A bunch of comedians are pouring into a meeting room that’s way too small. There’s nervous chatter and a sense of excitement as extra chairs are squeezed in for latecomers. They’ve come from all over – Liverpool, Newcastle, Kent, Bristol, Glasgow – for something that is scandalously rare: the chance to get a foot in TV’s notoriously unyielding door.
The 30 comics who are assembling in the offices of a TV production company in London are all at different stages of their careers, but have one thing in common: they’re working class. And that, still, is a hurdle in the arts. “Class shouldn’t be a barrier,” comedian Sian Davies tells the room. “But it is.”
