Vanessa Redgrave thinks she has sometimes been a "bad mother".

The 74-year-old actress - who has son Carlo Nero, 41, with actor Franco Nero, and daughter Joely and late Natasha from her marriage to director Tony Richardson - believes she has not always been the best parent, but is glad to have raised "wonderful" Offspring.

She said: "I've been every sort of mother in my time. I've been a mad, bad mother; I've been a good mother; I've been a caring mother; I've been a forgetful mother.

"I've been all of those things, but the wonderful thing is that, whatever qualities I've lacked in motherhood and whatever I've done along the way that I wish I'd done differently. I've still got these wonderful children of mine, so I'm very lucky."

Vanessa stars alongside Joely in forthcoming historical drama 'Anonymous', and she admits she loved getting to play British monarch Elizabeth I.

She said: "She's a very interesting person. She was extraordinarily beautiful and striking looking as a young woman, but I'm playing her as an older person, which is fascinating.

"And of course, even as she was growing older she was still falling in love with younger men, which is always an interesting dynamic."