I served eight years in the US Navy during the sixties and seventies. My last four were at the Armed Forces Air Intelligence Training Center on Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. It was a joint Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force school and we had an exchange officer from the Royal Air Force as an instructor. One day, while chatting with the RAF officer in the coffee shop, he made a comment that in the British military it was most unusual for officers and enlisted men to talk socially, other than duty related. He was not rude about it but seemed rather surprised that American enlisted men obviously felt no sense of social inferiority. I assured him that we felt nothing of the sort, and that the only separation was education. I suggested that he might casually find out how many of the American officers were former enlisted men, who had gotten a college degree and received a commission, and if it were obvious who they were. I think the results amazed him.
@@Abcd-j9iHe said working class, because he is. And he was, his mom was a cook and charwoman and his father was a fish market porter. He was in the tunnels during WW2 during the Blitz and he later lived in a prefabricated house from Canada. He did National Service, was part of thr Northumberland Fusiliers as a rifleman and saw proper combat in Korea. The mans a working class, Korean war veteran before he was any sort of actor.
One way to justify dislike him is to know for a fact that he's well above the real bottom of English class system. As a consequence, all this talk is a way for him to have a sense of moral superiority due to his family origin while belonging to a way higher strata....
I read his autobiography which was great, he said he realised he needed to change his name when attending a screening of one of his first films and the audience laughed when Maurice Micklewhite came up in the credits.
I tried to explain the very firmly ingrained class system and class perceptions we have in Brtitian to a Scandinavian chap I once met. I said that as soon as someone opens their mouths, I could tell what class they were (or make a usually accurate guess). I then said us Brits can just look at who is sitting within our tube carriage, and from the way that they are dressed will most likely come to a similar conclusion and apply said sterotypes to them. I told him wealth is different to class, quite a different thing infact. This chap was totally baffled as I told him. It was like the concept of class perception was new to him, and freaked him out.
There's economic class, and the British invented cultural class (the way we talk, what we eat etc) to correspond to economic class. However, this would also serve to obfuscate the true economic nature of class in modern capitalist societies.
Scandinavians have it too. Greta is upper class, for example, you can tell that. Then there is the Wallenberg family in Sweden which employs 40% of the population.
Although Scandinavia is rapidly developing a new class system. The ability to speak a Nordic language fluently will be a feature of it in the near future.
My guess is that many if not most countries have a class system. The Brits' system is famous and has pretty clear identifying characteristics. There's also a class system in the US, but we are taught the useful (to some) myth that it doesn't exist.
I used to work on the door of a members club in Soho . The membership was so diverse but many members who had working class upbringings went to elocution lessons to disguise their accents in order to 'pass' and perhaps not be judged by others. You also had middle class privately educated people adopting a more relaxed 'street patois' to disguise their upbringing.
This is a really funny thing. Oddly enough, much like the "public schools" synonymous with the posh members of British societies, which used to actually be means of educating the masses (who could at least afford it), the "posh" accent, or Received Pronounctiation (RP) was historically used to mask one's origin via removing their regional dialect, as a levelling mechanism.
This reminds me of a joke regarding social class: A posh Englishman and a Irishman were talking about food. The Englishman made a snobbish comment about the Irish eating oats, saying; " Eh, oats are what we feed our horses" The Irishman was quick to reply; "The English are renown for the quality of their horses, the Irish for the quality of their men."
It is a very frustrating situation. You’re born and raised into a certain society, and you’re stuck there, and it goes both ways. If you are raised in a poorer class, but you aspire and use your talents effectively to better your situation, you not only find it hard to be accepted by the “higher class” which fits your economic status, but the class you came from rejects you because you’re not one of them anymore. Fortunately, it is less of a problem in the US and Canada as it is in the UK, but it still exists. TV shows like Frasier, Beverly Hillbillies, Fresh Prince of Bellaire, the Jeffersons, and Keeping Up Appearances, and the movie/play “My Fair Lady”, all addressed this issue to some degree.
I have so much respect for this gentleman. It takes a lot of courage to openly criticise your country that doesn't like you because of your background, circumstances that you didn't choose to be born in. It's so inhumane. Thank you, Michael Cane. The real Jack Carter. What a legend. 👍
@@Bixnood69Yes. Pride in accident of birth is meaningless because we didn’t make that happen. We just popped out of our mothers in whatever location that happened to be in. I do not, and will not ever understand national pride. I can understand feeling grateful. I’m grateful I live in a country that has unlimited clean running water, gas lines that provide my home with heat, infrastructure and so on.
Zulus... Faasands of 'em... wait till you see the whites of their eyes, lads... They would have won if they kept their eyes closed! Not a lot of people know that...
Spot on. Its the acceptance of social class that defines you. If you abide by class barriers, then you are sustaining the regime and are part of the problem. Be yourself Dont try to impress or adapt based on anyone's accent, money, home, occupation etc Look everyone in the eye You dont have to fit in with anyone, they have to fit in with you
I used to drive cabs for years and was sick of the endless questions about my life, one guy even asked if i had ever been in prison, for the last few years i made up this whole story of my early life in Zimbabwe, schooled in France, i own a swaith of stocks and i work as a cabbie to give me some thing to do, i could see people getting so frustrated with me as i had an answer for every question that them feel inferior..such fun days.
When I retired as a NZ school principal I moved to England with my wife as she had a work contract. I drove special needs kids to a school. One day the DP was talking about an NZ program for reading. I told her to look in the back cover of the text book she had and there was a picture me along with the rest of the development team. She changed her attitude after that. 😅.
i met him once i was coming out of his restaurant in chelsea harbour,i was about to go to the marina there, he was walking towards me when ,he couldnt be more charming to me,a proper gentleman.
@@garyspence2128 thanks gary,i was just making the point that he really didnt have to say anything to me,gary have a happy and healthy new year,once again thanks .
My friend worked at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, where the 'Queen's Plate' is held, which many royals have attended over the years, including the Queen. So I asked him if he was ever up close to any royals, and he said ... "Yeah, they ain't nothing special. They're just people"... I laughed, because he's right
My mum always used to tell me to not admire rich and famous people. "They might have a bigger living room and a more expensive sofa, but actually they're also just sitting there watching the same television program everyone else is watching" she used to say. Or :"under their fancy clothes they do need to pee the same as you". 😂
I've always liked interviews with Michael Caine; he's a very straightforward person, and I've always appreciated that in people. They don't seem flat, like other actors trying to go unnoticed, which is boring for the viewer.
Like Jack Nicholson, and he's one of the best. This is a movie star, old-school style. I always loved him because he had to wear glasses, just like me. Didn't hurt his swagger whatsoever! True legend.And what he says about class in Britain also applies to the U.S.. We just pretend that it doesn't...
I love-and agree with-his point that these class distinctions are not just imposed by from “above” they are accepted, supported and perpetuated from “below,” as my use of the words above and below illustrate. I knew others would know to which group I was referring.
Several time in the UK, I almost burst out laughing upon hearing the incredibly pretentious manner in which some Brits spoke. Reminiscent of a Monty Python skit. Hilarious! I'm from Texas, so I definitely heave heard some hilarious and unique speech patterns. I have fun with all of it.
Many people in England have been inculcated with a low level of self estimation, unfortunately......like the old lady who spoke of "a real lady on the bus"
I (American) worked with a "lower class" Brit who said he moved to America to get away from the snobbery on all levels. His mates looked down on him because he took night classes. An old lady put some flowers on her porch, and the locals knocked them down because she was putting on airs.
@@CursedWheelieBin 1. You didn't quote me correctly. I wrote "lower", you wrote "low" Bzzzzt! 2. I put my "lower class" in quotes for a reason. I did not say the Brit called himself "lower class". Bzzzzzt! 3. Your "person" is singular, your "themselves" is plural. Bzzzzt! 4. Nothing in your comment adds to my comment in any way. Bzzzzzt! No thanks for playing so poorly.
@@CursedWheelieBinWell I used to have an English colleague in a German company. I was very puzzled when he often used the phrase: I come from a working class background. This was totally new to me. I come from a working class background as well but would never use this expression. I never heard fellow Germans use it. ??
Being outside the Uk now for a long time, looking back, the class system is a real glass ceiling. That’s a serious problem even before you account for the general economic decline and other problems the place has.
you mean the reality tv stars, cooking, dancing, singing? but, thanks to uk, every country has those now, nothing special about those "classes" today.....we're talking about getting money for nothing, right? i mean you could even include whole of bureaucracy! every country also had and has wealth gauging.....strictly practical, so they can marry their daughters into wealth....
@@NoName-jq7tj ah yes, well mentioned! what class are immigrants? just like aristocrats of the yesteryear they live reasonably well with some of them not doing anything....while some of them like acid and scooters....
Me too Australia - never looked back, but can’t say all is as I’d have it Do dislike the racism here, seems always & everywhere, someone getting put down 🤷♀️
As an educated Kiwi, British people could not place me. I got really good treatment. I sometimes asked if my accent gave the game away but it was seldom picked.
Michael Caine was a great actor. He said British war films were about generals and admirals and American war films are about privates and sargeants. Thought that was very interesting observation about the English class system in war movies. Forgot to add, he also was a soldier in the Korean War, saw heavy fighting against the Chinese while he was there from 1952-1953.
In Korea he saw how the communists treated their own people with a total disregard for their lives. Made a lasting impression on him on how the left really is.
Snobbery is in each layer of the society here. Aristocrats and the middle class look down on the working class, and the working class in turn look down on others.
Knowing the full gamut of society, as I do, top class people occupy every strata of society. Class isn't denoted by wealth and privilege. Class is denoted by genuine concern for others, with genuine humility. That kind of class, is symptomatic of maturity and understanding.
He says England, but it’s more complicated than that because the UK is built up of not just England but Scotland, Wales and northern Ireland. Now Wales doesn’t have a class system to an extent . The majority are working class and the ones that ain’t will never admit to not being working class and the ones that do are English . Northern Ireland is the same. Scotland has a working class and a middle class and England has working class, middle class and upper class.
Just speaking as an outsider with no dog in the race, to me as an American growing up in suburban California, British WAS Michael Caine... Tom Baker... Dudley Moore... the Pythons... Simon Jones... James Burke. They were all like my cool uncles in some ways. When I first heard high, aristocratic British accents (and I say this with no disrespect intended) I honestly thought they had a speech impediment! Prince Charles sounded like he had a problem!
King Sausage fingers has many problems and a lot of them stem from his school days As part of his initiation at Gordonstoun, Prince Charles, aged 13, is said to have been caged naked in a basket and left under a cold shower.
During the Victorian period the class system fucked the working class to no end This changed in the Edwardian period up until 1920s when the working class started to assert themselves and celebrate their culture with the help of people like GB Shaw and Orwell It accelerated in the 1970s especially with the miner strikes Arguably Brexit is a reflection of how far working class culture has gotten since the Victorian period 😂
As an American who grew up in a blue-collar family in a small fishing city on the coast of Massachusetts, I was very interested in an article I read a while back. It described how when Prince William was dating Kate Middleton his friends found it very amusing and made fun of the fact that her mother worked as a flight attendant. I don't know if it was the job itself they looked down on, or the fact that she worked at all, but it seemed that William just accepted their snobbishness and didn't defend her at all. I wonder if Kate, having been raised in the UK, just accepted that behavior as normal, or if she cared for William so much that she was willing to accept this serious defect in his character, or perhaps the opportunity to marry into royalty was simply too good to pass up...
Just in case people don't know, she was a flight attendant, then the family got wealthy with a greeting card business I believe. That's the only reason Waity Katie could afford to go to wealthy schools and get the chance to shake her tailfeathers in front of the inbred heir to the kingdom or whatever. You can also see the 'class distinction' argument in the Becks & Posh reality show clip where she is talking about her class and how she wasn't upper class. Then Becks comes in and says "But what car did you ride in to get to school?" and Posh finally admits it was a Bentley. What Posh meant was, her family became rich, but she was always thought of as lower class. But ol' Becks was having fun with her, LOL
As an Englishman, I can tell you that our social conduct is full of contradictions that are tightly held together by our classic stoicism, or 'stiff upper lip' mentality. English people care so much about respectability and holding face that they tend to feign indifference when they are offended. It is an attribute that transcends social classes. Kate does not strike me as being a particularly snobbish lady, though I suspect that she knows what side her bread is buttered and is therefore willing to ignore some of the elitist nonsense that happens around her.
Questions were raised by a few who suspected Kate's motives, referring to her as "Waity Katie--- for holding on for eight years and not being particularly motivated to use her university education to pursue a career outside of her parents' business. Your last sentence could very well be true. I just hope things don't turn out as badly as they did for his mother or Princess Charlene of Monaco. Royal/aristocratic life is far too much of a fantasy to outsiders who get an extremely rude awakening to all rules and restrictions on conduct, choice of friends and associates, and limits on what can and cannot be said or revealed. Ask Sarah Ferguson what it's like to be ostracized.
I'm not sure if extension story is specific to class. My neighbour's first reaction when I notified them about mine was "we didn't have a letter to object". I said the size of mine doesn't require planning permission. In Britain you can't build anything, NIMBYs are too strong.
The mind boggling thing, for an American like me who is very interested and fairly familiar with British culture, is how big the percentage of British people, older and young, who actually think less of themselves and all but worship the so called upper class and the royal family!!!
That’s how I view Americans. They refer to themselves as “low class” (not even working class) if they’re not making 6 figures. The shame. Shaaaame 🔔 🔔 🔔 Every society seems to have its baseline norms. Fortunately I’m such a misfit that I actively avoid people who perpetuate these norms. I do welcome people that have certain values and live by them though. I know working class legends, and middle class scum and vice versa
I hear you Denver, but there has always been a war against the working class in Britain. Also if you are discriminated against by people with money and power and those same avenues to success aren't open to you, you can never improve your life and make a better life for your children. That's why people left to establish colonies in the US, Canada, Oz and NZ. Get away from that negativity. This video is an echo from the past. Life for the working class has become much worse by flooding the country with migrants. Now the upper class can sit back and watch those two groups destroy each other. 😢
Being Québécois, born and raised in Montréal, we all know Westmount as some kind of English upper class ghetto. It's ingrained in our culture, at my age anyway. They are "those people up there" - because their part of the city is on the mountain obviously, and is to this day independent from Montréal proper. And I grew up playing ball with the Irish kid across the street from me. His elderly parents still live there and we've always loved each other.
The same system is in place in America...doesn't matter if your IQ is higher than theirs, your talent is greater, your abilities leave them in the dust, you will be judged upon your lineage/money/class.
No celebrity, in any culture in any country, will ever publicly say "I'm part of the upper class and I'm proud of it". But many will scream from the mountain tops about how "working class" they are, or how "middle class" they grew up.
Great clip. It seems you don't see too many actors from working class backgrounds anymore. All the big names seem to have gone to either Harrow or Eton. There's probably lots of Michael Caine's and Sean Connery's out there that never get a break now.
There is truth to what he says, but I do feel living in Billerichay, Essex that the snobbery the working classes once had towards others has really morphed into something else. Firstly you go to traditional East London there remains a sparse amount of Cockneys because a huge number of them migrated into counties such has Essex over the decades. Once here what they interpreted has the other being upper class soon dissipates in snobbery or envy towards one another over such issues has a new extension or why everyone drives a Range Rover. They have now become working class Daily Mail readers who once voted for socialist Labour & are now Tories posing has upper middle class dogooders.
I've lived my entire life in Australia and NZ and we definitely have a class system, even if it's not as clearly defined. There's a big gulf between, for example, bogans, even if successful or rich, and the more established professional classes. Both education and accent distinguish them, along with some other things.
@@SuperEdge67 I can't see anything I wrote that said it's similar to Britain. So are you agreeing with me when I say that it's not as clearly defined, or you're disagreeing and making the fatuous claim that Aus and NZ somehow buck the reality of pretty much every human society in history in having distinctions of caste or class
Australia has classism it’s just obfuscated by the fetishisation of working class and blue collar work. I’ve met plenty of wealthy people and families that are fully convinced they are down on their luck true blue Aussie battlers from their yacht. Put them next to Damo from western Sydney and the illusion crumbles.
Non Brit here, actually Indian here. Feeling a less angered at our caste system but it's equally disgusting, and coupled with class too. I used to thought Micheal Caine is some high class British man with proper accent and everything but if he's looked down upon, i want to see how people who look down on people like him talks like!
I think that in contintental European countries that are (constitutional) monarchies (I happen to live in one) you still have a lighter version of the English class system. It's less violent/subtler but you are definitely going to be placed according to your accent or if you are coming from working class family, you are not and probably never going to be accepted in certain environments, like high level state officials, for instance with a family that has a history of members having worked for the monarch. Most working class will not want to have anything to do with that environment. I'd be interested to hear whether I am wrong and that this does not all apply from other people that are citizens of countries likes Sweden, Norway, Denmark or the Benelux countries.
I totally agree with Michael Caine. For a foreigner, it’s very difficult to understand and accommodate. However, it seems that a majority of Brits like that and Britain is their country.
OMG...I'm an American but I actually identified with every word he said. I am a child of the working class. My family were plumbers and carpenters and electricians and mechanics and I absolutely do NOT understand Americans' worship of the 1% ESPECIALLY given the 1%'s belief that WE are INFERIOR. I grew up with those people. I remember much they hated us. My elder brother told me a story last week about not being able to date a girl because my family was working class. She said just that. It has NOT changed and real social mobility is zero.
There’s some sort of “class system” everywhere. Humans are naturally hierarchical. The question is how much movement between classes is possible. Britain had probably a more permeable class system that most other European nations (not to mention Asian cultures) and a larger middle class as well. Britain also had a vast colonial empire, into which many ambitious people went to seek better opportunities.
“An Englishman’s way of speaking absolutely classifies him. The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him.”
GB Shaw?
@ Alan Jay Lerner writing in the style of GB Shaw
@@CanadianMonarchist An Irishman......🙄
@ The Irish just despise you based on where you go to church.
All it really says is you are a spoilt brat born into money.
Money can't buy class...
I served eight years in the US Navy during the sixties and seventies. My last four were at the Armed Forces Air Intelligence Training Center on Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. It was a joint Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force school and we had an exchange officer from the Royal Air Force as an instructor. One day, while chatting with the RAF officer in the coffee shop, he made a comment that in the British military it was most unusual for officers and enlisted men to talk socially, other than duty related. He was not rude about it but seemed rather surprised that American enlisted men obviously felt no sense of social inferiority. I assured him that we felt nothing of the sort, and that the only separation was education. I suggested that he might casually find out how many of the American officers were former enlisted men, who had gotten a college degree and received a commission, and if it were obvious who they were. I think the results amazed him.
Yeah, well we don't need anything as unsubtle as Apartheid, we keep ourselves apart
You’d have to try impossibly hard to to dislike Michael Caine or disprove his thinking on class. Love this man.
❤❤❤❤
The one thing he's wrong about is that his background is underclass, not working class.
@@Abcd-j9iHe said working class, because he is. And he was, his mom was a cook and charwoman and his father was a fish market porter. He was in the tunnels during WW2 during the Blitz and he later lived in a prefabricated house from Canada. He did National Service, was part of thr Northumberland Fusiliers as a rifleman and saw proper combat in Korea. The mans a working class, Korean war veteran before he was any sort of actor.
You have to be upper claas to dislike him
One way to justify dislike him is to know for a fact that he's well above the real bottom of English class system.
As a consequence, all this talk is a way for him to have a sense of moral superiority due to his family origin while belonging to a way higher strata....
And he kept his original name with his knighthood as a tribute to his father. Sir Maurice, you are truly a great man.
I read his autobiography which was great, he said he realised he needed to change his name when attending a screening of one of his first films and the audience laughed when Maurice Micklewhite came up in the credits.
@@melvert33What a shame as it’s a perfectly good name especially Maurice is a classic
@dntskdnttll in The Muppet Christmas Carol there is a scene after Scrooge becomes good where you can see a shop in the background called Mickelwhites.
But he later changed his name officially because he was having trouble with his passport.
I tried to explain the very firmly ingrained class system and class perceptions we have in Brtitian to a Scandinavian chap I once met. I said that as soon as someone opens their mouths, I could tell what class they were (or make a usually accurate guess). I then said us Brits can just look at who is sitting within our tube carriage, and from the way that they are dressed will most likely come to a similar conclusion and apply said sterotypes to them. I told him wealth is different to class, quite a different thing infact. This chap was totally baffled as I told him. It was like the concept of class perception was new to him, and freaked him out.
so.....do they swear? the hi-class? is it "posh"?
There's economic class, and the British invented cultural class (the way we talk, what we eat etc) to correspond to economic class. However, this would also serve to obfuscate the true economic nature of class in modern capitalist societies.
Scandinavians have it too. Greta is upper class, for example, you can tell that. Then there is the Wallenberg family in Sweden which employs 40% of the population.
Although Scandinavia is rapidly developing a new class system. The ability to speak a Nordic language fluently will be a feature of it in the near future.
My guess is that many if not most countries have a class system. The Brits' system is famous and has pretty clear identifying characteristics. There's also a class system in the US, but we are taught the useful (to some) myth that it doesn't exist.
I used to work on the door of a members club in Soho . The membership was so diverse but many members who had working class upbringings went to elocution lessons to disguise their accents in order to 'pass' and perhaps not be judged by others. You also had middle class privately educated people adopting a more relaxed 'street patois' to disguise their upbringing.
that made me think of the Heiniken beer advert with the posh girl being taught to say “the water in Majorca don’t taste like wot it oughta” 😂
This is a really funny thing. Oddly enough, much like the "public schools" synonymous with the posh members of British societies, which used to actually be means of educating the masses (who could at least afford it), the "posh" accent, or Received Pronounctiation (RP) was historically used to mask one's origin via removing their regional dialect, as a levelling mechanism.
Ah, by removing culture and diversity for unification
This reminds me of a joke regarding social class:
A posh Englishman and a Irishman were talking about food. The Englishman made a snobbish comment about the Irish eating oats, saying; " Eh, oats are what we feed our horses"
The Irishman was quick to reply; "The English are renown for the quality of their horses, the Irish for the quality of their men."
Anglophobic propaganda.
GSTK.
@@LoyalandTrue.Lolz
@@LoyalandTrue. Considering how England treated Ireland, I don't think so. It's just historical fact, that's all.
@@blank557 The historical fact is this: They started it and played the victim when we acted against it. Perform some research. Good morning.
-GSTK.
@@LoyalandTrue.
You said they were sub-humans - in there own country.
Having been born in England, but now living in Canada, I completely understand this.
I recall this interview. Never forgot it. It's still here!!
It is a very frustrating situation. You’re born and raised into a certain society, and you’re stuck there, and it goes both ways. If you are raised in a poorer class, but you aspire and use your talents effectively to better your situation, you not only find it hard to be accepted by the “higher class” which fits your economic status, but the class you came from rejects you because you’re not one of them anymore. Fortunately, it is less of a problem in the US and Canada as it is in the UK, but it still exists. TV shows like Frasier, Beverly Hillbillies, Fresh Prince of Bellaire, the Jeffersons, and Keeping Up Appearances, and the movie/play “My Fair Lady”, all addressed this issue to some degree.
I have so much respect for this gentleman. It takes a lot of courage to openly criticise your country that doesn't like you because of your background, circumstances that you didn't choose to be born in. It's so inhumane. Thank you, Michael Cane. The real Jack Carter. What a legend. 👍
Pride in one’s humble origin is a virtue.
No one is born better.
This is blatantly untrue
@@Bixnood69Yes. Pride in accident of birth is meaningless because we didn’t make that happen. We just popped out of our mothers in whatever location that happened to be in. I do not, and will not ever understand national pride.
I can understand feeling grateful. I’m grateful I live in a country that has unlimited clean running water, gas lines that provide my home with heat, infrastructure and so on.
Pride is the opposite of virtue...
Not a lot of people know that.
😂
Yawn
and i didnt know is name was micheal caine
russian bot
Zulus... Faasands of 'em... wait till you see the whites of their eyes, lads... They would have won if they kept their eyes closed! Not a lot of people know that...
Spot on.
Its the acceptance of social class that defines you. If you abide by class barriers, then you are sustaining the regime and are part of the problem.
Be yourself
Dont try to impress or adapt based on anyone's accent, money, home, occupation etc
Look everyone in the eye
You dont have to fit in with anyone, they have to fit in with you
I used to drive cabs for years and was sick of the endless questions about my life, one guy even asked if i had ever been in prison, for the last few years i made up this whole story of my early life in Zimbabwe, schooled in France, i own a swaith of stocks and i work as a cabbie to give me some thing to do, i could see people getting so frustrated with me as i had an answer for every question that them feel inferior..such fun days.
Brilliant 🎉
Hahaha, that’s awesome 😂
When I retired as a NZ school principal I moved to England with my wife as she had a work contract. I drove special needs kids to a school. One day the DP was talking about an NZ program for reading. I told her to look in the back cover of the text book she had and there was a picture me along with the rest of the development team. She changed her attitude after that. 😅.
@matauboy
Brilliant.
Grand how it came about.
Bet you had wee smile every time your paths crossed. 🌻
You're really made to feel as though you should know your place in the UK, and it stinks. Good on you for your creative mind!
i met him once i was coming out of his restaurant in chelsea harbour,i was about to go to the marina there, he was walking towards me when ,he couldnt be more charming to me,a proper gentleman.
So what? You said hello to him, whoopty doo
Don't be jealous....that is petty.
@@garyspence2128 its not about being jealous, every single one of these " i met a celeb" comments are identical and boring,wow a celebrity was kind
Glad to hear it.
@@garyspence2128 thanks gary,i was just making the point that he really didnt have to say anything to me,gary have a happy and healthy new year,once again thanks .
My friend worked at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, where the 'Queen's Plate' is held, which many royals have attended over the years, including the Queen. So I asked him if he was ever up close to any royals, and he said ... "Yeah, they ain't nothing special. They're just people"... I laughed, because he's right
My mum always used to tell me to not admire rich and famous people. "They might have a bigger living room and a more expensive sofa, but actually they're also just sitting there watching the same television program everyone else is watching" she used to say. Or :"under their fancy clothes they do need to pee the same as you". 😂
Brilliant Michael Caine....The best of British. Mrs. Rosa Larsen
My Nan was a very proud cockney until the day she died. She’d tell anyone who would listen that she was born within the sound of Bow Bells. 🇬🇧
As an American I can say what a great guy Sir Michael Caine
I've always liked interviews with Michael Caine; he's a very straightforward person, and I've always appreciated that in people. They don't seem flat, like other actors trying to go unnoticed, which is boring for the viewer.
one of the best british actors ever.
Plays himself in every role
@@Kewl-s8d that's what makes him great
Like Jack Nicholson, and he's one of the best. This is a movie star, old-school style. I always loved him because he had to wear glasses, just like me. Didn't hurt his swagger whatsoever! True legend.And what he says about class in Britain also applies to the U.S.. We just pretend that it doesn't...
I had the pleasure of meeting this legend last year at an event in London, my acting inspiration.
I love-and agree with-his point that these class distinctions are not just imposed by from “above” they are accepted, supported and perpetuated from “below,” as my use of the words above and below illustrate. I knew others would know to which group I was referring.
Orwell said it best, the English are like the circus dog that keep performing the trick even when the whip is not there.
But they have the keys.
@@stephenhill545Tell that to any Tory boy who wants to get a drink in the east end
I could listen to Micheal Caine all day and not a lot of people know that .
This interview just makes me love him even more.
LEG-END... One of the best to ever do it.
Your place is where you choose to place yourself! It took me years to finally accept that about myself.
Several time in the UK, I almost burst out laughing upon hearing the incredibly pretentious manner in which some Brits spoke. Reminiscent of a Monty Python skit. Hilarious! I'm from Texas, so I definitely heave heard some hilarious and unique speech patterns. I have fun with all of it.
National Treasure!!
International treasure..
I love this guy and could listen to him all day. Just the best 🥃🇬🇧
Many people in England have been inculcated with a low level of self estimation, unfortunately......like the old lady who spoke of "a real lady on the bus"
"Real lady" often refers to someone's manners though, not their socio-economic stsatus.
They vote for Etonians because they're "real gentlemen". Class deference.
A "real lady" would have a personal driver.
I like him even more now.
I (American) worked with a "lower class" Brit who said he moved to America to get away from the snobbery on all levels. His mates looked down on him because he took night classes. An old lady put some flowers on her porch, and the locals knocked them down because she was putting on airs.
No British person calls themselves “low class” 🙄
@@CursedWheelieBin 1. You didn't quote me correctly. I wrote "lower", you wrote "low" Bzzzzt!
2. I put my "lower class" in quotes for a reason. I did not say the Brit called himself "lower class". Bzzzzzt!
3. Your "person" is singular, your "themselves" is plural. Bzzzzt!
4. Nothing in your comment adds to my comment in any way. Bzzzzzt!
No thanks for playing so poorly.
@@CursedWheelieBinWell I used to have an English colleague in a German company. I was very puzzled when he often used the phrase: I come from a working class background. This was totally new to me. I come from a working class background as well but would never use this expression. I never heard fellow Germans use it. ??
This is very ahead of its time.
Being outside the Uk now for a long time, looking back, the class system is a real glass ceiling. That’s a serious problem even before you account for the general economic decline and other problems the place has.
This guy is a national treasure. One of my all time favorite actors.
How clever and clear he explains that question!!
He has stayed true to his word 👍
Ah, England. The land where everyone has a place and by God you better be in it.
SHE WAS ONLY 16! ....16! 😂😂
Ah England where everyone was once a German hence Anglo Saxons.
you mean the reality tv stars, cooking, dancing, singing? but, thanks to uk, every country has those now, nothing special about those "classes" today.....we're talking about getting money for nothing, right? i mean you could even include whole of bureaucracy! every country also had and has wealth gauging.....strictly practical, so they can marry their daughters into wealth....
@@NoName-jq7tj ah yes, well mentioned! what class are immigrants? just like aristocrats of the yesteryear they live reasonably well with some of them not doing anything....while some of them like acid and scooters....
@@NoName-jq7tjNo, the Anglo-Saxons were late arrivals. Try the Cornish and Welsh. Pre-Roman.
Taken honours from a person who is the top of the class system pyramid is a bit rich, fair play to David Bowie for refusing it
I was a US student, studying at Roehampton Institute in Richmond, and a cafeteria lady told me that I was as good as The Queen. 🌹
He is just an über rich tory so far from his roots its unimaginable
Well said. A good-looking lad who got lucky, has only ever played Michael Caine in every movie he made. Has moaned about paying taxes ever since.
first and foremost was a freemason . .
This dude does an amazing Michael Caine
Aye, that he does, but a wee bit young.
Love Michael Caine. Great actor. Highest respect to him for his service to his country as well.
and what was that .. ?
I left the UK permanently in 1975 & this was one of the reasons why.
Where did/do you feel most comfortable ?
Where are you now?
@@faisalmemon285 North Korea
@@Sirinwara Yes. When it comes to not living in England, there is no place like North Korea.
Me too Australia - never looked back, but can’t say all is as I’d have it
Do dislike the racism here, seems always & everywhere, someone getting put down 🤷♀️
There you go, bringing CLASS into it again!
That's what it's all ABOUT! If ONLY people would LISTEN -
I'm being repressed!
As if I needed more reasons to like Mr. Caine - what a man!
Speak the truths man ♂️❤❤❤🎉🎉
As an educated Kiwi, British people could not place me. I got really good treatment. I sometimes asked if my accent gave the game away but it was seldom picked.
Michael Caine was a great actor. He said British war films were about generals and admirals and American war films are about privates and sargeants. Thought that was very interesting observation about the English class system in war movies. Forgot to add, he also was a soldier in the Korean War, saw heavy fighting against the Chinese while he was there from 1952-1953.
And yet he's a massive Tory.
In Korea he saw how the communists treated their own people with a total disregard for their lives. Made a lasting impression on him on how the left really is.
Well said Michael money shouldn’t define anyone
The happy ending to this story is that he was finally able to add that turret to his house in Windsor.
I understand him completely. He’s spot-on !
Snobbery is in each layer of the society here. Aristocrats and the middle class look down on the working class, and the working class in turn look down on others.
😂
Do you mind the sketch Two Ronnie's & John Cleese did, just as you commented. Brilliant.
@@PippaRilley that was a brilliant sketch. And so true.
Working class will treat middle class with destain too
@@PippaRilley I haven't seen that one. I will look for it though.
Knowing the full gamut of society, as I do, top class people occupy every strata of society. Class isn't denoted by wealth and privilege. Class is denoted by genuine concern for others, with genuine humility. That kind of class, is symptomatic of maturity and understanding.
That’s not what we’re talking about mate 😂
@CursedWheelieBin It was Michael Cane who was talking mate.
He says England, but it’s more complicated than that because the UK is built up of not just England but Scotland, Wales and northern Ireland. Now Wales doesn’t have a class system to an extent . The majority are working class and the ones that ain’t will never admit to not being working class and the ones that do are English . Northern Ireland is the same. Scotland has a working class and a middle class and England has working class, middle class and upper class.
When the brilliant Michael Caine looked more like Michael Caine than Michael Caine.
Whuh?
Very well said Michael best wishes to you and your family ❤
Thanks love. Michael here.
Just speaking as an outsider with no dog in the race, to me as an American growing up in suburban California, British WAS Michael Caine... Tom Baker... Dudley Moore... the Pythons... Simon Jones... James Burke. They were all like my cool uncles in some ways. When I first heard high, aristocratic British accents (and I say this with no disrespect intended) I honestly thought they had a speech impediment! Prince Charles sounded like he had a problem!
King Sausage fingers has many problems and a lot of them stem from his school days As part of his initiation at Gordonstoun, Prince Charles, aged 13, is said to have been caged naked in a basket and left under a cold shower.
Your bang on mate
The problem they have is called paedophilia.
He still does.
During the Victorian period the class system fucked the working class to no end
This changed in the Edwardian period up until 1920s when the working class started to assert themselves and celebrate their culture with the help of people like GB Shaw and Orwell
It accelerated in the 1970s especially with the miner strikes
Arguably Brexit is a reflection of how far working class culture has gotten since the Victorian period 😂
As an American who grew up in a blue-collar family in a small fishing city on the coast of Massachusetts, I was very interested in an article I read a while back. It described how when Prince William was dating Kate Middleton his friends found it very amusing and made fun of the fact that her mother worked as a flight attendant. I don't know if it was the job itself they looked down on, or the fact that she worked at all, but it seemed that William just accepted their snobbishness and didn't defend her at all. I wonder if Kate, having been raised in the UK, just accepted that behavior as normal, or if she cared for William so much that she was willing to accept this serious defect in his character, or perhaps the opportunity to marry into royalty was simply too good to pass up...
Absolutely! This has passed through my mind too. I rather incline to the latter but the former will also be true.
Just in case people don't know, she was a flight attendant, then the family got wealthy with a greeting card business I believe. That's the only reason Waity Katie could afford to go to wealthy schools and get the chance to shake her tailfeathers in front of the inbred heir to the kingdom or whatever.
You can also see the 'class distinction' argument in the Becks & Posh reality show clip where she is talking about her class and how she wasn't upper class. Then Becks comes in and says "But what car did you ride in to get to school?" and Posh finally admits it was a Bentley.
What Posh meant was, her family became rich, but she was always thought of as lower class. But ol' Becks was having fun with her, LOL
As an Englishman, I can tell you that our social conduct is full of contradictions that are tightly held together by our classic stoicism, or 'stiff upper lip' mentality. English people care so much about respectability and holding face that they tend to feign indifference when they are offended. It is an attribute that transcends social classes. Kate does not strike me as being a particularly snobbish lady, though I suspect that she knows what side her bread is buttered and is therefore willing to ignore some of the elitist nonsense that happens around her.
A group of young men making fun of Kate to William for any reason shows a complete lack of any class.
Questions were raised by a few who suspected Kate's motives, referring to her as "Waity Katie--- for holding on for eight years and not being particularly motivated to use her university education to pursue a career outside of her parents' business. Your last sentence could very well be true. I just hope things don't turn out as badly as they did for his mother or Princess Charlene of Monaco. Royal/aristocratic life is far too much of a fantasy to outsiders who get an extremely rude awakening to all rules and restrictions on conduct, choice of friends and associates, and limits on what can and cannot be said or revealed. Ask Sarah Ferguson what it's like to be ostracized.
I'm not sure if extension story is specific to class. My neighbour's first reaction when I notified them about mine was "we didn't have a letter to object". I said the size of mine doesn't require planning permission. In Britain you can't build anything, NIMBYs are too strong.
Immenso Michael Caine!!! Ogni paese ha il suo classismo, però ci sono paesi in cui è più ostentato. P.S.: viva la Rivoluzione Francese.
The mind boggling thing, for an American like me who is very interested and fairly familiar with British culture, is how big the percentage of British people, older and young, who actually think less of themselves and all but worship the so called upper class and the royal family!!!
Lack of intelligence.
That’s how I view Americans. They refer to themselves as “low class” (not even working class) if they’re not making 6 figures. The shame. Shaaaame 🔔 🔔 🔔
Every society seems to have its baseline norms.
Fortunately I’m such a misfit that I actively avoid people who perpetuate these norms.
I do welcome people that have certain values and live by them though.
I know working class legends, and middle class scum and vice versa
@@denverlove Americans just watch The Real Housewives.
I hear you Denver, but there has always been a war against the working class in Britain. Also if you are discriminated against by people with money and power and those same avenues to success aren't open to you, you can never improve your life and make a better life for your children. That's why people left to establish colonies in the US, Canada, Oz and NZ. Get away from that negativity. This video is an echo from the past. Life for the working class has become much worse by flooding the country with migrants. Now the upper class can sit back and watch those two groups destroy each other. 😢
@@Eddievonnosy
Very insightful Eddie.
True, the ruling elite wants us to believe immigrants are the problem.
Being Québécois, born and raised in Montréal, we all know Westmount as some kind of English upper class ghetto. It's ingrained in our culture, at my age anyway. They are "those people up there" - because their part of the city is on the mountain obviously, and is to this day independent from Montréal proper.
And I grew up playing ball with the Irish kid across the street from me. His elderly parents still live there and we've always loved each other.
The same system is in place in America...doesn't matter if your IQ is higher than theirs, your talent is greater, your abilities leave them in the dust, you will be judged upon your lineage/money/class.
No celebrity, in any culture in any country, will ever publicly say "I'm part of the upper class and I'm proud of it". But many will scream from the mountain tops about how "working class" they are, or how "middle class" they grew up.
Great clip. It seems you don't see too many actors from working class backgrounds anymore. All the big names seem to have gone to either Harrow or Eton. There's probably lots of Michael Caine's and Sean Connery's out there that never get a break now.
Marvelous
There is truth to what he says, but I do feel living in Billerichay, Essex that the snobbery the working classes once had towards others has really morphed into something else. Firstly you go to traditional East London there remains a sparse amount of Cockneys because a huge number of them migrated into counties such has Essex over the decades. Once here what they interpreted has the other being upper class soon dissipates in snobbery or envy towards one another over such issues has a new extension or why everyone drives a Range Rover. They have now become working class Daily Mail readers who once voted for socialist Labour & are now Tories posing has upper middle class dogooders.
In my travels, I have met many East-Enders who were authentic and open. There were no questions about what they said and meant.
As someone who has spent their life living in Australia and New Zealand the class system has always seemed bizarre to me.
I've lived my entire life in Australia and NZ and we definitely have a class system, even if it's not as clearly defined. There's a big gulf between, for example, bogans, even if successful or rich, and the more established professional classes. Both education and accent distinguish them, along with some other things.
@ The fact that there are ‘bogans’ as you put it in no way makes Australian society a class system similar to Britain.
@@SuperEdge67 I can't see anything I wrote that said it's similar to Britain. So are you agreeing with me when I say that it's not as clearly defined, or you're disagreeing and making the fatuous claim that Aus and NZ somehow buck the reality of pretty much every human society in history in having distinctions of caste or class
Australia has classism it’s just obfuscated by the fetishisation of working class and blue collar work. I’ve met plenty of wealthy people and families that are fully convinced they are down on their luck true blue Aussie battlers from their yacht. Put them next to Damo from western Sydney and the illusion crumbles.
But …. racism fills the void, maybe?🤔
Non Brit here, actually Indian here. Feeling a less angered at our caste system but it's equally disgusting, and coupled with class too. I used to thought Micheal Caine is some high class British man with proper accent and everything but if he's looked down upon, i want to see how people who look down on people like him talks like!
That is one of the reasons why immigration to the US had so much appeal.
A great video - I like the guy already.
I met him in London...time ago...
Wise words. Be yourself
At the end of the game, the kings and the pawns go back into the same box.
Love Mike , love the guy .
Last Biggest British movie star.
Amen brother
I think that in contintental European countries that are (constitutional) monarchies (I happen to live in one) you still have a lighter version of the English class system. It's less violent/subtler but you are definitely going to be placed according to your accent or if you are coming from working class family, you are not and probably never going to be accepted in certain environments, like high level state officials, for instance with a family that has a history of members having worked for the monarch. Most working class will not want to have anything to do with that environment. I'd be interested to hear whether I am wrong and that this does not all apply from other people that are citizens of countries likes Sweden, Norway, Denmark or the Benelux countries.
The UK is in desperate need of their own version of the 1st and 2nd Amendment.
Still have a King! Now dont tell me money and power is nothing...
I totally agree with Michael Caine. For a foreigner, it’s very difficult to understand and accommodate. However, it seems that a majority of Brits like that and Britain is their country.
He had class and that’s all that counts
Fantastic guy and proof if you want something you can take it.
Damn I love this man. I really do. Yes, he's an amazing actor, but, f*ck me, he's a good man.
I never knew about the british class system.
American Irish descent, I have cockney cousins. I met a few times and have a blast great guys.
His father was from a Catholic Irish Traveller family background. Caine was raised in his mother's Protestant faith. Wiki.
OMG...I'm an American but I actually identified with every word he said. I am a child of the working class. My family were plumbers and carpenters and electricians and mechanics and I absolutely do NOT understand Americans' worship of the 1% ESPECIALLY given the 1%'s belief that WE are INFERIOR. I grew up with those people. I remember much they hated us. My elder brother told me a story last week about not being able to date a girl because my family was working class. She said just that. It has NOT changed and real social mobility is zero.
Full video somewhere?
Britain is DONE , FINISHED 👎🏻🇬🇧
🏴☮️🇪🇺😎
On youtube listen to what he went through in the Korean War fighting against the Chinese communists from 1952-1953. Amazing story he tells.
Why is Batman's butler on TV?
There’s some sort of “class system” everywhere. Humans are naturally hierarchical. The question is how much movement between classes is possible. Britain had probably a more permeable class system that most other European nations (not to mention Asian cultures) and a larger middle class as well. Britain also had a vast colonial empire, into which many ambitious people went to seek better opportunities.
I like this super successful people that didn’t forget where they came from. Like Sean Connery too.
In other words there is plenty of hate between people.
I have always admired Michael Caine. Now I know why.
Fair play to him he's so right