Leeds International Festival of Ideas 2023 was brought to a close by this ‘fireside chat’ between two people for whom I have the greatest admiration. I have had the pleasure of interviewing Lisa Holdsworth, the Leeds writer, on behalf of a publication I once worked for. She was very gracious in sparing me her time and putting up with the inane questions I asked. It was my first formal interview so probably highly forgettable from her side. Christopher Eccleston is one of the country’s leading actors having appeared in highly regarded tv series, films and theatre productions. Sadly, I have to say, that like the 2022 version of the LIFI big finish, I was very disappointed in the event.
The whole point of the Festival is to come up with ideas and stimulate discussion as to how they need to be implemented, if they need to be implemented at all. The only positive suggestions of the evening emanated from Ms Holdsworth who came up with some as to how the arts could be opened up to more people by informing them of the diverse opportunities available, not only in front of the camera or on stage, but also in the satellite organisations enabling productions to become reality.
Mr Eccleston, on the other hand, preferred to divide the population of the country into two camps; the posh and the working class. Sadly he didn’t set out the criteria used to define in which of the two tribes people should be pigeon-holed. This was despite trotting out dubious statistics about the number of working class people employed, or rather not employed, in the theatre or tv. How can you keep statistics when you can’t identify the subjects’ status. The only hint at spotting which camp people were in came when he kept asserting that posh people were over-privileged, self-indulgent and entitled, whereas the working class were all honest, downtrodden salt of the earth types who only needed a chance. I abhor prejudice and discrimination of any kind and this was an example of both. Of course there are many people in both camps who conform to his preconceptions but there are an awful lot who don’t.
Ms Holdsworth tried to make sense of things form the outset when she asked whether Mr Eccleston saw himself as still being working class despite his success, to which he replied that he is partial to hummus, so is probably middle class with working class attitudes. This at least acknowledged the existence of a third tribe, although, again, apart from enjoying hummus and taramasalata, no rules of membership were set out.
The problem with this two-tribes attitude is that it ignores most of the population who fall somewhere between the extremes, and promotes a kind of artistic apartheid. You only need to look at the single biggest artistic phenomenon of our time, The Beatles. Working class lads from Liverpool who would probably have been a run-of-the-mill band, or even sunk without trace, had it not been for their posh manager, Brian Epstein and even posher producer, George Martin. The latter two gentlemen likely remaining a furniture shop owner and a producer of spoken word and comedy records, were it not for Messrs Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr. A truly symbiotic association if ever there was one.
Mr Eccleston did raise some valid points in that he said that every child has something special inside them, and the gift must be recognised and nurtured. I could not agree more, but that special something might not be arts related, and it would be wrong to foster false notions. He also said that he would not have been able to go to acting school nowadays as they demand academic qualifications. Again, I sympathise and think that an interview process would be a preferable method of judging public performance potential, although, as in other professions, some ability to absorb and interpret information is essential to becoming a great actor, director or writer.
I began by saying that I am a fan of Christopher Eccleston and I stand by that, he was in one of the best television series of all time, reference to which was omitted from the festival programme and his introduction. Our Friends in the North dealt with the corruption rife in national and local politics during the post-war rebuilding programme, and catapulted to fame not only Mr Eccleston but also Gina McKee, Mark Strong, and, someone whose character disintegrated into a drug addled tramp complete with rotten teeth and ragged clothes, later to morph into James Bond – Daniel Craig. Heaven forfend that I suggest the reason for its omission was that, although the cabinet minister involved was a Conservative, the corrupt councillors were Labour Party members – just saying.
I was puzzled by the way in which the traditional path was the only one mentioned, the internet being ignored, as were the other avenues into the creative world. There are websites which will happily accept and publish reviews and articles, and, whilst there may be no monetary remuneration, as an applicant for a ‘proper job’ you will have a body of work to submit. There are also internships to build up experience, again an investment in time which could reap great rewards later. He even shrugged off as trivial, the question he gets asked most by young people – his method of networking. Surely this is far more relevant now than ever before and is the way for ‘working class people’ to join the ‘posh’ ranks who have been physically networking for years with those in the business. Now outsiders have a chance to join them.
After the considered presentations from other speakers I have seen at this year’s festival I thought that this one was a huge let-down, being more of a rant than a constructive argument. I would have preferred the roles to have been reversed and listened to Lisa Holdsworth illuminate us as to the problems in the industry. Not only has she been a long-term writer on Emmerdale and other television programmes, but has penned the incredible play, Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, based on the book by Adelle Stripe about Bradford playwright, Andrea Dunbar. If you want to know what it is like to make an, albeit pyrrhic, success in the theatre against the odds, then read this book or, better still, watch out for the play. Ms Holdsworth not only writes but also holds workshops and runs schemes to encourage and nurture talent in the arts. Walking the walk!
I would like to end this piece by putting the record straight for those of you who might think that I fall into the posh, entitled category in the two-drawer Eccleston filing cabinet. He said that, as a child he lived on an estate in Salford and his father worked all his life. From this I would surmise that his upbringing was one which I could only dream of. I was born in 1949 and spent 12 of the first 13 years of my life in a back-to-back in East Leeds. There were two bedrooms; a single and a double; one room on the ground floor and a cellar riddled with damp and cockroaches. There was no hot water and the toilet was in a block at the end of the street, each cubicle shared by two houses. This meant that, in the winter months we employed buckets and chamber pots which we ‘slopped out’ in the morning like prisoners in Armley jail. The sanitation was so bad that I was once off school for a fortnight with dysentery, a Third World disease. Like Mr Eccleston I still look back on this period with a certain amount of nostalgia, remembering the beautiful leaf-like frosted pattern which had formed on the inside of my bedroom window overnight in mid-winter, forgetting that the first job of the morning was to take my eiderdown downstairs and put it on a clothes horse in front of the coal fire where the steam would rise from it until it was dry. I didn’t have the luxury of being picky about what job I wanted to do, all I aimed for was something to get me enough money so that I might leave that lifestyle behind me. Which I eventually managed to do.
It took me until I was 66 years old to discover writing, which makes me no money, but gets me to events like this Festival, and my pension means that I can now rent a place where I don’t need to check my Fitbit to see how many steps I have taken to go for a pee, just as well with an enlarged prostate!
Should you, or someone you know, want a career in the arts then I wish you all the very best. Christopher Eccleston, who was obviously asked by an audience member as to how to get into acting, said that you should be true to yourself, something with which I heartily agree, unless, of course, you live in a hovel in which case hustle for all you are worth!
Tyke It To The Limit 