Helen Mirren, who is set to receive a BAFTA fellowship at tonight's ceremony in London, has criticised the growing violence against women in British television drama.
Speaking to The Observer newspaper, she said that there was a clear sexual divide in the bodycount on British TV. "Most of those bodies are young women," she said.
Mirren has been concerned about violence in popular entertainment since she starred in comic action thrillers, Red and Red 2. She says she asked director Dean Parisot not to depict her killing any of her victims in any of the sequences involving gunfire.
"I do get terribly upset when I see films where people are just randomly shot," Mirren said. "I think they all have families to go to, children at home."
The 68-year-old actress has won four BAFTAs, an Oscar, three Golden Globes and four Emmys in the course of her career. She will join previous BAFTA fellows including Elizabeth Taylor, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave and Martin Scorsese when she accepts her award this evening.
