Bond: Middle-aged women ignored

Downton Abbey star Samantha Bond has accused the theatre of ignoring the issues that affect middle-aged women.

The star of the hit ITV period drama and BBC comedy Outnumbered, who has taken a break from the screen to appear on stage in What The Butler Saw at London's Vaudeville Theatre, told Country Life magazine she thought the situation was "shocking and shaming".

Samantha said: "As a woman of 50, I'm surrounded by my contemporaries and what women of that age go through: parental loss, cancer, dealing with Alzheimer's, children growing up. All these issues that are here in our lives and they're invisible."

She added: "They [middle-aged women] are the backbone of drama audiences and yet their story is nowhere to be seen."

The former Bond girl - who played Miss Moneypenny opposite Pierce Brosnan as 007 - also admitted she had some concerns for her two children who have followed her into acting.

She said: "When I started years ago, it was a very silly thing to do for a living, but now I wonder if it's any sillier than anything else."