parliamentary party have said they’re backing somebody else I think it’s very, very hard to carry on.

“Of course he’s going to say that he’s going to fight, you saw that with Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Right until the last they said they were going to fight, and that’s the right thing to do.

“But come the early hours of next Friday morning, if it looks like Andy’s there, then I think that’s the time to start having some conversations about whether’s it’s in his interests or the country’s interests to have some sort of stable and orderly transition.”

Burnham is currently the clear favourite to see off the challenge of Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon and win next Thursday’s by-election.

He has confirmed that he will join any Labour leadership contest, with former health secretary Wes Streeting also saying he will throw his hat into the ring.

But Lyons said that even if Burnham loses, Starmer could still be replaced without the need for a leadership election.

He said: “I still think there’s a chance that people think the stakes are so high that they coalesce around another candidate.

“One of the names that’s been doing the rounds is Ed Miliband. I think Yvette Cooper is also underpriced. A lot of people in the Parliamentary Labour Party think it’s time that Labour had a woman prime minister.

“Anything could happen, but perhaps the bigger question is whether the Labour Party is a viable political vehicle if Andy Burnham can’t win Makerfield. It’s not obvious to me that the answer is yes.”

To listen to the full interview with James Lyons, as well as our report from Makerfield, download Commons People from wherever you get your podcasts

The animals of Ealing’s Paradise Fields have some unexpected new neighbours.

For the last couple of years, beavers have been making an enclosed 10-hectare site their watery home – and since more or less their 2023 arrival, a London Underground ticket office that used to be plagued by flooding has remained dry.

The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has praised Ealing’s beavers for putting an end to soggy conditions in parts of nearby Greenford Tube station on Instagram.

“Beavers are nature’s engineers – we just didn’t realise how efficient they could be,” Khan said in his post, adding, “These incredible creatures have already stepped up to stop flooding at a Tube station and restore local habitats”.

We spoke to Elliot Newton, the director of rewilding at Citizen Zoo, which worked with the Ealing Beaver Project to reintroduce the animals, about why they were brought back to the West London site and how they might help us humans.

It’s not just London. In recent years, beavers have been released across the UK, including other parts of England like Somerset and Cornwall. Scotland has kept the wild beavers spotted as early as the 2000s, the Natural History Museum said, with planned releases in the Glen Affric Nature Reserve and River Beauty set for 2026.

Wales seems keen on bringing beavers back, too. Northern Ireland hasn’t expressed interest yet, but the animals were probably never native there, unlike the rest of the UK.

“The Eurasian beaver is a native British species that was hunted to extinction around 400 years ago (and likely disappeared from London much earlier),” Newton told us.

“Over the past two decades, there has been a growing movement to restore beavers across Great Britain.”

And while the expert argued there’s a strong case for bringing all kinds of native species back to boost our ecosystem – including those we might not love the idea of, like the rat-sized, fish-eating fen raft spider – “beavers also deliver significant practical benefits”.

He continued, “As ecosystem engineers, they create and maintain wetlands that can reduce flood risk, improve water quality, increase drought resilience, and support a huge range of wildlife”.

Newton said that flood mitigation was one of the main reasons they secured funding for this project.

That’s because beavers (famously) build dams which stop the rapid flow of water down rivers during, e.g., periods of extreme rainfall. They also form ponds and mini “canals” that can create absorbent wetlands.

“Through building dams and creating wetland habitat, the beavers have increased the site’s capacity to store water and slow flows during heavy rainfall events, helping reduce downstream flood pressure. Interestingly, since the beavers arrived, the local train station ticket hall, which had previously experienced flooding, has not flooded,” Newton said.

“While more research is needed, this is an encouraging example of the potential for nature-based solutions to support climate resilience in urban areas.”

Other benefits people involved in the Ealing Beaver Project have noted include increased biodiversity, better community engagement (leading to a reduction in antisocial behaviour), and a more climate-change-resistant environment.

Callum Turner has addressed the speculation suggesting he’s a hot favourite to take over as James Bond.

The British actor was first mentioned in the press as a serious contender to play 007 in December 2025, with the Daily Mail subsequently suggesting he could be leading the next Bond movie while his now-wife Dua Lipa soundtracking the film.

Since then, Callum’s name has continued to crop up in connection with the James Bond franchise, alongside fellow rumoured frontrunners Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jacob Elordi.

While the man himself has been reluctant to give the rumours oxygen in the last few months, he was asked about them directly in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“I know as much as you do,” he insisted, while claiming he was “not going to comment” on whether or not he’d be up for playing the part.

Callum added: “I’ll tell you what’s so funny about the Bond thing: Even your best friends ask you, people text you that you haven’t spoken to for 10 years – and you know nothing!

“It’s such a weird thing of something happening and nothing happening at all. I genuinely know nothing. I just find it quite amusing.”

Last month, producers behind the Bond franchise confirmed that casting had only just officially begun, revealing: “The search for the next James Bond is underway.

“While we don’t plan to comment on specific details during the casting process, we’re excited to share more news with 007 fans as soon as the time is right.”

Dune director Denis Villeneuve will helm the next film, which will be written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.

And while Callum is doing his best to keep schtum on the speculation for the time being, he does have the seal of approval from one major Hollywood A-lister.

George Clooney, who directed Callum in 2024’s The Boys In The Boat, enthused: “I hope Callum ends up being the next Bond. I think he would be a great Bond.

“He’s tall and handsome and charming and British, so he’s the perfect guy to do it.”

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Is it just me, or are weeknight meals the bane of our existence? Call me lazy, but the last thing I want to do after a long day of work is to think, really critically, about what I want to feed myself.

Thus, I end up eating the same four meals on repeat. They’re so dull, I don’t even want to tell you what they are. The point is, I’m sick of them.

Although I make a point to eat healthily, as an occasional pescatarian (but mostly veggie) finding a way to eat as much protein as I’m supposed to and meet my five a day often feels unreachable. Okay, it always feels unreachable.

So when I heard about Grubby, a plant-based meal kit that prioritises fibre and protein, I was hooked to say the least.

I’ll do pretty much anything at this point to not have to think about dinner (okay, late-stage capitalism vibes) so the thought of having the ingredients for a selection of high-quality, and most importantly healthy, meals waiting for me at home was almost like Christmas Day.

I have to admit, I have been pretty sceptical about meal kits as a whole. Because I consider myself a good cook, I fall into the fatal error of thinking I can make that better. But when it came to Grubby, I am humbled (and pleasantly surprised) to admit that I couldn’t.

First up, I’m quite sickened by the amount of rubbish I produce as an individual (I am a Shopping Writer, so I get a lot of packages). So it was an immediate plus that the meal kit and ready meal selection I chose showed up in completely recyclable and compostable packaging.

Having tested a few meal kits before, I don’t like that some of the ingredients come in tiny 5ml or 2g sachets – but there was none of that with Grubby.

It’s not just environmental good Grubby prides itself on – for each meal kit purchased, it donates a meal to a child living in poverty through 1morechild.org.

As well as making you feel like you’re giving back, Grubby claims that each recipe uses an average of six varieties of fresh veg. I have to say, I was immediately impressed by the variety of recipes available.

I received a creamy cashew carbonara, beetroot hummus bowl, and red shakshuka, as well as a selection of five freezer-safe ready meals.

I’m a busy gal, so I was excited by the prospect of chucking a ready meal in the microwave on my lunch break (words I never thought I’d say). The first one I tried was a tofu buddha bowl, which despite sitting in my freezer overnight felt extremely fresh and filling.

Of course, I then had to give one of the meal kits a whirl. Considering I used to dream about carbonara when I first became a vegetarian, I was thrilled at the prospect of a meal kit that nailed a vegan take on the (so far) unbeaten meaty alternative.

Because I was feeling brave, I decided to cook the mushroom cashew version for myself and a meat-loving friend, who was naturally sceptical at first. “How can it be a carbonara, doesn’t that have eggs in it?” I believe were her exact words.

But as soon as the creamy cashew sauce was simmering on the stove (in my new Hexclad pan, I might add) even she had to admit it smelled good.

By the time we tucked in (less than 30 minutes later), she was eating her words and a delicious, salty, mushroom pasta.

I’ve tried other meal kits, but the final result is never quite as good as I imagine it’s going to be.

It’s safe to say that Grubby is the best one I’ve tried yet – and it’s plant-based. Not only does the fact I’m not using hundreds of tiny plastic sachets leave me feeling smug, but the meals themselves are truly restaurant (or rather, takeaway) quality that I can see myself coming back to time and time again.

Plus, now I have a whole load of recipe inspiration, thanks to the free Grubby recipe book you’ll get with your first order. Obsessed.

Since Tip Toe came to an end, much has been made of its dark depiction of the modern world and its hard-hitting and unflinching commentary on the impact the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric is having on our society.

However, the show’s creator Russell T Davies has shared that there’s one way he’s proud that the show was also able to send a positive message.

During a recent interview with Magic to promote the show, the Bafta winner opened up about how his latest show gave him the opportunity to do something he “never got to do” in another of his most popular shows about the queer community, It’s A Sin.

It’s A Sin was released in 2021, and focussed on the AIDS crisis, and its impact on a close-knit group of young, predominantly-queer friends.

Russell said: “The nice thing about Tip Toe [is that] Alan Cumming is the lead [and his character is] HIV+. He’s the one thing I could never show in It’s A Sin because it ended in 1991, which is before the medications, before there was any treatment, before people started surviving properly.

“So now, I’ve got the chance to show off a man living for 30+ years with HIV. He takes one pill a day, he’s completely fine, it’s undetectable, it’s untransmittable in him. And that’s a nice pay-off – that I never got to do [in It’s A Sin].”

Russell previously said it was an “honour” to be able to depict a leading character who was living with HIV.

“It feels like the natural legacy of It’s A Sin,” he enthused (via Scene magazine). “There wasn’t the time in that show to tell the long‑term story – that medications were found which saved so many lives – so this feels like a right and proper continuation.”

The screenwriter – who is a patron of George House Trust and a vocal supporter of Terrence Higgins Trust, two HIV charities – added that he’d “often been asked by people in both organisations to show modern‑day characters who are HIV+ and living straightforward, happy lives”.

“It’s an honour to do so in Tip Toe,” he concluded.

Russell has revealed in the past that he’d originally hoped to have an episode of It’s A Sin set in the present day, which would explore how HIV treatment has changed over time.

However, when the series was cut down down from eight episodes to five, he made the decision not to include this part of the story.

Both Tip Toe and It’s A Sin are now streaming on Channel 4.

“I only had one bad sunburn there once.”

Dr. Aubriana McEvoy, a Mohs surgeon at Siteman Cancer Center and a dermatology professor at WashU Medicine, hears versions of that line all the time. “And that’s exactly where we end up treating a skin cancer,” she said.

When she examines those same patients, the rest of their skin tells a different story. “We commonly see more sun damage and skin cancers on the left hand and forearm from years of incidental exposure through the car window,” McEvoy said.

The sunburn the patient remembers is the one they blame. The years of “normal” exposure that actually built the skin cancer are the years no one thinks about.

That asymmetry, with the left side worse than the right, is one Dr. James Chao sees constantly. Dr Chao is a board-certified facial plastic surgeon in San Diego, and one-sided damage from driving is common enough to have its own name.

“Unilateral dermatoheliosis is something we see as facial plastic surgeons,” Chao said.

Standard side car windows block only 55 to 75% of UVA rays.

“Your left cheek, temple and ear can take in years of sun damage while driving to and from work every day. What happens down the road is patients come in with uneven sun damage or photoaging. The left side of the face may have more sun spots and nasolabial folds that are just deeper.”

In Australia or the United Kingdom, it’s the right side. The asymmetry is the giveaway.

Dr. Amy Bandy, a board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon, said the bigger misunderstanding is what counts as sun exposure in the first place.

“It’s easy to be exposed to a peak window of ultraviolet radiation from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. while watching your child play soccer on Saturday,” Bandy said.

“It doesn’t matter how cool it may feel or what the wind speed is. You’re still getting some of your highest levels of UV radiation. The same goes when you run errands between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., walk your dog down the street every day or stand outside waiting for your kids to get off the bus without any protective covering from the sun.”

She tells patients to do the math. Fifteen unprotected minutes a day adds up to roughly 90 hours a year. “Multiply that by 10 or 20 years, and you’ve accumulated thousands of hours of unprotected UV radiation exposure.”

Cloudy days don’t reset the count, either. “UVA light is prevalent year-round and penetrates through glass surfaces,” said Dr. Rosanne Paul, an assistant professor of dermatology at Case Western Reserve University. “Even in the spring and summer when there is cloud cover, UV light still penetrates and you should still wear sunscreen.”

Some of the most exposed skin is the skin nobody thinks to protect. The top of the head is one.

“Skin cancers are very common in the part lines of people,” said Dr. Purvisha Patel, a board-certified dermatologist and Mohs surgeon in Memphis, Tennessee. Parting your hair in the same place year after year leaves the same strip of scalp exposed to cumulative damage most people never notice, she said. Patel tells patients to rotate the part and wear a hat outdoors. Creams can’t get through hair, she said, making the scalp the one place where spray sunscreen earns its keep.

The skin around the eyes is another blind spot, and the source of the damage is one almost no patient suspects.

“We spend a lot of time with our heads tilted downward so our phones sit just below our line of sight,” said Dr. Gregg Feinerman, a board-certified ophthalmologist in Newport Beach, California. “This position perfectly angles our upper eyelids, eyebrows and temples directly at UV rays shining down from the sun. Most sunglasses don’t cover this area, which means you could have two to three unprotected square inches of the most delicate skin on your entire body exposed to UV rays every time you’re outside between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.”

Years later, Feinerman said, those patients arrive with thickened upper-eyelid skin and basal cell carcinomas in places they “can’t quite remember getting”.

Bandy can map the damage by decade. “After 10 years of exposure, I have begun to notice small amounts of uneven pigmentation starting to appear, along with freckles lasting longer, new sun spots forming, and my patients’ overall skin colour is slightly duller due to slower cell turnover,” she said.

By 20 years, Bandy said, established sun spots set in, along with permanent wrinkles that don’t smooth out when the face relaxes. After 30 years, the changes are no longer cosmetic. Collagen and elastin break down, and precancerous lesions appear.

Much of that damage is preventable. The trouble is, many patients have been doing the prevention wrong.

Patel said the most common mistake is incorrect sunscreen application. “Sunscreen is meant to be applied on clean, dry skin to be effective,” she said. “We cannot control for the efficacy and longevity of a product when it is put on top of or under makeup or moisturisers.”

Most adults under-apply, she added, recommending a nickel-sized amount for the face. Bandy adds that even correctly applied sunscreen needs reapplying after two hours outside.

For anyone weighing the cost of doing more, Chao has advice. Fixing a 1-centimeter defect on the nasal tip or eyelid can take up to three hours of surgery and leave permanent changes to the face. “We simply cannot recreate some of these structures,” he said. Prevention, by his reckoning, runs around $30 a month in sunscreen, plus $5 to $20 per window for UV-blocking film. “It could prevent you from ever needing Mohs surgery.”

McEvoy’s advice is shorter than the list of exposures. “Make sun protection part of your routine, not something you only think about at the beach,” she said. That means sunscreen on ordinary days, and covering the scalp part, ears, hands and eyelids. It also means knowing your own skin, because most skin cancers are first spotted by patients themselves. “Look for the ugly duckling, a spot that stands out, or anything that’s changing, bleeding, or not healing,” she said.

The line she repeats most often is the one she wishes patients heard first.

“There’s no such thing as a healthy tan. A tan is a visible sign of DNA damage in the skin.”

Dame Helen Mirren has spoken for the first time about a viral video depicting her being met with verbal abuse in the street due to her past support of Israel.

Last month, footage was widely shared online depicting the Oscar winner being branded an “an evil Zionist bitch” by an unseen man.

In the clip, he also told her husband, the Oscar-winning filmmaker Taylor Hackford: “You as well, fuck you and all.”

Earlier this week, the British performer accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Taormina Film Festival, where she said of the video in question that she had been “attacked by mistake by a man who was maybe a little over passionate or maybe mentally not quite stable”.

The Metropolitan Police previously said of the viral clip: “We are aware of a video circulating online, showing a man and a woman being subjected to antisemitic verbal abuse in Tower Hill. It is believed that the incident took place at the end of last year.”

Clarifying her stance on Israel at the event, Dame Helen said (via Variety): “Evil forces are rising everywhere, even in a country like Israel. How could you possibly repeat the actions of what was done to you as people to other people?”

She continued: “I was born at the end of the Second World War, I grew up in Europe post Second World War and the realisation in my parents’ generation of what had happened in the Holocaust was so profound, so important.

“Therefore, the creation of Israel was a very important moment, although maybe it was done in completely the wrong way, in the wrong place, I don’t know. But something had to happen after the horror.””

Dame Helen said in 2023: “I believe in Israel, in the existence of Israel, and I believe Israel has to go forward into the future, for the rest of eternity. I believe in Israel because of the Holocaust.”

She has since spoken out in support of Israel numerous times, having twice signed open letters in support of its inclusion at the Eurovision Song Contest, despite controversy over its involvement amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

In 2023, she also played the fourth prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir, in a biopic.

At the Taormina Film Festival, Dame Helen observed: “When you play Catherine the Great, why was Catherine called the Great? Because she took land. Why was Alexander the Great? Because he took land. He invaded, he killed people, he destroyed cities and he took land. Why is he remembered in history? Because with incredible brutality and unbelievable cruelty, he took land.

“So it devastates me. That’s what I mean. The evil is always lurking, waiting to take over, even in a place like Israel.

“I played Golda Meir and worked in a country that was the idealistic Israel, and I always thought it was a country that would never do wrong, but of course they were doing wrong, even then.”