The Times - UK (2022-02-21)

the times | Monday February 21 2022 5

News

I don’t deserve lifetime achievement award, insists Mirren

Neil Johnston

Helen Mirren says she still fears being
“found out” and does not believe she
deserves a lifetime achievement award.
The Oscar-winning actress, 76, is set
to receive the honour from the Los
Angeles Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
next week. Previous recipients include
Robert De Niro, Julie Andrews, Eliza-
beth Taylor and Gene Kelly.
Mirren won an Oscar, a Bafta and a
SAG award for her role as the monarch
facing a crisis after the death of Diana,
Princess of Wales in the 2006 film The
Queen, adding to her Emmys, Baftas
and a Tony award. However, speaking

to the Mail on Sunday’s You Magazine

Mirren said she was surprised to be

receiving the new award. “It’s extraor-

dinary,” she said. “I genuinely do not

feel I remotely deserve it, except that

I’m still alive and working. I’ve done

some wonderful films and I’ve done

some pretty awful films. It took me by

surprise, completely. A great honour.”

The actress next stars alongside Jim

Broadbent in The Duke, which tells the

true story of a Newcastle bus driver,

Kempton Bunton, who was prosecuted

in 1965 for stealing the Goya portrait of

the Duke of Wellington from the

National Gallery in London.

It is the final film made by the Notting

Hill director Roger Michell, who died in

September at the age of 65.

Fran Drescher, the actress and presi-

dent of the Los Angeles guild, described

Mirren as “quite simply a brilliant and

luminous talent”.

“She has set the bar very high for all

actors and, in role after role, she

exceeds even her own extraordinary

performances,” Drescher said.

Mirren added that she remained as

critical of herself as she was when she

was younger and was still worried

about being “found out” 56 years into

her career.

“I think of myself as still being the

way I was in my mind, in my body,

through my twenties, thirties and

forties: struggling, ambitious, frustrat-

ed and self-critical,” she said.

“I still feel the same person. I wonder

if that ever goes? There’s always that

endless, niggling feeling, ‘Oh god, I’m

going be found out any minute now. I

got away with it that time, but the next

time I’ll be found out’. Because you can

never be absolutely sure that you’re

that good at what you do.”

She added: “It’s not like being a

doctor or a surgeon or an architect or a

gardener where you can look at your

work and go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s really

good.’ It’s a much more mutable thing,

our job.”

Helen Mirren said she had made great

films, and some “pretty awful” ones

British Airways cancelled all its
domestic flights yesterday afternoon
and warned of significant disruption as
the country continued to be battered by
high winds and rain.
Passengers arriving at Heathrow
Terminal 5 complained of four-hour
delays in retrieving their bags as the
fallout from Storm Eunice, which
brought 122mph winds on Friday,
continued.
BA was contacting affected passen-
gers and urging them to leave the air-
port without their luggage, which
would be sent by courier to them as
soon as possible.
The Met Office has issued fresh
yellow weather warnings for wind that
remain in place until 1pm today as a
third storm, Franklin, moves across the
country. The alert covers most of
England, Northern Ireland and the
west coast of Scotland.
More than 56,000 homes were still
without power last night, two days after
Eunice tore in from the Atlantic,
wreaking havoc. In the southwest of
England, the worst-affected area,
21,500 properties were cut off, accord-
ing to the Energy Network Association.
A further 17,000 homes were without
power in the southeast and 12,000 in
the south.
Efforts to reconnect supplies were

being hampered by the continuing bad
weather. Ross Easton, director of exter-
nal affairs at the Energy Network Asso-
ciation, said that 8,000 engineers were
working to reconnect homes in a huge
national effort, but many homes would
still be without power next week.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business and
energy secretary, said that UK Power
Networks, which runs the network in
the east and southeast, was “receiving
mutual aid from other network opera-
tors across the UK to bolster their resto-

ration efforts”. The Met Office is warn-

ing of gusts of up to 60mph today in

England, which it warns “may hamper,

or slow, ongoing recovery efforts in the

wake of Storm Eunice”.

Becky Mitchell, a meteorologist, said

it was the first time three named storms

had come in such quick succession

since the system was introduced seven

years ago. “At the moment we’ve got a

really active jet stream, which is why

we’re seeing so many storms track right

towards the UK,” she said. There would

“definitely be some impact” from

Franklin, but it was not expected to be

as severe because the strongest winds

would be confined to the coast.

National Rail has warned of “major

disruption” affecting train journeys

“across most of Great Britain”. Many

operators are urging passengers not to

travel today, with speed restrictions of

50mph in place across large parts of the

network until 4pm.

South Western Railway expects a

“high level of incidents” across the net-

work and said people should consider if

they need to travel. Thameslink asked

passengers to avoid travelling.

In London, the O2 arena, which had

a large part of its roof shredded by

Eunice on Friday, said it would not re-

open until Friday when a UB40 concert

is scheduled. Concerts by Dave, the

rapper, today and tomorrow have been

postponed and will be rescheduled.

Devon and Somerset Fire and Res-

cue Service urged people without

power not to heat their homes with bar-

becues and warned of an increase in

carbon monoxide incidents. Wayne

Rawlins, from the service, said: “We

empathise with everyone who is still

without power and appreciate it is a

very difficult situation, but we want

everyone to stay safe from the risk of

fire and carbon monoxide poisoning.

“If you need to light your home when

you’re without power, if you can, please

choose torches or battery-powered

lights rather than candles.”

Full forecast and Weather Eye, page 53

London

Source: Met Office

Weather warnings

Manchester

Birmingham

Edinburgh

Yellow

Today

Until 1pm

Wind

gusts

36-58mph

Amber

Today

Midnight-

7am

Wind

gusts

53-65mph

Third wave of storms batters Britain

Ben Clatworthy
Transport Correspondent

High seas battered

Aberystwyth in west

Wales yesterday, but

there was fun to be had

in snow near Hebden

Bridge, West Yorkshire.

A wallaby joey was

saved after falling from

its mother’s pouch on

the south coast, and the

weather was too much

for machinery building

flood defences on the

River Aire in Leeds

DAN JONES IMAGES; BEN LACK; MAX WILLCOCK/BNPS; ASADOUR GUZELIAN