Attitudes: Actress Maureen Lipman (pictured) says young women are 'quite laddish' about sex

She is the star of a play which reflects on how women’s lives and attitudes have changed over the generations.

And, according to Maureen Lipman, some of those changes have been truly startling – with modern girls having so ‘many notches in their belt’ that ‘men are frightened to death’.

She says that our daughters today ‘are quite laddish about sex’ and that men are no longer the ones who know ‘everything about it’.

The actress, 69, is set to perform in My Mother Said I Never Should, by Charlotte Keatley, at London’s St James Theatre from next week.

The play looks at the difficult relationships between mothers and daughters, particularly dealing with the issue of having children out of wedlock.

Miss Lipman said: ‘Most children [are what] you would call illegitimate now in that their parents are not married.

‘The play touches on sex quite a lot because women were suddenly discovering that it was all right to want it.

‘Now in a sense we have gone full circle because our daughters are quite laddish about sex. We have blown the cover on men knowing everything about it.

‘Now women have got so many notches in their belt, the men are frightened to death – it appears that there are no men.’

But the star, best known for playing Beattie in a series of adverts for BT, said that this does not mean that modern young women have it easy.

She added: ‘Most of today’s mothers are busy holding onto their youth so it is hard on their daughters.

‘I’ve learned a lot from my daughter because she is my best friend and I sort of admire her, but I tread gingerly with her. That’s the difference in the generations – we have now put our children at the centre of the stage.’

Miss Lipman was married to dramatist Jack Rosenthal from 1974 until his death from cancer in 2004. They had two children, Amy and Adam.

Speaking about being a working mother in showbusiness, she mused: ‘It is not easy. There is nobody I think who has brought up children in my profession who does not feel that they could have done better.

Lipman says with modern girls having so ‘many notches in their belt’, men are 'frightened to death’ (file photo)

‘For me, I had wonderful parents and money for an au pair – but that brought its own troubles. People coming into your house with their strange boyfriends and their strange habits.’

In the interview with BBC Radio London, she also told of her regrets about her late mother Zelma, saying: ‘You have so much remorse when a parent dies and you feel you have not done enough.

‘I could have played it better and I could have been kinder.’

Miss Lipman is not the first celebrity to have expressed her concern for the sexualisation of today’s women.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence (pictured) has previously spoken out against the ‘disgusting’ culture of viewing young women as sex objects

Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence has previously spoken out against the ‘disgusting’ culture of viewing young women as sex objects.

And former classical singer Charlotte Church, who began her music career at the age of 11, has also slammed our ‘hyper-sexualised’ society.