Mirren was born, and grew up, in South London, the only child of a single parent family (her mother, who was a teacher). He left school when he was sixteen and worked in Botswana, Africa building roads. Coming back to the UK, he continue doing odd jobs, until finally he wrote a true story about a close friend of his. That story became a movie called Greenwich Mean Time, which gave him an entry into British TV where he ended working on various shows such as Casualty, Waking the Dead and Spooks/MI5. On Waking the Dead and MI5 was lucky enough to have been a part of both shows from the beginning, acquiring valuable experience for his future endeavors.