'I promised I'd never put my mother in a home' - Anita Dobson reflects on balancing a career with ageing parents

Anita Dobson is one of the nation's most well-known actresses. Although the role of Angie Watts in EastEnders is the performance viewers are most likely to recall, the star has enjoyed a lengthy career on both stage and screen.

At the age of 76, Anita isn't slowing down. After recent appearances in Doctor Who, the actress stars in the first of Channel 5's revival of the old BBC strand, Play For Today.

The first in the series of one-off films airs on November 13, and carries on the work of the BBC series that ran in Britain between 1970 and 1984. The original films weren't afraid to critique the biggest issues facing the country at the time, and the new series is set to do just the same.

Play For Today: Never Too Late sees Anita star as Cynthia, a widowed woman reluctantly moved into a retirement home by her daughter. Once inside her new premises, Cynthia meets an old flame, played by Nigel Havers.

The film challenges many of society's issues and stereotypes - the difficulty of balancing life with the pressure of ageing parents, and points out that romantic love can happen at any age, and isn't reserved for the young.

It shows us that retirement can be fun and fulfilling, and we shouldn't let older people become invisible and overlook their discontent because of ingrained, ageist attitudes.

In making the film, Anita has been reflecting on her own experiences of being faced with care decisions for her own mother - nearly giving up her career to care for her.

"I promised I'd never put my mother into retirement, because she, like Cynthia, didn't want to know," Anita says in conversation with Bella. "I was actually going to just pack up my career and look after her," she adds.

However, there was a particular moment when both Anita and her mum realised that arrangement wasn't working for them.

"I was taking her to the loo," the actress explains, continuing, "She suddenly grabbed my wrist, looked straight into my eyes, and said, 'I hate this.'"

"She chose a retirement home in the end," Anita reveals.

Like Cynthia, Anita is also continuing to embrace every challenge life throws at her - including ageing.

"I'm not fighting and screaming going into old age, you can't," she says, adding, "The deal is you come in, and some day you've got to get out because there's a kid behind you."

Age has also made the star more fearless than she once was. In conversation with Radio Times, when asked if she was getting fearless with age, her response was simple - "You should do, shouldn’t you?"

"The third time they asked me to do Strictly," she explains, "My best friend said to me, ‘You love dancing. Why do you keep saying no?’ I said, ‘I suppose I’m a bit scared of making a fool of myself.’ And she said, ‘At 62, do you care?’ And in that moment, I realised I didn’t."

You won't, however, find Anita doing any more pantomimes. After appearing in eight Snow Whites, seven Aladdins, four Dick Whittingtons, two Sleeping Beauties, and one Babes in the Wood, her time in this genre is done.

"Fearlessness can take a person places. Up a beanstalk isn’t one of them," she concludes.

Play For Today: Never Too Late airs on Channel 5 on November 13.