actors involved in school drama projects may never forgive the macabre comedy TV series The League of Gentlemen. It featured the dire fictional theatre-in-education company Legs Akimbo, which performed cringeworthy plays to bored pupils on subjects such as racism (White Chocolate) and homophobia (Everybody Out!).
Mark Gatiss, one of the programme’s stars, is due to play the main villain in tomorrow night’s episode of Doctor Who. But not all of his enemies are time-travellers. The faith school lobby is likely to be upset when they hear his views on education.
In an interview with the Press Association this week, he was asked what law he would most like to change.
“I know Tony Blair is very keen on faith schools, but I’d like to reverse that decision,” he said. “I think they’re incredibly divisive, and the idea of privatising children’s education and putting it in the hands of vested interest groups is a real backwards step.
“The law I would like to introduce is in a similar vein.
“One of my favourite plays is Inherit The Wind, which is about a man put on trial for teaching evolution. There’s one line where the defence attorney says of the Bible, ‘It’s a good book, but it’s not the only book.’
“I would pass a law to have that written above the entrance of every school, just to combat that narrow mindedness.”
So, that’s a no to “local schools for local people” only, then?
