Dominic West and Tom Hiddleston both support playwright Alan Bennett’s call for the abolition of private schools — which they agree would make Britain a better country. Speaking at the Dorchester yesterday at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards, West said Bennett’s proposal was “fabulous. I certainly won’t be sending my children to public school,” he told me. “I have five.”
Hiddleston concurred, saying the idea was “ wonderful”. “But I don’t know if it will happen. I think it’s a real national weakness to categorise people, in both directions, according to where they went to school.”
The Londoner will refrain from mentioning where either actor was educated (it’s somewhere near Slough, we believe), for fear of proving Hiddleston’s point.
Rapper and film-maker Ben Drew, otherwise known as Plan B, had a more unusual take: “I was a disruptive kid at school and they sent me to a pupil referral unit. It was wonderful — small classrooms and a lot of love and attention.
“I think instead of abolishing private schools, you should have more PRUs so that troublesome comprehensive kids can get the support they need.”
