She has been dubbed Britain’s greatest ever sex symbol and she has regularly bared all for the big screen.

But Dame Helen Mirren has revealed that her early real life romantic encounters still haunt her today.

In a newspaper serialisation of her new biography In The Frame, the Oscar-winning star of The Queen, Gosford Park and The Long Good Friday reveals that she didn’t lose her virginity until she was 18.

“I was 18 when I found sex – or rather, sex found me. It was not a wonderful discovery, nor one sought by me. It became indeed, the source of much heartache as I experienced the calumny of young men.

“I had arrived in London an innocent in mind and body, with very romantic notions that somehow sat side by side with my vehement feminism. This turned out to be a lethal mix. My trustful romantic nature was badly let down, my feminism confronted.

“I felt worthless and shamed, and became suspicious, hurt and angry until I found someone who really cared for me. I am still pissed off actually.”

Dame Helen, 62, recalls while a rising star with the RSC in her early 20s she enjoyed a bohemian life style with friends with whom she shared an almost commune-like existence.

“It was an amazing place: a house shared by friends, something like a cross between a country weekend for toffs, an artists’ convention and a travellers’ camp. There was constant dressing up, animals everywhere, champagne occasionally and, if not gallons of wine, games of wit and lots of music.

“The boys loved dressing drag, and the girls as nuns and tarts. There were also drugs, of course, marijuana, mostly.

” A picture from those days reveals my one and only acid trip, a walk in the country. I am laughing already. And the end result is clear to be seen in another photograph – an unscheduled commune with nature.”

The Prime Suspect star reveals that her passion for theatrical swearing got her in trouble when she began working in America in the 1980s.

“The C word is absolutely the pits in America. No word is worse. Whereas in the theatrical community I’d come from it’s almost a term of endearment.

“I learned how appalling it is to utter this word on set one day. My co-star Roy Scheider was joking around and said something to make me laugh. I did, and the director called Cut! As an amused throwaway, I turned to Roy and said, ’Oh Roy, you c***! The whole studio froze in horror.”

Mirren, who is now married to the Hollywood director Taylor Hackford also reveals she has never had any desire for children and that she didn’t contemplate marriage until she was 52.

She also cites her previous relationships with Kenneth Cranham and Liam Neeson as being particularly happy ones.

Legendary actress Dame Helen Mirren will not be revealing all her secrets, or ‘dishing the dirt’ on people in the movie biz in her forthcoming memoirs.

The Queen actress has been working on her autobiographical book named ‘In The Frame: My Life In Words And Pictures’.

The actress has admitted that she has made up her mind to keep the focus of the book on her on-screen achievements and not on off screen secrets.

“It’s a celebration of my career. I’m sure it’s very honest, but there is no dirt-dishing,” Contactmusic quoted Mirren, as saying.

The television premiere of Oscar-winning movie The Queen brought some right royal cheer to ITV1 last night, pulling in nearly 8 million viewers.

Helen Mirren won the best actress Oscar earlier this year for her portrayal of the Queen in the days following Princess Diana’s death, in a critical and box office success that began life as an ITV TV movie from the team behind The Deal.

The Queen attracted an average of 7.9 million viewers and a 36% share between 9pm and 11pm, according to unofficial overnights, suggesting that the film’s theatrical release did not dent its ratings potential for ITV1.

It was easily the most popular show in its slot last night, with BBC1′s one-off drama Coming Down the Mountain picking up 4.7 million and a 20% share between 9pm and 10.20pm.

Just when you thought the upcoming “National Treasure 2″ was just a popcorn flick comes news that it’s packed with Oscar-winning actors going historical. “Helen Mirren plays my wife and Ed Harris is the bad guy,” says actor Jon Voight, who plays Nic Cage’s pop in the sequel due out this year. Wait, Mirren has gone from Queen Elizabeth to “National Treasure”? “She came aboard after a year when she won the Oscar and the Emmy,” Voight marvels. “She came to our set so normal, no frills. It was pretty amazing.” As for plot secrets, he reveals a few spoilers, so stop reading now if you don’t want to know. “It’s about how right before Lincoln was shot, there were … people backing John Wilkes Booth. The great-grandfather of our family is in the picture and there is evidence he was part of this group. Nic Cage and I decide our legacy will not be tarnished and we seek the truth.”

One wonders if Voight and Mirren have any romantic moments. “She’s my ex and she hates me — at first,” he says. “I make my son, played by Nic, go talk to her. But let’s just say he doesn’t get all the ladies in the film. There might just be a kiss.”

By now, just about every American moviegoer knows Helen Mirren for her recent Oscar-winning turn as Queen Elizabeth II in Stephen Frears’ “The Queen” — a performance so adored by viewers at the Venice Film Festival that they showered it with a five-minute standing ovation. (Not bad for a premiere.)

But some 16 years ago, the London native born Illiana Lydia Petrovna Mironova made another thrilling mark — this one on British TV, as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in the crime drama “Prime Suspect.” Tennison was no ordinary detective; she faced down tension in the field (investigating serial killings) and on the work front (bearing sexist hostility from her male colleagues).

Sept. 11 sees the release of “Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act” (Acorn Media, $29.99), the three-hour last installment of the series, originally aired in November. Approaching retirement, Tennison is investigating the murder of a missing girl. Alas, it’s no open-and-shut case, as Tennison grapples with an alcohol problem and the death of her father.

On the Small Screen spoke with Mirren about her years on “Prime Suspect,” her watershed turn as England’s ruler and how she keeps those iconic roles from typecasting her.

Q So … do you think Queen Elizabeth has seen you in “The Queen” by now?

A I don’t know directly. I can’t imagine that she didn’t. I very, very much imagine that she did.

Q When Her Majesty came to the U.S. recently, some people were joking, “Boy, that queen does a great Helen Mirren impersonation.”

A [Laughs.] In Britain, there were lots of cartoons in that direction after the film. The cartoonists had a field day.

Q Was there any point in playing Queen Elizabeth where you felt some sort of larger force taking over — the Queen Aura, if you will?

A I was extremely unself-conscious in that role, which really took me by surprise. I’m nothing like the queen at all. But in researching her, I found a great deal of respect for her and I found it an extremely comfortable place to be playing her.

Q Even in that one scene when you got out of that stuck all-terrain vehicle and started tinkering around with the machinery?

A She is a car mechanic and she doesn’t drive new cars around, so there is that unexpected element in her.

Q You studied hard to emulate Queen Elizabeth. How did your work on “Prime Suspect” compare?

A I always did very little preparation. I always thought at the start, “Let’s just do it.” Even the first one, I couldn’t prepare for it because I was shooting a film right up until the day before. I had to drive across Italy, get on a plane and get to the set at 6 a.m. the next morning. I had to allow ideas to happen. It’s not such a bad thing — as long as you have the tools to do it.

Q Did playing Jane Tennison on “Prime Suspect” teach you any lasting lessons over the years?

A I don’t know about that. What does happen is that when you get older, certain insecurities fall away — and others raise their heads. And as you do go on, you learn. Life is a constant process of learning and you never come to the end of it, but you do gain knowledge.

Q Such as?

A I don’t think so much anymore. Maybe it’s just laziness, but I don’t worry about things; I allow them to happen more and I trust my own instinct and my abilities. I don’t worry about failing as much.

Q I’d say your Best Actress Oscar is proof the strategy is working.

A I happen to have been given a great role in a wonderfully written film.

Q Looking back on your “Prime Suspect” run, what makes it special to you?

A I’ve grown up in it, though I was fully grown-up when I came to it. It became in Britain and to some extent in America a very iconic role on TV. It became a turning point for women’s roles on television. I’ve been able to spread my work over such a broad canvas, but it’s always been a constant to go back to.

Q And yet you left “Prime Suspect” for seven years. Why — and what made you come back?

A I left it for seven years because I felt I needed to extricate myself from my success of it. But there was a very good executive producer at Grenada [Television] named Andy Harris — who went on to be an executive producer for “The Queen” — and I liked his style. I trusted his tastes and together we became sort of a partnership. After seven years, I felt I had taken my name away from Jane Tennison. Because you know, TV sticks. … It’s hard to extricate yourself from great success.

Q Ever worry about “The Queen” sticking?

A It’s so idiosyncratic: The queen sticks to the queen, if you like. It was a good thing to stick to her, and it might’ve been equally difficult to wriggle free if it had been a cruel or unfair portrait.

Q “Prime Suspect” seems to have been a creatively rewarding endeavor for you. Tell us about that.

A As the success of the series developed, along with that developed my contribution to it — and having a say, a voice in the directors I wanted to work with, the writers I wanted to write. My overall contribution on the set became one that was listened to, and that’s a very nice position to be in. I felt I was in partnership with the directors and the writers. My way of approaching that was to give them as much freedom as possible, to get really great work from really great artists. The best way to get the best work is to give people freedom.

Q Does all your success of late give you a taste to explore other aspects of film and TV?

A I did direct a short film for Showtime a few years ago ["Happy Birthday," 2001] and I loved the process. I felt it was absolutely essential to understand the process the director goes though — but I wouldn’t want to do it again. It was to learn. And it was an invaluable experience. A lot of actors want to act for that reason; they want to know what it’s like there.

Q Several weeks ago in an interview, Joan Collins told me that her Alexis character on “Dynasty” showed her something about how to be assertive. Did Jane Tennison leave any mark on you like that?

A Hopefully no mark, really. The canvas I work on as an actor is pretty broad; I’ve done stage in New York, television in America, television in England — as wide as you can possibly imagine in many ways. But I’m very proud of the work on “Prime Suspect” and feel that it was a commentary of the time that it was in. Hopefully it will stand as a social commentary. … But maybe the mark it left on me is a real understanding of how film is made. … But before I did “Prime Suspect,” I had not been on a set day after day, week after week, playing the character. I learned about hitting the mark, understanding technique, how the dolly moves, depth of field — purely technical things.

Dame Helen Mirren, 62, British star of stage and screen, won an Oscar earlier this year for her performance in The Queen. An international sex symbol for more than 35 years, she also gained many fans after her portrayal of detective Jane Tennison in TV’s Prime Suspect.

Married to film director Taylor Hackford in 1997, the couple have homes in London, Los Angeles and the south of France, and an estate in New Orleans.

What were your dreams as a child?

By the age of 12, I thought it was inevitable I would act. I grew up in Southend-on-Sea where they put on shows at the end of the pier. My parents took me to see one with Terry Scott when I was seven and I fell off my chair laughing, I thought it was so funny. When the dancing girls came on, I thought: ‘That’s what I want to be.’ But my parents didn’t approve and now I understand why. They were quite poor and just wanted me to get a job that was secure. But I was always engaged in imaginative play and I thought it was miraculous to be able to live in these extraordinary worlds in your head. I always wanted to be in theatre – we never had television at home and we couldn’t afford the movies.

Have you had to change your life since you became a celebrity?

I became famous very gradually. I was actually quite well known in the theatrical world from an early age because I started acting when I was young. It grew incrementally, which I think was lucky because if all the attention comes in one go it can be dangerous.

It’s wonderful to have fans, but at the same time, it’s something I prefer to ignore. I just carry on with my life (I’m not Tom Cruise!) and I usually don’t notice people looking at me. If someone does approach me, they are usually incredibly nice, particularly in America where they do this cute thing – they run over to you and say ‘I love you!’ and then scuttle off back over the street.

Have you ever been in a hairy situation?

In 2001 I was due to appear on stage on Broadway in a play called Dance Of Death and we were doing our last rehearsals before opening on September 11. I was staying downtown and that morning I saw the planes crashing into the World Trade Centre.

The car was waiting outside my apartment to take me to rehearsal, and as I got in, I saw people turn around and look up. I looked, too, and saw the second tower come down. I got to the rehearsal and we didn’t know what to do, so we just did a pathetic run-through. We couldn’t think to do anything else.

New York came to a complete halt. All the shops were closed. There was only one business open, a porn shop. I saw a guy go in later that day, which seemed amazing to me.

It was a difficult time, but it taught me a huge admiration for the American people, especially New Yorkers.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Probably playing the Queen. You can’t imagine how intimidating it is to contemplate playing a real person. It’s terrifying, especially knowing that down the line you will be talking to journalists about it. You know you’re going to be under scrutiny. I haven’t often played living people.

I’ve avoided it because I think you’re in a no-win situation. You’ll never be half as good as the real person – all you can do really is fail. Except for Calendar Girls, but that’s different.

Do you feel exposed taking off your clothes on film?

I think it’s worse when you are younger because you are also a sexual object then. The thought of it used to fill me with dread, but when you are in your 50s and 60s it’s liberating. You’re not really a sexual object any more, you’re just a person without their clothes on and that’s a lot easier. The only regret I have now is journalists constantly ask me about it. It’s an endless, ongoing loop. Not in my mind, not in my concerns – just every time I do an interview.

You are known for playing powerful women – is that you in real life?

I have been very lucky with playing roles of tough and interesting women. Prime Suspect was a lucky break which allowed me to grow up – I had no idea playing Jane Tennison would be so huge. She was based on a true character, but she wasn’t my true inspiration. I never think about where my characters come from much – I don’t know how I prepare for any role, I just learn the lines and it happens. But I am angry about the paucity of good roles for women. We are half the population and there should be as many opportunities on TV for us as men, but there aren’t. It’s iniquitously difficult and just isn’t fair. There are equally precious few roles for women in life, especially politics. The day we see a gathering of heads of state and half of them are women will be when we can finally say we believe in equality.

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

My mother told me an amazingly wise thing – you should never worry about getting older because as you reach each age, you find, like a miracle, you’ve got the weapons and tools to deal with it. So your body gets older, but your mind gets better. You’ve learned how to deal with relationships, for example, you’ve realised you’re not the only person in the world and you know beauty is not the most important thing. To be obsessed by your looks is absolutely pathetic.

Do you regret not having children?

Not at all. I’m thrilled that I don’t have children – I have the thing I love, which is freedom. I think having a loving family around you is essential in life, but you can have that without having your own children. In a funny way, if you don’t have children, you can concern yourself more generously with the extended family and let other people have the children.
It’s a bit of a guilty secret because as a woman, you’re almost expected to be sad if you don’t have children, but that’s bull***t. There have always been women who don’t have kids.

Dame Helen Mirren this week spoke of her pride after joining a growing list of high-profile figures who have given their backing to a charity aiming to build trust between Israeli and Palestinian youngsters.

The Oscar-winning star of The Queen has followed in the footsteps of Dame Judi Dench, Jeff Goldblum and the Archbishop of York in becoming a Friend of Children of Peace, which counts Madonna as a patron.

The UK-based organisation, which brings children together through shared arts and sports programmes, is already funding two twinned schools in Bethlehem and Yeruham.

Dame Helen told TJ: “I support any initiatives to help protect children and I was more than happy to become a Friend of Children of Peace because it is such an inspirational charity and a cause that I’m proud to be associated with.”

Children of Peace Founder Richard Martin said: “We are absolutely thrilled that Dame Helen has agreed to become a Friend of Children of Peace. Her support will help us to draw attention to the plight of both Israeli and Palestinian children and to our fresh approach to conflict resolution.”

He added: “Our strength lies in the fact that we will not take sides. This neutral approach acknowledges that all of the children are the forgotten victims of this conflict.”