DAME Helen Mirren has slated her home town of Southend saying it is a place where people get drunk, fight and have casual sex.

Speaking to the Daily Express, the 65-year-old actress compared the town to American TV series Jersey Shore which follows a group of twenty-somethings’ partying and wild antics.

Dame Helen, who went to St Bernard’s School, in Westcliff, made the comments while attending the premiere of her film the Tempest in New York at the weekend.

She said: “I grew up in Southend and it’s just like Jersey Shore because Southend is a place where people get drunk, throw up, have a fight and a one-night stand.”

She added it was like any town in England in that way.

The actress has previously referred to the town as the armpit of the country.

Southend Council deputy leader John Lamb reacted to her dig at the seaside town by saying things have changed since the actress lived here.

He said: “That may have been her experience in her younger life, but in fact Southend has very much moved on from then.

“It is a shame Dame Helen doesn’t come down here often enough to see it. She forgets this is where her roots are.

“We have been trying to change that. Yes, it must still go on in some places, but not regularly and not all over.

“That is why our crime statistics have gone down.”