On Sunday, a 15-year-old from Manchester made TV history. Owen Cooper became the youngest male actor ever to win an Emmy, for his performance in Adolescence. In his acceptance speech he thanked The Drama Mob, the local drama school where he started out just a few years ago.
It is the kind of story Britain loves: local talent nurtured in a community class, suddenly centre stage in Hollywood. But it is also a story that should give policymakers pause. For while Owen’s win is rightly celebrated as a triumph, the opportunities that made it possible are shrinking at home. According to Campaign for the Arts, the number of pupils taking GCSE Drama has fallen by more than 40 per cent in the past 15 years. In some schools the subject has vanished entirely.
