Joan Collins is 93, still filming and still writing. Asked what she does to keep going, she answered with a list that does not contain a single step costing more than an afternoon.

Physiotherapy, thirty minutes, three times a week. Exercise four times a week. A daily walk. Swimming in the sea. That is all. No branded programme, no app, no trainer texting you at seven in the morning.

The half-plate rule

On food she has one rule she has followed for decades: she eats half of whatever is served to her. She does not count calories, does not weigh portions - she leaves half. Plus avocado almost every day, salmon and food rich in antioxidants.

Avocado is her favourite ingredient, and that is not a whim: it carries dietary fibre, potassium, magnesium and vitamins E, K and C. This is the rare case where a celebrity habit actually coincides with what nutritionists recommend for free.

What she does not do

Here the conversation gets more interesting. „I do not believe in needles and that sort of thing. I have never had Botox or anything on my face,” she says. On Ozempic she is sharper still: „I would not dream of doing such a thing. I have seen too many disastrous faces.”

Since the age of twenty she has stayed out of the sun. Nightly skin hydration is a ritual she does not skip. So the entire „secret” comes down to forty-odd years of consistency in things that cost almost nothing - and a steady refusal of the quick fixes the industry sells as essential.

There is one sentence worth more than the whole list: „If you feel good, you look good.” The reverse order - looks first, feeling second - is precisely what gets sold.

Her husband Percy Gibson is 61, and in February they mark twenty-five years of marriage. It is her fifth marriage and the longest. She refuses to retire and says passion is the key to longevity. If that sounds like a platitude, look at the schedule - four workouts a week at ninety-three is not a platitude, it is discipline.