Sutton Trust research released last year found the creative industries were dominated by people from the most affluent backgrounds, which it defined as those from “upper middle-class backgrounds”, while a Netflix report claimed working-class parents did not see film and TV as a viable career for their children.
The proportion of working-class actors, musicians and writers has shrunk by half since the 1970s, according to one piece of research, while another study found fewer than one in 10 arts workers in the UK had working-class roots.
In recent years, a string of academic reports have shown in stark terms just how elitist the arts have become over the last four decades.
Prominent figures in the arts say class is a key factor that determines who can make it in the creative industries.
