Comedian and actor David Mitchell has said that opportunities for working class actors have worsened after a period where they appeared to be growing.
Mitchell, 44, was speaking ahead of the new series of Ben Elton-penned sitcom Upstart Crow, in which he stars as playwright William Shakespeare as he tries to launch his career from humble beginnings.
Mitchell was asked if he thought there were some parallels between the difficulties Shakespeare had in his early career and with working class actors hoping to enter the profession.
The Would I Lie To You? panellist agreed that the lot of those from less privileged backgrounds had not improved in recent years.
Upstart Crow series 3 starts on Weds 29th August at 8.30pm on @BBCTwo. But, in the meantime, the ENTIRE FIRST TWO SERIES plus the Christmas Special STARRING EMMA THOMPSON are currently on BBC iPlayer, so you can watch them NOW (link below). #UpstartCrow https://t.co/cVs2wi4iG0
— David Mitchell (@RealDMitchell) August 17, 2018
Mitchell told the Press Association: “I think the situation is, it isn’t improving. It improved for a long time and now it’s getting worse again – and I think that’s a lot of our post-war assumptions about an increasingly meritocratic society.
“Institutions we thought were on the way out, like Eton, seem to be thriving as never before. And institutions we thought were great ones for the future, like the NHS and the BBC, suddenly seem to be beleaguered.
“And so a lot of our recent assumptions about how things are getting better, I think are now revealed to be not as secure as we’d hoped.”
Mitchell studied at the University of Cambridge where he was president of the famous Footlights Dramatic Club.
The Peep Show actor added that while he felt strides had been made in improving the diversity of on-screen talent in regards to race, he was concerned that aspiring artists’ social class could still be holding them back.
Mitchell said: “I think old-fashioned things, like the existence of the class system, about the fact that we were moving towards a society where whatever your background you could aspire to succeed in Britain as a free place, suddenly that’s not looking so secure.
“Suddenly the best way to make it in any area is to have some sort of ‘in’ already – unpaid internships, the way the politicians depend on support from the private sector, it’s all looking a lot dodgier than I think we’ve all been assuming for a long time.
“And I say that as a relatively privileged person. I went to an independent school in Oxbridge; I’m all right Jack.
“But I think for people without that sort of background, their path to success in any of the creative arts and many other areas is not as clear as it was a few decades ago.”
The new series of Upstart Crow starts on BBC Two on at 8.30pm on Wednesday August 29.