This year, in films such as Perfect 10, Lynn + Lucy and County Lines, working-class lives are once again making it on to the big screen. But in an industry dominated by the privately educated, can they avoid being tainted with middle-class misapprehensions?
There are working-class heroes and there are unsung heroes. Take Lucy Pardee, the casting director of Rocks and Perfect 10, two of the year’s outstanding
British films, both about working-class teenage girls. What Pardee does is traditionally called street casting – finding non-professional actors from backgrounds that don’t usually open doors to a career in the arts. (Her credits include films by Andrea Arnold and Jonathan Glazer).
To assemble the girl squad in Rocks, a gorgeously warm drama about teenage friendship in east
London, Pardee went into 14 schools and auditioned 1,300 children. “I literally stood up in front of assemblies and said: ‘You might not see yourself on screen, but we want you.’”