Stars of the silver screen often defy their years with a little help from a boost of Botox – or even the surgeon’s knife.
But showbiz veteran Susan Hampshire, 86, proves the tricks of the trade can be as simple as a strip of Elastoplast on the forehead.
The three-time Emmy winner, who has appeared in popular TV series such as The Forsyte Saga and Monarch Of The Glen, revealed her cheeky trick during an interview for the Talking Pictures TV Festival.
She even showed her forehead to co-presenters Mike Read and Caroline Munro, as well as the live audience in St Albans.
She explained: ‘I’m getting old quite quickly, and to keep my eyes from falling down and not being able to see out of them, I have to use Elastoplast to lift my forehead.
London-born Susan warned against resorting to plastic surgery to hide any imperfections
The three-time Emmy winner showed her forehead to co-hosts Mike Read and Caroline Munro and to the live audience in St Albans
“I would never dream of using Botox or anything like that.” Susan also revealed that she ‘religiously’ put cotton wool in her mouth while in front of the cameras – including for the 1964 film Wonderful Life, in which she starred alongside Cliff Richard – to soften her ‘strong mouth and nose lines’.
She added, “Your lips look prettier too. So that’s why I did it. I don’t bother anymore, it’s too late of course, but I did it religiously.
‘Better than cotton wool is a sponge. There are very soft sponges – natural sponges from the sea – and you cut them into nice little things.’
London-born Susan, who was married to her second husband – theater impresario Sir Eddie Kulukundis – from 1981 until his death in 2021, warned against resorting to plastic surgery to hide any imperfections.
Susan Hampshire revealed during an interview that she had a strip of Elastoplast on her forehead
She said: ‘There are a lot of tricks without doing anything like a facelift or anything that puts toxins into your body – don’t do any of those things.
‘I think there are many things you can do to look healthy.
‘I don’t have cotton wool on my cheeks today, but if I had, my cheeks would have been fuller.
‘The rest is make-up, I couldn’t live without it. Oh, and I dye my hair.’
Otherwise, the actress attributed her impressive looks to “good nutrition and good genes.”
“It’s not a time machine,” she added. “They’re my mother’s genes.”
