Anne Reid tells Liz Howell how she felt about having to do her first nudes scenes at the age of 68.

TO SOME she's the voice of Wendolene Ramsbottom in Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave; to others she's Jean in Dinnerladies. To most, even 32 years after she electrocuted herself and set Ken's house on fire, Anne Reid is still Coronation Street's Valerie Barlow.

But any fans who go to the cinema to see her in The Mother are likely to get a shock because Anne is exhibiting a lot more than her acting talents.

At the tender age of 68, and with a man 30 years her junior, Anne performs her first nude sex scene.

The film, directed by Notting Hill's Roger Michell and written by Hanif Kureishi, is a sensitive portrayal of a grandmother from the suburbs who falls for her daughter's on/off boyfriend - played by Daniel Craig - after sudden widowhood leaves her fearful of a lonely future.

Their coupling is neither gratuitous nor sleazy but will, nevertheless, spark controversy, mainly because of the age difference. This would hardly be a surprise if the roles were reversed and it was an older man with a younger woman, as Anne points out.

"All the time we aren't surprised - we don't even think about it. I'm hoping that this is going to start a trend and women of my age can all stop playing grannies," she said.

"I've never done anything like this before. And I've always vowed that I would never take my clothes off for anybody, in anything."

So what changed her mind?

"Suddenly you get offered this wonderful part - I mean it's the best part I've ever been offered. I read the script and I just thought 'I know how to do this' - which is a very dangerous thing to do - but I've never done anything that I felt was so close to me."

Anne was widowed some years ago, and gave up acting for a long time afterwards. "But I'm a much stronger person now; I don't think my husband would recognise me," she said.

Her son was a great support when she was offered this daring role. "Immediately I mentioned Roger Michell and Hanif Kureishi he was saying 'you must realise the importance of these people who you're going to work for!'" she said.

For all that, the nude scene was far from easy for Anne. She rang her son in tears the night before filming and then got very drunk on her own.

"It was a fear of the unknown," she said. "Daniel's done thousands of sex scenes; he was totally unfazed by the whole thing! But I didn't want to be made to look - well, ugly, I suppose, and a fool. It's a bit scary if you take your clothes off at my age. I do look terrible in some parts of the film but I can sit back now and look at the woman and not at the actress and realise that if I'd looked fantastic with my clothes off, if I'd looked like Julie Christie or Joan Collins, it wouldn't have been the same. You get an old lump - and that's right for the movie."

And her name is the one above the title.

"Somebody said to me at the end of the film 'you must have been so frightened' and I wasn't. I think if I'd once, just once, had doubts in my head, I would have gone to pieces. I didn't realise because I've never played the lead in anything. My biggest fear was that I would be ill and the production would stop. Usually I go in and do six lines and go home," she said.

The Mother has already been well received at film festivals in France, but Anne was amused by the reaction of one French woman. At a question and answer session in Paris, the woman became very cross and said in France women over 60 just didn't do things like that. Anne, speaking through her translator, riposted: "Well tell her in England they do!"

Updated: 10:05 Friday, November 28, 2003