Star slams ‘snobs’ preventing rise of working-class actors
STAFFORDSHIRE-BORN actor and publican Neil Morrissey has called for more working class actors to break through on TV after his own rags-to-riches tale of growing up in a care home.
The actor also slammed TV ‘snobs’ as he opened up about the prejudice faced by actors from modest backgrounds.
“When Oxbridge people are pumping a lot of money into a production, they want their own,” he told the Radio Times, speaking about class bias in the industry.
“We [working-class actors] are always underrepresented, because it’s hard to sell a bunch of Northerners to an American network when they consider Brits to be slightly fey, James Bond-ish types, not people who work in a factory.”
Morrissey, 58, was born in Stafford but spent most of his childhood in care, including a six-year spell at Penkhull Children’s Home from 1974.
He discovered a love for acting at Thistley Hough High School.
While studying for his A-levels at Stoke-on-trent Sixth Form College, he realised that his time in care would finish at the end of his first year, aged 17, with the bleak prospect of a move to a working boys’ hostel that could end his academic and dramatic career.
A solution was found through the family of his friend, Mark Langston, who fostered the young Neil until the summer of his 18th birthday.
He would go on to perform at Stoke Schools Theatre, Stoke Repertory Theatre and Stoke Original Theatre.
Such was his talent, his application to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama resulted in an unconditional offer.
He shot to fame in the mid-1980s as dim biker Rocky in the ITV drama series Boon before securing the role of Tony in popular sitcom Men Behaving Badly. Morrissey also voiced the character of Bob The Builder and other acting credits include Line Of Duty, Death In Paradise and Unforgotten.
But here in North Staffordshire he is also well-known as the man behind the Plume of Feathers, in Barlaston. Morrissey is now set to star in The Syndicate, a BBC drama that follows people’s lives after they win the
Lottery.
The actor went on to say: “I’ve met people with a massive education and almost zero intelligence. People who’ve been through Oxbridge but don’t know how to sew a hem or boil an egg.”
Speaking about growing up in Stoke-on-trent, Morrissey added: “It was a body blow for the area in the 1970s and 80s when mining ended and so many pottery firms closed down.
“I was just starting drama school at the time and could see it all happening from a distance. One thing that couldn’t ever be taken away from the people of this area is their determination and grit.
“Midlanders are very important to the country. We’re stuck in the middle of the north/south divide and just getting on with it.
“A lot of people don’t realise how important this area was industrially. We were the hub of things.
“My very first job was at a potbank in fact, but unfortunately I can’t remember the name of it now. You can always tell Potteries people abroad because they turn the plates over to check the backstamp. I do it myself.”
When Oxbridge people are pumping money into a production, they want their own.
Actor Neil Morrissey