To find it sad that privately educated actors dominate telly/film?

Life can take you in odd unplanned ways I whizzed up the food chain in my profession by sheer chance - I ended up knowing a lot about a new and lucrative area of law. Ended up in a place where literally everyone else was public school / Oxbridge / Yale which was quite an eye opener (me comp and red brick).

They just happen to have gone to private school. However, it isn't because they went to private school.

It is because their parents can afford- singing lessons (£220 per term), theatre school (£320 per term), dance classes (£56pcm), LAMDA (£280 per term), afford to pay for all of the costumes (£260 for my child's dance dresses for 2 shows, and that's before her two theatre shows this year which will be another £100 each).

I have also taken her to London twice for auditions this year, £90 on the train x 2, plus other expenses of food/tube/ accommodation.

£1,044 per term for just her extra creative lessons and that's for only one, and doesn't include her netball club and swimming lessons.

People fall over themselves to cast Bono’s daughter in their show or Kate Moss’s daughter in their fashion show or Brooklyn Beckham to be the face of their new hot sauce or whatever as it’s free publicity. None of these people would get a look in if their parents weren’t famous.

The popularity of stuff that speaks to a broader definition of the world shows people want to engage with media that speaks to them by them, not for them. Like businesses do better with equal representation of women at the top levels, I imagine media would do better if there was a genuinely more diverse group of people involved in it.

I imagine he didn’t have to work 2 jobs just to be able to eat!

It’s probably more to do with the acting on these shows were shit.

"The middle class ‘RP’ neutral accent is a blank canvas on which you can almost ‘paint’ anything"

Disagree, RP is a non rhotic accent and it's easier to knock an r out than add it in.
Plenty of people with natural regional accents can mimic other accents well- Jodie Comer being a prime example. Andrea Riseborough (granted went to private school but does have a bit of a northern accent) did a passable Belfast accent in Shadow Dancer, and Timothy Spall (not posh and went to a comp) got pretty close to Ian Paisley's distinctive voice in The Journey - instead of trying to do an off-the-shelf "Belfast like so it is" Norn Iron accent.

Anyway OP, YANBU and I think this inequality is worse now than it was decades ago. I find it jarring when working class parts are played by middle or upper class actors - there are many talented working class actors who really need these opportunities.

I think soaps are a different genre. They are not the serious drama or films that most actors aspire to. But they do provide work of course and have provided some great actors: Suranne Jones, Sarah Lancashire (Privately educated). I think the commentators were referring to drama that tells us about injustices of the day and serious social matters. Even Toby Jones (Mr Bates vs Post Office) went to Abingdon School. Does it matter? Don’t we value actors for their ability or is it just about what their parents chose for them?

I know the RP accent has often been seen as neutral and actors will have more opportunities if they can master it, but I disagree that it's a blank canvas. It's a rather idiosyncratic accent which does unusual things to vowels. Some are drawled (such as "taaaaaal" for "towel"), some are changed (e.g. the 1950s BBC newsreader tendency to pronounce "back" as "beck", and sometimes they are just swallowed, as in "hup sten" (half past ten).

People tend to see their own accent as a neutral base. I remember an Australian actor who worked in the US saying that the Aussie accent was neutral, like beige and you could just put colour on top.

Soaps? I don't watch any but they all feature working people, not many affluent, surely?

Interesting I've seen Americans make exactly the same arguement (well about producers/directors not the actual actors) about Jewish people in Hollywood.

The real dilemma is why if only 6% of people go to private school does it feel like it's 80% of parents send their kids to private school on Mumsnet 😂

Unfortunately, most of the arts are now elitist. Playing a musical instrument costs a fortune in lessons and instrument purchase-or hire (though you can’t get good stuff by hiring). Similarly acting lessons/singing lessons/ theatre group subs etc.
purchasing paint etc etc

If you’re working class with a strongly regional accent you’re more likely to be typecast at first sight.

The middle class ‘RP’ neutral accent is a blank canvas on which you can almost ‘paint’ anything - you can play uneducated working class or aristocracy potentially

actors from wc backgrounds if they want mainstream success have often lost their regional accents and speak RP

For instance actors with a natural cockney accent would be perfect for shows like The Bill and London’s Burning. Sadly these shows are no longer with us. When I’ve read interviews with actors with working class /cockney actors they admitted they struggled to get roles outside these type of shows

benedict C is super privileged - if he’s implies otherwise ‘my parents begged me’ etc then he’s trying to downplay it

On writers going back a bit George Orwell didn't go to university I think I remember hearing recently on radio 4.

No, but he was born 1903, when not many people went to university anyway, and he did go to Eton. I suspect his parents on equivalent income today wouldn't have been able to afford that now. Also, the path of an expat civil service life in the colonies isn't open to anyone now, which is what he started with. (I just finished reading a biography of Orwell.) And then he liked going round like a tramp, which I suspect neither his family nor his former school were impressed by. I think his parents weren't happy that he gave up secure employment in Burma to be a struggling writer - and he did struggle to make money ftom it.

Wasn’t everyone kicking off not so long ago because he’s family owned a slave plantation?

Hence why there are so few wc actors out there on tv.

For solicitors (my profession) the university holiday "vacation schemes" from which most trainees are recruited last about 2 weeks paid at £500 a week (so in that case not unpaid) although they are very competitive to get.

On writers going back a bit George Orwell didn't go to university I think I remember hearing recently on radio 4.

I doubt anyone really disagrees on this thread. If your parents are either well off or extremely supportive (even relatively poor working class parents sometimes give up a career just to drive the child around to acting things or child beauty pageant or to their favourite high level sport where it becomes a massive part of the childhood.

The internet first and then AI has transformed areas like writing and introduced podcasts and youtubers and influencers which has given those from relatively modest backgrounds chances to do better eg at present I quite like some tree works videos which might sound incredibly boring but I do quite a bit of work on my own trees and it can be quite an interesting restful youtube to watch, when I was working on the patio, the men who run patio etc cleaning videos (and one company that does drain and sewer work in Liverpool) were my interest. I don't know how much they make but it has been a way to get into a form of broadcasting for some. It has downsides eg the internet means words are free. When I wrote my first book in about 1991 it was a huge deal to get something published by a publisher (other than if you paid for vanity publishing). Today so much is written free of charge the whole landscape for that area has changed.

To be a doctor it does help if parents are doctors or if you are privately educated.
To get a university place you need to have some sort of experience either by working in hospital or GP which you can only normally get if you or have family in those jobs. You have to have training for the interviews which private schools are good at organising you can pay a tutor to help with.
Same will go for solicitors and barristers.

Most of the Welsh actors I know who are known outside Wales - Matthew Rhys, Ioan Gruffudd, Iwan Rheon, Aneurin Barnard, Luke Evans, Morfydd Clark, Tom Rhys Harries - are not privately educated. Sir Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton weren’t either.

We have good provision locally but you either need spare cash or to be free school meals level poor in which case there is some free provision (although you need to apply and have the time and interest of course).

The "middle" is entirely missing and I suspect that's where a lot of actors and musicians came from in the past.

Yes, that was my point. You have to have a decent income even to pursue it as a hobby.

Exactly, so even though you’re middle class earners you agree it’s expensive. So working class parents won’t be able to afford these extra lessons then, will they?

There is also the issue that there is a lot of exploitation in the arts and creative trades - expecting work for free; unpaid internships; insecure work. You need money in the background to establish yourself.

I remember reading an interview with Benedict Cumberbatch. His parents (not posh, both actors) sent him to Harrow and begged him not to become an actor.