TOFFS UNITE! POSH IS BACK
WELL, THANK GOODNESS for that, eh? Lovely, smiley Toff has won I’m A Celeb. Get some ginger beer in! It’s time to celebrate a posh person on telly who hasn’t been portrayed as a total moron.
Because posh people are generally baddies, aren’t they? In film, on TV and in the newspapers. Just look at David Cameron, Jacob Rees-mogg and Captain Hook from Peter Pan (Hook went to Eton, FYI, like the other two). If you have a posh accent and went to a posh school, the assumption is often that you’re a babyeating monster who belongs in prison.
But while slumming it in the jungle, Toff rolled up her sleeves and showed this isn’t always the case. She ate spiders, she let pythons slither all over her. She sweetly apologised when she swore. She displayed the very best, old-school qualities of a posho – grit, charm and a cheerful ability to get on with things without grumbling.
You’ll see similar characteristics on display in the new series of The Crown. The poor old Queen, played magnificently by Claire Foy, has a lot on her plate. A difficult husband, a wayward sister, a domineering mother and an uncle who was pals with the Nazis. But does she let this get her down? She does not. On she goes, lipstick on, headscarf in place. No tantrums, no teary meltdown.
Posh people are on the rise elsewhere, too, with the model agency Storm having just announced that it’s signed a cabal of posh girls, including Princess Diana’s niece Lady Kitty Spencer, Lady Amelia Windsor (36th in line to the throne) and Princess Olympia of Greece, who lives in Chelsea and was once tipped as a future bride for Prince Harry (check her out on Instagram @olympiagreece. FASCINATING.) I’ve met all three and been out drinking with Kitty, who the I’m A Celeb producers should immediately sign up for the next series because, much like Toff, she’s a no-nonsense toughie who’d happily strangle a python for breakfast.
Being posh in 2017 is an odd thing. Posh-baiting is a national sport on Twitter and people often assume you’re a dick without having met you. Fair enough, given I have the world’s silliest name. But while there are plenty of posh baddies still about – snotty, entitled sorts who hold rabid, 18th-century views about the world – some of us honestly aren’t that bad. Like Kitty. Like the Queen. Like Toff. Hooray!