A damehood? I’m too common, says Sheila Hancock

aCTReSS Sheila Hancock has an OBe and CBe, but claims she would not be awarded a damehood because of her working-class origins.

The daughter of a publican from the Isle of Wight declares: ‘I’m not the sort they give those to.’

Hancock, 85, whose husband was the Inspector morse star John Thaw, says class is ‘hugely important still’ in British showbusiness.

‘People like me are less likely to be offered posh parts. I have played a few of them, but I did not get to the Royal Shakespeare Company until I was in my late 40s. I was the only one in the company who had not been to university.’