Mail Online/Press Association coverage of Michael Sheen’s remarks at a Social Mobility APPG meeting in Parliament organised with the Sutton Trust

Working class children will be denied the chance of becoming professional actors unless they can study drama at school, Michael Sheen has warned.

Michael, who famously played Tony Blair in The Queen, warned that the path into acting was being closed for many young people from working class backgrounds.

Amid criticism that the profession is increasingly dominated by people who were educated at public school, he called for greater support for drama in the state school system and for youth theatre.

“If you want more working class actors you have to support education. There has to be a drama department in schools,” he said.

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Michael was speaking at an event at the Houses of Parliament highlighting the latest research by the Sutton Trust showing the UK’s “professional elite” is still disproportionately educated at private schools and at Oxbridge.

Read the full PA report on the Mail Online website here. The PA report was carried on over 250 national and local websites.