Rigg shoots from hip on ‘understudy’ PM

Dame Diana Rigg, the theatre actress still best known for her portrayal of Emma Peel (pictured) in the 1960s TV series The Avengers, is 70 this month, but you wouldn't know it from her zesty attitude to life. In the Sunday Telegraph, the actress revealed she that still puffs her way through 20 cigarettes a day, and that her recipe for a good night's sleep is a whole bottle of £3.99 Chilean Merlot. What she calls a "red before bed" allows her to wake up the next morning like a "spring lamb".

She also had some interesting thoughts on Gordon Brown. "I wish I could feel sorry for him, but I can't. He was the understudy who got the role but didn't understand it. Didn't know what do with it. He didn't learn his lines or know his moves. I heard an alternative comedian say that when Gordon Brown smiles he looks like he's shitting a sea anemone, and that's about right. The breathing? It's a tic. A habit. He could easily see an acting coach and get rid of it, but I imagine he is too busy with other things."