Hayley Mills is 73 next month, and she looks wonderful – slim, blonde and pretty.

Her beautifully modulated voice is sweet and unmistakably Hayley, the sound of which instantly transports us back to the fabulous films that made her an international star when she was in her early teens – classics such as Tiger Bay, Pollyanna, Whistle Down The Wind and Parent Trap.

In 1961 aged just 14, she even won a juvenile Oscar – the very last time it was awarded – for Pollyanna, although her parents, actor Sir John Mills and writer Mary Hayley Bell, chose not to tell her at the time.

‘My parents decided not to let me go to the ceremony, because I was very young,’ she explains.

‘It was part of their attitude towards me when I was a child, that I should be kept as unaffected by the world I was now moving in as possible.

‘So I went off to school, then when I came back from making a movie in Hollywood, I’d go back to school.’

Not that she resents this.

‘I think my parents were very wise,’ she says.

Besides she was indulged in some ways, like being shown around Disney World by Walt Disney himself.

‘It was magic for a child,’ she smiles.

‘I was so very lucky, wasn’t I? I loved making the films – it didn’t feel that very different from the imaginary games I played.

‘I always felt very at home in front of a camera – kind of protected and safe.

‘I never had any nerves or felt self-conscious.

‘I was working with wonderful, sensitive and intelligent directors.

‘And very experienced actors, one of whom was my father.

‘He was an inspiration to me – everything about him, his whole approach to work, as well as his love, enthusiasm and respect for it and other people in the business, was inspiring.

The actress’s parents – Mary Hayley Bell and Sir John Mills

‘I was very lucky to have him as a role model.

‘He was so full of energy and was a great one for making exciting plans.

‘I’d come home from boarding school and never be quite sure about where we were living, because we’d have moved to a farm in the country.

‘We moved so many times, I don’t know how my mother coped.’

This is perhaps one of the reasons why Hayley is very happy staying put at her home in south west London, which she shares with her partner, Indian-American actor Firdous Bamji.

‘They have been together since 1997, but have never married. Do they have any plans to?

‘If it ain’t broken, why fix it?’ she quips.

‘We are as good as married and feel as married as we could ever be.

‘We’re completely committed to each other and very happy.

With her partner, American actor Firdous Bamji

‘We’re a couple like any other – when we’re not working, we’re busy doing errands and daily maintenance stuff.

‘We share the chores.

‘We like walking and travelling.

‘We read, cook together… all the normal stuff.

‘And we see a lot of the boys and their families.’

‘The boys’ are musician and film producer Crispian Mills, 46, from Hayley’s seven-year marriage to film director Roy Boulting who Hayley met on the set of 1966 film The Family Way, and theatre director Jason Lawson, 41, the son she shares with writer and actor Leigh Lawson.

And Hayley is a glam gran. Crispian and his wife, Jo, have two sons, Keshava, 10, and Hari, seven, while Jason and wife Virginia are parents to Soloman, three, and Evalina, 18 months.

Hayley clearly adores being a grandma.

‘I’m so lucky in that they all live less than an hour away from us,’ she smiles.