Video report above by ITV News At Ten Presenter Tom Bradby

Dame Helen Mirren has told ITV News the rise in strong female characters in lead film roles must become "more than a trend" but said the lack of opportunities for people from working class backgrounds is "devastating".

The Oscar-winning actress, who won her Academy Award for her screen portrayal of the Queen, said "so many" of those working today in the film industry were from "a tiny tiny minority of wealthy people".

"I talk quite posh now but I didn't used to," she told News at Ten presenter Tom Bradby when asked about the class divide in the movies.

I don't quite understand why it's sort of gone back to how it was when I entered the profession. Helen Mirren

Mirren plays the starring role in a new British-made thriller, Eye In The Sky, as a colonel tasked with the moral complications of ordering a drone missile strike on a group of terrorists in Kenya.

On the increasing opportunities for female actors to lead major releases, she said: "Trends come and go, I hope that this is a movement that will continue."

She said her opportunity to play the fictional Colonel Powell benefited from the advances women have made in the military in real life.

I've always said 'put your energy into fighting for great roles for women in life, and as night follows day, you will see them in drama'. Helen Mirren

The film also sees Mirren appear opposite the late Alan Rickman, who died in January at the age of 69.

She paid a glowing tribute to the British actor who she said had "so much great work to do".