tell again are welcome to spotlight be interviewed on our two i'm going over and today i'm talking to intel and. out of the show this holiday season is a film about the last days of leo tolstoy is called the last station the bride acting out of the all star cast role of this film numerous nominations and enthusiastic reports and will use in the media this film reveals an unknown tolstoy but what did it teach the so many kids we will ask the actress who played the wife of the attack in the week dame helen mirren. dame helen mirren was born as helen lydia miron of her paternal grandparents were russian gentry fled the country after the bolshevik revolution and she worked her way from school performances and amateur theatre to end up joining the legendary

royal shakespeare company seven years ago helen was granted the title of dame by queen elizabeth the second and just three years later she played queen elizabeth the second in the movie the queen she's the only actress ever to have to trade both with elizabeth on the screen. helen thank you very much for being with us it's a privilege to have you on the show it's a pleasure hello well first of all we know that you are of russian origin your father was of russian origin tell us tell us a little bit about it did did your russian nests really play a new role in your bring he when you when you were a child i think inevitably it played a huge role i mean in in a funny way i don't mean in a negative sense that it was a bad thing but my father had and indeed my grandfather had the understanding that they would never ever ever be. but back to russia so they had to leave everything

like that behind my grandfather was much more connected to his past in russia obviously he left when he was in his thirty's something like that my father left when he was two years old my my grandfather's heart and soul was absolutely in russia and he was homesick all of his life. my father not so much and i think my father wanted to similate when my grandfather died he changed our name to mirren from there on off so that we didn't appear to be so foreign at that time in england unlike now was a much more homogenic place than we want to be british too much as the british and even english nor even a londoner in london so so it was hard harder then to be a foreigner it's completely different now so he changed our name and he said you

know what we have to let go of all of that and make a new life for ourselves but my grandfather was very very fixed to his past and his history. and what about your grandfather you know anything about your answers to say i i think of a couple of your interviews you said something about you or your world. you know a great great great great great great grandfather is mentioned in war and peace on both sides of my family i come from a czarist military class. on one side it was comey and ski and on the other side it was men on often my. my grandfather's father was in a sense that the common to him he married a countess who was off the coming. that was my great grandmother. so already there was a mix going on and. so that was sort of their background i don't know

the exact details of all of the family background far from it but i know a certain amount about my grandfather's background. in the recent interview to pearl magazine you you mentioned that your child turned you were very poor you really lived in poverty your family's not true why did you have to live in poverty if you come from a russian risk to create another one because my grandfather was from the military class and to take any money out of russia would have been a betrayal of the tsar and a betrayal of russia so he never took any money he refused to take any money out of russia. he started his career as a very honored to guest of the british government he was there on behalf of the tsar and that's our star me to buy arms. and then as the revolution took hold his fortunes fell he had they slowly worked through whatever money little money

they had. and in fact my grandfather finished up being a taxi driver in london most most of the rationalism as they drove taxes in paris back taxes in paris absolutely right so my grandfather aren't on that noble tradition and became a taxi driver in london it was a cab or a mini cab it was a cab it was a london castle and this is the elite he has for many caps didn't exist in those days that he many caps are post second world war intention but anyway off to the second world war my father also became a cab driver but he was a cab driver with you know a small family of three children so i'm not saying we grew up in utter poverty but i grew up without you know heating or a car or television or a refrigerator or you know anything of the modern world. listen i know. so that your father was sort of well left.

leftists of the leftist political views and that he's really you really quarrel with your ground for the they will sometimes became enemies is that true well there came from opposite. to toot to russia my father because with the rise of naziism which he experienced as a young man and. he was horrified by fascism and by naziism and and he fought against it in britain before the second world war and in the thirty's as a young man in london he was a left wing socialist martens off hands off russia is not a member of the communist party i'm never quite sure whether he actually joined the communist party or not obviously to my grandfather this was an absolute anathema because it was the communists who'd destroyed his family is untrue as louise life

and who were in the process of making his present family my great aunts the ancestors of whom i hear tonight. making them suffer terribly so you know that that was i think very painful to my grandfather my father at that time saw it in an ideological way as the right just way to carry on life later on after the the stories of starland ism and eventually came to be really when the the western communists came to understand what had actually happened in russia he i think he really changed isn't change his mind he was always a socialist but he wasn't he was no longer. a supporter of communism well despite his feelings for russia given one of your interviews you said that your father there were times when he had to hide his right. in the region in the

russian region of your family is that true and why is he did so sit for not knocked a particular political reasons or anything but because it was uncomfortable in britain at that time to be a foreigner you know the british were very. very british and they you know and they didn't really understand the rest of the world it is an island after all you know and they have an island mentality and. it was uncomfortable to be a weird foreigner my father wanted to assimilate and so you know he kind of quiet as soon as my grandfather my grandfather lived with his us actually. most of his later life but. as soon as my grandfather had died he sort of slowly sort of wiped out the russian us and us and indeed when i visited moscow and leningrad in the very late sixty's i came on a cultural exchange with a russian expect company. i was acting in shakespeare at that time my father said

you must not try and get make to get in touch with any relatives you mustn't mention the fact that your half russian in russia just don't talk about it. well you you come from an aristocratic background then you're not really up and out of here straight and you continue the social by being a dame yourself in the british aristocracy. is not an irish. it's a norma but it's nothing to do with the aristocracy anyway we were injured before the series any said and you said don't call me dame just call me helen so you obviously don't like to be called dame but is it because you are mentioned like like labelled as as the fun for tower of the british cinema even some call you the one of the bad girls of the british cinema how does a correspond to the title or whatever i think that was all of it in the past. sort

of bad girl thing. you know i grew up and out of that and and into my dame hood i guess but you know i'm very very on. that i would have been recognized by my country for having contributed to the culture of the country. but you know i don't i and my title on my chest now you for many people especially after you played you you played the queen for many people you are the brits you know very british but on the same time you you mentioned many terms that you've been critical of me know of england even even you once said that that french humor is better than the british are seizing or or is it true i've always loved french humor i do love french you might like british humor as well makes me laugh a lot there's no such thing as better or best there's no such thing but you know i

do very much enjoy the delicacy of of a certain kind of french who has lots of good things about the french i mean the food there is a but but i love the french movie humor you know i find them is there's something wrong with the contemporary british society from your point of view. you know there's no more wrong with contemporary. and there is wrong with society in general and there are there's a i mean as you get older and the world changes you know you do become slightly afraid of the changes and you don't understand them. that there is a lot of alcoholism in britain at the moment which i find very disturbing especially alcoholism among very young people i find that very disturbing that didn't exist the english have always liked to drink like the russians are and many other cultures in the world but but this sort of really extreme drunkenness in very young people i find up setting. helen mirren on spotlight will continue this

interview in less than a minute after a short break so stay with us. it's the secret incursion into the country. it's the invasion by means of. tradition the language usually sadistic bestie beat the beat. and culture. the thing is. the have the dozens are still unaware of what's going on in their land you're still asking me why do you. think i don't know you but alas the great. an archie.

wealthy british style is an expert on. the. markets why not scandals. find out what's really happening to the global economy cause a report on our. welcome back to spotlight i'm going up in just a reminder that my guest on the show today is helen mirren. well now let's talk about movies. show throw sound so it's time to talk about cinema well about the queen and is it true that you were really stressed when you knew that you that the play the queen the x.e. head of state and that you even contacts at the back of the palace in order to get

sober. action from an a. i was nervous i was very nervous it's a hot potato as we say in england. you know anything to do with the royal family that they had the british have a very schizo phrenic relationship with their royal family they love them at the same time they sort of you know they have a tent attendance usually the first time in history that someone actually played the acting head of stuff and then you know not even first time there had been a television show are. and. not show but filmed for television and that an actress played the queen in that extremely well but a filming of the cinema that was very specifically about the queen that it never happened. i did contact the powers but not to get a reaction from them not at all just to let them know let the queen know that this

was happening i didn't know whether anyone whether she was aware or not and especially because i was about to pay her and i only contact i only sent my letter after i'd been. doing my preparation work for you know i prepared for about a month before i did the film and after i'd been working for up to three weeks and i began to really really respect the woman that i was about to play if not kind of love her. i wanted her to know because you know the royal family always being criticized they're being mocked in british drama they're always being you know. so sure i had a couple of decades there are you know they have to put up with an awful lot of that sort of thing and they're very patient and they allow it all to happen they never say anything about it they just take the blows and i was i kind of wanted

the queen and the palace to know that i was playing the queen but i would play her as rightfully and as honestly as i could and that i had i had learned great respect for her and i was going to try and express that in my performance that was all i never expected any kind of a response or anything like that so you didn't get the response you didn't sort of a very polite there was right yes to say the queen has read your letter with interest you know which was fine i didn't get any coaching from the other and so i don't. listen to that is you mentioning in new york interviews that when you were young i mean they get older like teenage or whatever you had like term one of the key sentiments. is a true and if it is playing playing the queen was that sort of.

personal merit badges. well remember my father was a left wing socialist so obviously the aristocracy was you know not something he he philosophically approved of and that was the household they would head i did to certain extent you know one does sort of listen to one errant. but you know as i got older i became much more mellow about that and much more accepting. and. and when i came to the later on to to to face playing the queen as i say i i grew to respect the woman enormously as steve interest the director of the queen said he said i'm not a monarchist but i'm a queen ist in other words i'm not too sure what i think of the monarchy but i really respect the queen and i think i feel the same way you shyly elizabeth the

first that you i did say mia here so so you know the two of us to elizabeth in one person you're the first person to ask do you think that one key in britain will survive twenty first century i have to say i hope so you hope so which is an interesting thing for me to say. i think charles is a really good person and i think he would be a terrific thing do you think is going to become quite oh all this keep this generation are you going to have course can be silly. and try to you. know that would be noted it's the thing about the monarchy is that it's absolutely totally traditional and what is and without the tradition it's meaningless so it has to it has to work in a in a perfect you traditional way. so. charles will be the king and and i think it's going to be a great king. the restoration the film that you are presenting here in

moscow the film bad life and leo tolstoy. what was so so great so wonderful so intriguing three years in the michael hoffman's. screenplay that that you really decide to take part well it was. very multi-layered my reason for wanting to do it first and foremost it was a wonderfully written script it was funny it was humane it was beautifully observed. with just scene after scene that were just delightful scenes risks really you read a script where you think well the beginnings good. you know usually you read a script because the beginnings good in the middle and the ends good or the other way around this i thought was an absolutely beautiful beautifully constructed and realized script and then of course it was

a fantastic character and on top of it being a fantastic character it was a very different character to the queen and that was sort of almost it wasn't the last role i'd played but it was the last sort of very visible role i played and you're always as an actor looking for a role that is going to be the opposite of the last thing you've done because otherwise you get stuck with sort of playing the same person. so. so there were many reasons to do it and and especially it allowed me to revisit my russian and st to a certain extent you know the tolstoy as came from a very similar. economic and and class background to my at least count test side of life so you know there was a great connection there and then you also mentioned that you read about about your relatives in the war and peace. but in one of your interviews you said i quote the

worst station is not a historic drama about tolstoy but rather a film about love and marriage in. any way did you did you have to to study the biographies the time do you have to study history trying to play the role or you rather played according to your heart and so i did that work the second i played according to my heart and soul i didn't do a lot of research as i said the script the so so lovely i didn't want to research it and then go all but that scene never happened or sofia didn't do that or in fact everything that's in the script sylvia did to my cause it's the script is extremely well researched so i felt that our all i had to do was play the character that was on the page as truthfully to what was on the page as possible i'm not i don't look anything like sophia andrea you know at that time. i mean as

a person or a mean like as a person i don't look anything like she looked like you know you see it at the end of the film you see you see the real sophia and i look nothing like her. she was obviously a very imposing and interesting woman you can see it already from that little tiny clip of film. but no i wasn't trying to channel sophia i was simply trying to. play a role in the movie ok now what's your favorite trait in so if your character that really made it fun for you to to to do with passion passionate her strong passion and their charmer will break out of the way have passion explodes out of nowhere it like a tidal wave your neck comes and then it goes and it comes very fast and then it goes very fast it's not a very british person at all you know it's the exact opposite of of elizabeth queen

elizabeth you know who's who is utterly restrained and self disciplined you know sophia is not restraint at all she is the opposite. and you know and it was very important to me that although i wasn't. i wasn't imitating her in any way it was very important to me that all of the things in the script actually she actually did and more you know threatening to take poison in fact she did so many of these things we had to cut some of them out because we thought the audience would go of this is ridiculous no woman would be crazy. but she was she was very very passionate listen i just want to remind our viewers that you are half russian and in the in there one of the interviews where working on the film you said my father was born in russia aren't in

a state very similar to the world that the tolstoy is came from his grandmother my great grandmother was a russian countess did the recollections you had about your family did what you learned about russia when you were young when you were a kid did the did it help you. in the working on. things row i'm sure it did i'm sure you know i used to sit with my grandfather and he had a little map that he'd drawn himself from memory of his estates in which is near. now and he drawn how he remembered the house and the stables were underneath you went underneath to get the staples the gardens where the you know the the the lime trees were and he done this little hand drawn map and and he would say to me i mean i was five or six at the time. you know this

is where we would sit in the summertime and this is where my mother had her rose garden and this is where you know we had the vegetable garden and and so this is where we kept the horses and the carriages so. it was always in my romantic memory very much so it was it was wonderful to be able to step back into that passed through the magic of of the movie it's. pullen there in talking to us on spotting thank you very much for being with us and just reminds us of that stupid spotlight on today we'll be back with more from his comments on what's going on and let's check president saying r.t. and take. thank you thank you very much. pleased.

queen. the world's biggest exporter of heroin also one of the worst sufferers of drug addiction opium makes it nearly impossible for the addicts of afghanistan to quit plus. it cuts the faith but. they would probably like. a georgian anti soviet campaign has a growing number of people accusing the government of messing with history and. a new conflict diverting attention in the united states conservative christians say

the country is a locked in a war on christmas. it's four pm in moscow i match reza good to be with you here on r t our top story war torn afghanistan enters twenty eleven as the world's largest producer of heroin but it's not all of it export into addicts around the world the drug is also causing a deadly legacy within its own borders and afghans hoping to kick the habit find little help in a country mired in chaos just a warning you may find some of it is some of the images in this report disturbing. early morning in kabul. a little under blankets to keep the cold from the smoke. the twenty one year old us a doula started smoking heroin at university six months lou.