Adam Frith

Christopher Fettes & Frances de la Tour in an extract from ‘Theatre School’ (1993), on the problem of inequality & access for people from working class backgrounds accessing the arts. As relevant now as then #acting #education #dramacentrelondon #workingclass #actors #actorslife

@WestHam Well, as the West Ham away end sang rather gleefully at Leicester on the day we were relegated, ‘Say hello to Millwall’! 😉😂 I’m actually gutted. Seeing Spurs go down would’ve been so much better. Good luck for next season. Wish we were in The Championship! 🦊

Full-time.

@williamnhutton I attended one of your talks at The RSA years ago. You described Blair’s New Labour as pathetically defensive in government and the right as the ‘real reformers’ unafraid to slash and restructure. Must Burnham be so shackled now in your opinion? People are crying out for change.

Britain’s fiscal position, structure of its national debt and too few natural buyers are real constraints. More state-lead growth is possible:but to lose market confidence will shatter everything.Disdain for the bond markets will soon scupper Andy Burnh... observer.co.uk/news/politics/…

@henrywinter Re: one point above - I believe I’m right in saying that Kevin Phillips helped Vardy become an even better finisher than he already was when he moved from player to coach at his short spell at Leicester.

The new Netflix documentary “Untold: Jamie Vardy” is an enjoyable take on a remarkable football story, on the underdog who bit back. Vardy’s rise up the divisions is well depicted. The tale of Leicester City’s 5,000-1 title season is both uplifting for the very real band of brothers narrative, captured in players’ own footage (especially in Vardy’s kitchen), and also dispiriting when you look at the mess Leicester are in a decade on. Rob Tanner proves a sure-footed guide through an extraordinary season. Great insight is also provided by Andy King, the most eloquent and perceptive contributor to the doc. Vardy’s agent, John Morris, also comes across well, trustworthy, loyal, a friend to Vardy as well as an occasionally exasperated guiding light, tracking him down in pubs, urging him to reach for the stars not the vodka-soaked Skittles. The story of Jamie Vardy is partly a story about who he trusts even before stepping from anonymity into the limelight. The doc is good on the what and the when, less good on the why. Why was Vardy such a clinical finisher? Why wasn’t there more on his 26 England appearances and two tournaments, one wretched (Euro 2016), one moral-restoring (2018 World Cup)? Why didn’t he go to Arsenal in 2016? Why was his relationship with his parents so complicated? Vardy isn’t shallow. He’s shy, wary, a mixture of pain at rejection and total belief that he’d score, that he'd win. The film could have gone deeper on the human story. He could have been challenged more on the affray incident, the drinking and the casino discrimination incident. Promising lines of questioning are started but not pursued. What does comes over very strongly is Vardy’s total reliance on his wife, Rebekah, and her stabilising influence. But there’s no mention of the Wagatha dramas and how a family got through that. But as a well-crafted 90-minute celebration of an incredible football story, "Untold: Jamie Vardy" is definitely worth watching.

@williamnhutton The political class really need to stop saying Starmer or Labour ‘won’ a mandate. It grates because it lacks understanding. The result of the last general election was ALL about getting The Tories out.

To be plain. If Starmer is forced out the pressure to hold a general election in disastrous circumstances will become intense. It’s always been Farage’s long game. Everyone must start thinking strategically. This is not student or union politics: it’s the future of Labour.

@robpowellnews Labour’s Cllr Chris Best was a wonderful servant to Sydenham for many years. I can’t imagine anyone working for the community as hard as she did. Penny for her thoughts today.

Greens pick up three seats in Sydenham at the expense of Labour One of the new Green councillors says it’s a reflection of the changing mood in the country rather than the record of the previous Labour councillors in Lewisham.

In Lewisham where the first declarations are incoming… Greens quietly confident of taking a majority on the council after taking the mayoralty here in South East London yesterday

@robpowellnews I’ve voted Labour most of my life and lived in LB of Lewisham for many years. It was unhealthy that 50 out of 54 councillors were Labour. Not good for democracy to have zero opposition there.

Labour lose two more councillors in Lewisham Central to the Greens. Labour agents & candidates very gloomy. “That’s two more hard working councillors gone”, says one. Others saying residents will get a shock when they realise they’ve elected people with zero experience.

OMG! Cannot wait! 🦊

@JennyAThatcher Thanks for choosing Spurs there and not Leicester! 😂😭

Life could always be worse. Thankfully, I'm not a Tottenham Hotspur fan...

@JordanJaj66 Your attitude and work ethic has been brilliant all season. You can hold your head high for what you’ve contributed this season. If only we could say the same for the majority of the rest of the first team.

An absolute honour to have picked up the Championship Young Player of the Season last night. Grateful. Thank you for all the messages, Foxes. 💙

@priteshpatel9 @TFWhistle__ I know what you mean, but I just think he’s got the right attitude and work ethic.

@MrAdamFrith @TFWhistle__ He's on loan so technically he's using it as a "for sale" sign. Yes he's been brilliant but the reason isn't to fight/keep us up.

Angry full time scenes as Leicester’s relegation to League One all but confirmed! You’re not fit to wear the shirt!🤬 #lcfc #leicestercity

@JennyAThatcher I had a wonderful sociology teacher who did a great lesson the male gaze and then added an aside at the end, ‘but there’s nothing so vicious as the female gaze’. I’ve never forgot it!

Just very tired of being a object of the male gaze.

@GuyLambertUK Blimey! I thought I had it good at £217 per month (New Cross Gate).

Living in London Zone 2 for £35 a week

@LCFC As if a ‘price freeze’ isn’t unpopular enough considering we might be in League One you deserve the lower gates next year for forcing fans onto digital ticketing and off season ticket cards. You reap what you sow.

As we prepare to launch 26/27 Season Tickets, we're sharing some important early information with our supporters 🎟️

@BarackObama Presidential.

Bob Mueller was one of the finest directors in the history of the FBI, transforming the bureau after 9/11 and saving countless lives. But it was his relentless commitment to the rule of law and his unwavering belief in our bedrock values that made him one of the most respected public servants of our time. Michelle and I send our condolences to Bob’s family, and everyone who knew and admired him.

@lcfcrnvr True. Rodgers stubbornly playing Amartey cost us at least some points IMO. Just one of many damaging things that happened to us under his tenure.

True or False 🤔✅️❌️ Leicester would've stayed up in 22/23 if Soyuncu played the whole season

@ExtremeFootbal4 I shall never forget Joachim’s goal when he was a teenager for Leicester against Barnsley. Magnificent player.

Julian Joachim scores what might be the greatest goal of all time that no one ever talks about!

@mjd7718 @redrumlisa @technopopulist Technology has had an impact too. My job back then was essentially what Photoshop does now. We used film, sellotape, a scalpel and a fine brush. It was skilled work. I was made redundant the moment my ‘time’ ended (4 years).

@MrAdamFrith @redrumlisa @technopopulist So at 16 you were on the 2026 equivalent of £26 an hour and £52 an hour on Saturdays? For an apprenticeship? Sounds bloody lovely. Who weakened the unions and moved the manufacturing offshore?

The boomers benefited from heavily subsidised higher education and the chance to buy relatively cheap housing, advantages that younger generations simply do not have. They also lived through extraordinary productivity growth and sustained rises in real wages. Yet many boomers now oppose new housebuilding and back parties that gold-plate pensions and pensioner perks, even when the long-term economics look increasingly untenable (ponzi-esque). That does not make younger generations saints. It does not. Millennials and Zoomers often flirt with bat-shit ideas that deserve robust criticism. But here’s the problem. How do you bring younger people onside if you immiserate them economically, lock them out of home ownership, and make family formation ever harder? Why should they buy into a system that appears indifferent to intergenerational justice or the basic social contract? Food for thought.

@mjd7718 @redrumlisa @technopopulist I think you know the answer to that! Back then ‘the print’ was highly unionised. Workers were very well paid and the directors were doing very well too. These days the ratio of earnings between the two are just far wider.

@mjd7718 @redrumlisa @technopopulist I left school at 16 in 1988 and was on £7.50 an hour on a printing apprenticeship. Time & a half for anything above 34 hours a week and £15 per hour if I had to go in on Saturday. Unions have been weakened since and manufacturing offshored. The issue isn’t Boomers v younger folk.

@redrumlisa @technopopulist Probably because they could leave school at 15 and work an unskilled blue collar job whilst still being able to afford to purchase a house and groceries. Imagine that!