Michelle Collins: There's an obsession with youth in the industry

Michelle Collins believes there\'s an "obsession with youth" in the TV industry.

The former \'EastEnders\' star has said that whilst "sexism" in the film and television industry has "gotten better" over the years, there is still a problem with ageism and classism, as there aren\'t many shows on TV about "ordinary people and women".

Asked if she\'s encountered sexism in the industry, she said: "You could go down that route for hours and hours, but things have gotten better even though there are far more male writers than there are female. We\'ve definitely come a long way, but I don\'t think it\'s so much the sexism, but this obsession with youth. And maybe it\'s a class thing as well. We need to see more things on TV about ordinary people and women. If you look at the most successful things on TV, 80 percent of them are written by men."

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Michelle runs a women\'s networking club at the H Club in Soho, and says the meetings have become a "great way to get women connected" so they can work together on projects.

She added: "I\'ve started a women\'s networking club at the H Club in Soho. I started on a very small scale, but nw I have about 300 women. We do it every month on a Sunday and we have a guest speaker. It\'s a great way to get women connected. You have to be proactive as a woman, more so than if you\'re a man, as it\'s definitely harder for a woman to succeed. But if you want to be an actor and you\'ve got it in your soul, persist and you will do it."

The 58-year-old actress can currently be seen in her new show \'Queens of Mystery\', which has a central cast of female characters.

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Speaking to New! magazine, she said: "All the central characters are female, and it\'s a great show because it\'s very stylish, quirky, and different. It\'s a mix of all those murder mystery shows - \'Miss Marple\' meets \'Murder She Wrote\' meets \'Poirot\'."

\'Queens of Mystery\' Series 1 is available to watch in full on Acorn TV now.