Caroline Quentin slams X Factor 'fantasy'

The ex-Men Behaving Badly star, 51, said the show put a "huge amount of pressure on the contestants" and most of them did not have the experience to cope with rejection.

Quentin revealed that her own 12-year-old daughter wanted to follow her into showbusiness but said that she had warned her that the real world was nothing like the ITV1 show.

The actress told Equity magazine: "I'm really happy for her to do it, but, like many of us, she doesn't like to put the hours in and I've said to her 'unless you do, you will not get far'.

"She has to learn to sing, dance and read music - acquire the professional skills. My daughter has only known me since I've had work and I told her about the realities of working in the industry.

"Of course I love it, but she, like all younger people thinking of coming into the business, needs to know that it isn't like The X Factor."

Quentin said that she had never forgotten that she was unemployed for large periods of time early in her career and that she had to sell "cheese dressed as a Dutch girl" to make ends meet.

But she said of The X Factor, won last year by girl group Little Mix: "It sells the fantasy that you can sing for Simon Cowell and fame and fortune will immediately follow.

"There's a huge amount of pressure on the contestants and there is more to life than sparkly frocks and power ballads.

"It focuses on the winners but there are hundreds of people that are discarded by the process.

"The majority of them have not come up through the industry and learnt how to cope with auditions, some of them are plucked from their normal lives and suddenly exposed to the white heat of press attention. Psychologically it must be damaging."

The Jonathan Creek, Kiss Me Kate and Life Begins star said that young, aspiring performers needed to develop a variety of skills to make it in the business.

"That's how you learn about life, which you are not going to do by belting out 'I dreamed a dream' on a talent show," she said.

Quentin also warned that Government cuts to the arts would have a bigger impact than had been thought, and that audiences will suffer.

"The theatre, the arts are such a success story for the UK and I don't think the Government really grasps this," she said.

"Regional theatre is where you nurture an audience and young talent. These cuts might not appear to make an immediate impact, but 10 years down the line we won't have the breadth of talent on stage, the technical teams or even the audience."

Quentin, who recently presented BBC2 show Restoration Home and is a deputy - helping other performers - for trade union Equity, told its Review Of The Year 2011 magazine: "People will have to travel to London and they will be watching big, flashy shows.

"It's the culture of The X Factor again where everything has to be shiny."