‘Door closed
on actors from poor 
families’

McGann, 51, who plays Dr Patrick Turner in Call The Midwife, said that there were fewer opportunities now for people from poorer communities.

He said he did not want his teenage son to follow him and his brothers into the profession.

McGann, who grew up in tough, inner-city Liverpool, told the Radio Times: “I’m not into nostalgia... but I think things are changing for the worse right now. The sums don’t add up.

“When I was growing up, we had theatres open that aren’t open now. We had opportunities in adverts that aren’t open now.

“We had films that don’t get made. We had television pumping out of all kinds of studios that aren’t there any more.

“It’s simply economics. If you make something for half the amount per hour you used to make it, you’re not going to pay the actors twice as much.”

McGann, the youngest of the McGann brothers – including Withnail & I and Doctor Who star Paul and The Upper Hand star Joe – added: “Midwife, we watch that and know from history that everything is going to get better, right? Health, the Pill, the diseases that’s all going away.

“Sometimes today it feels like we’re going the other way. If you’re a messy kid from a council estate today, I think the chances of you making it as a successful actor are a lot worse than they were.”