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The Absolutely Fabulous actress said she and Joanna Lumley, her co-star in the BBC sitcom, agreed that while interest in old-fashioned beauty contests like Miss World had waned, the format still existed in the form of film premieres.

"It has become insane," she said. "There was an actor I saw on a red carpet who was saying: 'Have you seen my Tom Ford socks?' I thought: 'You're a grown man.'"

She also hinted she is likely to make more shows with her comedy partner Dawn French, and that she hopes to make a film of Absolutely Fabulous.

She said: "I think [Dawn and I] will do something together. I know that we will because that's what we love, and we just have to take it out of the house and put it on television."

Saunders, who was promoting her memoir Bonkers: My Life with Laughs, recently attacked the culture at the BBC, saying it was no longer a fun place to work, but a top-heavy corporate behemoth.

She told Glamour magazine earlier this month: "They went corporate instead of being what they should be, which is a national resource, a place which trains people and curates the best programmes, and encourages talent and does great news and journalism."

Last week she claimed it was harder for women to get television shows commissioned than it was for men and said she found it odd that it took talented comedians such as Miranda Hart "so long to get a show".