in this picture from the Daily Mail article on his class at Eton Eddie Redmayne is #11, Prince William is #20 |
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Of course you can't blame Redmayne or Cumberbatch or Lewis for the choices their parents made in sending them to school but if you go to Eton or Harrow at the very least you should admit your privilege. Not everyone has to be like George Orwell who went to Eton but who then spent a year living as a down and out "to see how the other half lived." You don't have to do that but it would be nice if you could admit that talent only got you so far and for the rest it was connections, wealth and power. Only 6% of the British population go to private school and only 1% go to boarding school, but those 6% and those 1% dominate every aspect of life in the United Kingdom. Business, the arts and political life are run by a tiny private school clique. The editor of almost all the national newspapers is a private school boy, the men (its always men) who run the universities are private school boys, the man (its almost always a man) who chairs the Booker Prize panel is almost always a private school boy. There are exceptions of course but the exceptions prove the rule. Britain's Prime Minister went to Eton, his Deputy Prime Minister went to Westminster School, his Chancellor of the Exchequer went to Eton etc. etc. Even in pop music, apparently, its the private school types who rule the roost. Yes, its true that often talent will always rise to the top like the cream in the milk but its going to be a harder slog if you went to a comprehensive school, or if you're the wrong body shape, or if you're a working class woman, or if, God help you, you have a Brummie accent...
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Redmayne did a good job playing Stephen Hawking, almost as good a job as, er, Benedict Cumberbatch did in the BBC TV version 10 years ago . They both seem like thoroughly nice chaps and that's the problem with chip-on-shoulder class war rabble rousing: Redmayne and Cumberbatch are probably good eggs; my point however - such as it is - is that a working class actor could have done just as good a job as either of them but in today's climate they are unlikely ever to be given the chance to show it.