The actress Miriam Margolyes says she is desperate to spend her final days abroad.

Miriam, 84, has had a long and distinguished career as one of the UK’s finest actresses, starring in a variety of productions on stage and screen. But she has been open about her ailing health in recent years which has even led her to say she feels "death is close".

Now, in a new interview with Romesh Ranganathan, she spoke about her plans to move abroad with partner Heather Sutherland before she dies. She explained: "[Brexit] has affected my life because I can’t go and live in the house that I bought, [the] first house I ever bought in Italy which is where Heather and I wanted to end our lives together.

“Now I’m going to have to do something about that. I’m going to have to become Dutch or Italian, I’m already Australian as well as English so how many nationalities do you have to have before you can live in the house that’s yours.”

She also spoke about how she wants to meet up once more with a famous musician before she dies. Miriam has worked alongside David Essex in the past in the West End and it appears her love for him is stronger than ever.

She said: "By the way if David Essex watches this I'm really keen to see him again. I don't know how to get in touch with him, but he's so lovely, he's a gorgeous man, I love being with him."

Addressing the camera directly, Miriam added: "Dave, it's Miriam, plesae do get in touch with me, I'm nearly 85 and I don't want to die before seeing you again. So I love you and I think you're wonderful."

This isn’t the first time Miriam has talked about her health. In the same interview she talked about how a shoulder problem meant she found it difficult to put on a bra.

Ruminating on being filmed in her bra for a documentary about her titled Miriam Margolyes Made Me Me, she said: “I did have that new bra on and it did me the world of good. I need several people to put it on for me and I'm on my own at the moment.

“The problem is, I've got a bad shoulder, I've had it for a long time actually because I didn't know how to fall and I had to fall in a play for six months about 40 years ago, and the rotator cuff doesn't quite cuff or rotate, whatever it should do.”

Miriam also touched on other problems with being in her eighties, including her weak pelvic floor. On what this entails in practical terms she said: “I p**s myself all the time and everywhere I go I always take spare knickers because you never know. And that's honestly the truth and I don't like it and I don't say it to be funny, I say it because it's true and it's a b****y nuisance.”