Benedict Cumberbatch recently appealed to fans not to film him on their mobile phones at his new stage production of Hamlet.

But The Good Life star Penelpe Keith, who at 75 is still touring the length and breadth of the country with her theatre work, has said the Sherlock star just needs to learn to immerse himself in the play.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet at the Barbican
Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet at the Barbican (Johan Persson/PA)

Penelope said “[Phones going off] are distracting for the actors, but actors are used to distractions – one’s used to people drinking or leaving or whatever. I’ve never stopped and said, ‘Will you please answer that phone?’, because I think my job is to keep people’s disbelief going. But I think it’s terribly distracting for everyone else.”

The To The Manor Born star – who is fronting the second series of her show Penelope Keith’s Hidden Villages – is worried the internet is taking over people’s lives.

She isn’t one for Twitter, and believes people are “too bound up with computers” these days.

Penelope Keith
Penelope Keith is back with her Hidden Villages series (Channel 4)

“I got an email this morning that I’ve got to go through, and I think, ‘Oh dear, I’d sooner be in my garden’,” she admitted. “We must remember that the internet and technology is our servant not our master. I’m afraid it’s taking over, isn’t it?”

Penelope is perhaps best known as her character Margo from The Good Life, who was more interested in soirees and social climbing than spades and shrubbery.

But the actress couldn’t be more different, revealing: “Margo didn’t like gardening, but I get my hands dirty, very dirty.”

Series two of Penelope Keith’s Hidden Villages begins on More4 on Tuesday, September 1.