The 43 year old made her name playing upper-class characters in period dramas, kick-starting her career in the 1986 adaptation of E. M. Forster's A Room With A View, before starring in critically-acclaimed films Howards End and The Wings of The Dove.

But over the last decade, the actress has opted for darker roles - and insists she doesn't pine for the days she was typecast as an early 20th century heroine.

She tells Britain's Guardian newspaper, "Ageing has helped hugely. There's no question I'm a better actor, and you leave behind a certain typecasting. I was like the corset bimbo. Well, not quite bimbo, but you know what I mean. The corset sex symbol, I suppose. Now I'm not going to be the sex symbol, I'm going to be the granny."