Miriam Margolyes won’t watch ‘The Crown’.

The 81-year-old actress thinks it is “quite wrong” for films and TV shows to be made about people who are still alive and thinks it is unfair for the royal family to have their lives made into a “soap opera”.

She said: “I don’t like seeing people’s lives on TV who are still alive. I think that’s quite wrong.

“I don’t watch ‘The Crown’ and I feel very protective about the royal family.

“They shoudn’t have their life made into a soap opera as they’re still living it.”

The ‘Harry Potter’ star also admitted she has “never” seen long-running sitcom ‘Friends’, which has been repeated on TV regularly since it ended after 10 seasons in 2004, because she didn’t hit it off with one of the show runners.

She said: “I’ve never seen ‘Friends’. Many years ago I lived in Los Angeles and a friend introduced me to Marta Kauffman and David Crane [‘Friends’ writers].

“I liked David and I couldn’t stand Marta Kauffman so I thought, ‘Bugger it, I’m not watching that.’ “

But one programme Miriam is a fan of is ‘Call the Midwife’ because of its excellent writing and strong cast.

She told My Weekly magazine: “’Call the Midwife’ is the number one show on British TV and it’s not difficult to see why.

“The characters and the actors who play them are superb, the scripts outstanding.

“The success of the show is in the scripts and the producers take endless trouble with them.

“The scripts are truthful, and about real people and real things that happened.”