Michael Caine - On British class system

[@CanadianMonarchist]

“An Englishman’s way of speaking absolutely classifies him. The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him.”

[@greggkimball4110]

GB Shaw?

[@CanadianMonarchist]

@ Alan Jay Lerner writing in the style of GB Shaw

[@steven2809]

@@CanadianMonarchist An Irishman......🙄

[@CanadianMonarchist]

@ The Irish just despise you based on where you go to church.

[@artmallory970]

All it really says is you are a spoilt brat born into money. Money can't buy class...

[@simonlobo7895]

You’d have to try impossibly hard to to dislike Michael Caine or disprove his thinking on class. Love this man.

[@AbdulAli-ku9he]

❤❤❤❤

[@Abcd-j9i]

The one thing he's wrong about is that his background is underclass, not working class.

[@astrosherlock374]

​​@@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.

[@Bleilock1]

You have to be upper claas to dislike him

[@HoradrimBR]

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....

[@andrewsheldon6646]

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.

[@ivok9846]

so.....do they swear? the hi-class? is it "posh"?

[@Skygrey2943]

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.

[@ThursoBerwick]

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.

[@ThursoBerwick]

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.

[@epeck1115]

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.

[@midnightchannel111]

Decades ago, an Englishman explained it to my (American) parents like this: if you graduate from Harvard, you KNOW something, but if yiu graduate from Oxford, you ARE something. Also, if you're an American coal miner you expect your son to be a geologist, but if you're an English coal miner, you expect your son to be a coal miner as well and you put him down if he wants to be a geologist for not knowing his place... I'm glad Michael Caine made a point of saying that both classes do this in England, it's not at all just an "upper class" thing.

[@kingcormack8004]

That conflict is limned most humorously by the Monty Python troupe in their famous Coal Miner/Playwright sketch.

[@wizardlyone]

Both? Are there only two?

[@racheldrum1982]

The concept of 'knowing your place' is foreign to Americans. A woman like Margaret Thatcher, the daughter of a grocer, is admired in America for attending one of the best universities in her country and winning first her party's leadership, then Prime Minister. A political rival who said Mrs. Thatcher needed to 'know her place' would never win another election.

[@ThursoBerwick]

@@midnightchannel111 Harvard has cachet too. As does Yale. Oxford and Cambridge select by interview.

[@DwightStJohn-t7y]

Returning to Canada I run into many first /second generation Welsh union bus. agents, Scottish bankers and insurance, and UK lawyers. Virtually ALL seem to have LEFT the UK as the "class system" had closed doors for them, thEN THEY RE-CREATE the very "class systme attitude" in Canada that was the reason they LEFT THE UK. i.e Lord of War" "the russina mafia came too, adn they brought their baggage with them".

[@pingwin4079]

I'm Polish, and I was shocked how "catalogued" British society is. Coming from much, much more egalitarian society, seeing you all label and grade yourself based on your pronounciation or how old your money is was absolutely humbling, and made me appreciate my own country in a way I never thought of before.

[@Mr.SLovesTheSacredHeartofJesus]

May Jesus Christ continue to bless the wonderful Polish people. Love from the USA 🇺🇸🛐

[@transporter8884]

But Great Britain is an older country than Poland, therefore our class seeds were sown many more centuries ago. However, I'm too old to emigrate now, but if I did, it would be to Poland. I work with many good Polish people and I appreciate the Polish armed forces during WW2.

[@MassimoPegorin-h2z]

​@@transporter8884non si lysinghi troppo:gli anglosassoni invasero la Gran Bretagna nel VI secolo,proprio quando gli Slavi in Europa cominciarono a svolgere un ruolo da protagonisti.Quindi siete pari.Ovviamente i quattro secoli di governo romano non hanno alcuna relazione con la società britannica di oggi,che e' stata creata sa anglosassoni e normanni.

[@adam108]

@@transporter8884 First of all, Great Britain is the name of the island on which the United Kingdom is located, you may have meant Kingdom of Great Britain (1707 - end of 1800), when Duchy of Poland or the Principality of Poland (966 - 1025) was the predecessor state of the Kingdom of Poland. All the best

[@karlscher5170]

@adam no one cares how you Englishmen want to be named

[@chriswinter6672]

And he kept his original name with his knighthood as a tribute to his father. Sir Maurice, you are truly a great man.

[@melvert33]

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.

[@dntskdnttll]

@@melvert33What a shame as it’s a perfectly good name especially Maurice is a classic

[@melvert33]

@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.

[@ferretyluv]

But he later changed his name officially because he was having trouble with his passport.

[@murpho999]

If he didn’t like British class system then he should have rejected the stupid knighthood.

[@blank557]

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."

[@LoyalandTrue.]

Anglophobic propaganda. GSTK.

[@bfc3057]

​@@LoyalandTrue.Lolz

[@blank557]

@@LoyalandTrue. Considering how England treated Ireland, I don't think so. It's just historical fact, that's all.

[@LoyalandTrue.]

@@blank557 The historical fact is this: They started it and played the victim when we acted against it. Perform some research. Good morning. -GSTK.

[@johnpatrick5307]

@@LoyalandTrue. You said they were sub-humans - in there own country.

[@mikesilva5085]

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.

[@johngwheeler]

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” 😂

[@yanivproselkov1025]

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.

[@bornanagaming3329]

Ah, by removing culture and diversity for unification

[@shimmertrap6871]

I remember reading that Sir Alf Ramsey was embarrassed by his working class Essex and Romani roots, so much so that he took elocution lessons and masked his accent with that of a ‘posh sergeant major’ as a journalist once wrote.

[@YouTubingz]

Everyone trying to integrate and be welcomed, it's quite cool really and reminds me of The Beatles lyrics 'I am you and you are me and we are all together'

[@andrewmacdonald8076]

Sir Michael Caine is someone I always admired. He was also a Korean war veteran. And not many people know that.🥝🇳🇿

[@mikebrown1926]

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.

[@davideatwell6577]

Yeah, well we don't need anything as unsubtle as Apartheid, we keep ourselves apart

[@ekesandras1481]

exactly that infusion of Americanism had a very positive effect on all Western European countries after WWII. They all had this semi-feudal class system before: France, Germany, Italy, etc. Interestingly the defeated listened more to the Americans than their English co-victors.

[@Snaake42]

Meanwhile in Finland at least post-WWII *all* officers (and even in WWII all but the most senior, some of whom were old enough to have received officer training pre-independence) were conscripts first, then went to reserve officer school, then only after the mandatory military service did they apply to study at the military academy to become a professional military officer. To this day we see even the US distinction of officers vs enlisted men as much stronger than here.

[@paulcadman6051]

The raf is the worst one for class distinction

[@tmajec]

@@ekesandras1481 Americanism that was rife with racial segregation and uncivil towards blacks?

[@candelise]

I recall this interview. Never forgot it. It's still here!!

[@tristaneigler5184]

true nobility doesn't come from being superior to your fellow man, but in being superior to your former self

[@VenusianLissette]

hard agree. it's all about competing with self, not envy or coveting/competing with what others have. it's all a solo journey smh...

[@sc100ott]

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.

[@shrimpdance4761]

When you analyze it through class, Frasier becomes an even better show. Both funny and deep. Thank you for sharing!

[@ekesandras1481]

yet TV shows like "My big fat Gypsy wedding" are incredibly popular and than you start to understand, why the Windsor community council had some considerations about purple velvet coated houses in their neighbourhood.

[@pendlera2959]

@@ekesandras1481 I think it's better for society to have garish fashions than classism. Such a shallow justification for looking down on people, especially since through most of history those same preferences for bright colors and lavish jewelry were marks of the upper class.

[@DwightStJohn-t7y]

In Canada the worlds top condo man and a former Premier of the province were both rasied in East Vancouver. They both said: "you had to accomplish twice the achievement to get HALF the recognitiion of someone on the west side who went to "St. George's School for Boys". the St George kid would take a dump at it would make page three of the Province newspaper.

[@kevinbaird7277]

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.

[@PippaRilley]

Brilliant 🎉

[@SteelGunner76]

Hahaha, that’s awesome 😂

[@matauboy]

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. 😅.

[@PippaRilley]

@matauboy Brilliant. Grand how it came about. Bet you had wee smile every time your paths crossed. 🌻

[@tactictoe]

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!

[@flashtheoriginal]

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

[@eve3363]

English social class is system. It's the royals and people associated with them vs everyone else.

[@clich126]

Just accept "denial" bro.

[@KH-rc7tl]

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. 🇬🇧

[@matthewblundell3422]

So Micheal Caine who was born in Rotherhithe cant possibly be a cockney as you cant hear BOW Bells from there

[@Mullet-ZubazPants]

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

[@helgaioannidis9365]

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". 😂

[@michaelbread5906]

​@@helgaioannidis9365the way they interpret situations differently from working class is interesting. My (distant) aunt is very wealthy ($100mil+) and loves loves loves Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Arab Emmirates, etc, and won't believe anything bad said about their women rights. It's kind of sad/funny.

[@wshropshire]

It amazes me even after all his success, he still speaks to these values today when he talks. He always seems very grounded and never forgot where he cane from.

[@MustafaKulle]

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. 👍

[@rogergonzo8618]

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.

[@boxsterman77]

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.

[@andyayala9119]

Orwell said it best, the English are like the circus dog that keep performing the trick even when the whip is not there.

[@stephenhill545]

But they have the keys.

[@CursedWheelieBin]

@@stephenhill545Tell that to any Tory boy who wants to get a drink in the east end

[@boomerang9967]

Having been born in England, but now living in Canada, I completely understand this.

[@peterlarsen1000]

Brilliant Michael Caine....The best of British. Mrs. Rosa Larsen

[@HelenComyn]

Brilliantly explained! 👍 Great man!🤗🥀🌿🌺🌾🎶 2:04

[@thedisabledwelshman9266]

one of the best british actors ever.

[@Kewl-s8d]

Plays himself in every role

[@DSAK55]

@@Kewl-s8d that's what makes him great

[@garyspence2128]

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...

[@danielburger1775]

Not a lot of people know that.

[@RobertRedford77]

😂

[@JonJonJonJonJonJonJonJon]

Yawn

[@roywatson8133]

and i didnt know is name was micheal caine

[@L2ggs]

russian bot

[@gradyparsons6678]

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...

[@vcab6875]

Pride in one’s humble origin is a virtue. No one is born better.

[@Bixnood69]

This is blatantly untrue

[@CursedWheelieBin]

@@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.

[@HoradrimBR]

Pride is the opposite of virtue...

[@c.a.savage5689]

​@@Bixnood69 I would humbly suggest that you are unintentionally misinterpreting the statement. People are born with different advantages or disadvantages but "No one is born better (than someone else)" is the SAME as "all men are created equal". You obviously believe that in the 21st century, don't you?

[@frankmcconnellogue3351]

I could listen to Micheal Caine all day and not a lot of people know that .

[@JensPeterLiljegren]

Don’t get fooled by the horizontal social interactional structure in Denmark. We are a class society too. It is not a coincidence that British TV productions like Downtown Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs, Midsommer Murders, Morse, Lewis, Endeavor et cetera are immensely popular in Denmark. The most loved Danish TV production, Matador, is all about social aspirations, hidden codes, and the clashes between new and old money in mid- and post war Denmark.

[@jensleasman1838]

This interview just makes me love him even more.

[@stevechilton-k9h]

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.

[@Kewl-s8d]

So what? You said hello to him, whoopty doo

[@garyspence2128]

Don't be jealous....that is petty.

[@Kewl-s8d]

@@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

[@br5469]

Glad to hear it.

[@stevechilton-k9h]

@@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 .

[@mirfjc]

For anyone not in the UK, this interview is from either the 1970's or 80's. Britain has undergone a pretty radical change over the post war period. Foreign perceptions tend to lag reality by several decades. I'm most familiar with the UK and US, and there is a tendency now for the UK class system to be much more overstated than in reality it now exists; while in the US, the unofficial system of multi-generational wealthy families with ties in politics and law, and common training in Yale and Princeton, etc. is very greatly understated. You'll also tend to see the remnants in the UK labeled exclusively as an "English" issue, but that's largely a nationalist fiction that simply, deceptively, and incorrectly redefines Scottish, Welsh and Irish aristocracy as "English" (a neat trick, we should do this in Yorkshire, too).

[@auberginemanproductions1608]

I disagree that class, as something distinct from wealth, is overstated in the UK on a cultural level since it still governs much of our perceptions of other people and how politics works (Keir Starmer is a good recent example of using class as a political tool). I agree however that "class" in other countries isn't treated as seriously as it perhaps might be, particularly in countries like the US with such great wealth inequality

[@kirstyirsty8919]

When i moved to England everyone kept asking me what job my father had. I could not figure out why until another irish person told me - they were trying to figure out what class i was. So weird.

[@himanshusahu3340]

Interesting point. In ancient India caste was based on profession and one could migrate. There could possibly be English influence on the later caste rigidity observed in modern era.

[@2jz-boi]

@@himanshusahu3340 India still suffers from the caste system does it not? I'd say its way worse than the English class system too, with more highly regarded castes even washing if they should touch a member of the lowest caste

[@pendlera2959]

@@2jz-boi The British actually intensified the caste divisions in India. It was useful for them. It wasn't nearly as bad before they took over.

[@theemperorofindia1403]

Never heard this question in me life, nor thought to ask it other than if it was a mate who I was actually getting to know and was just chatting about their fam. Then again my mum's from Hackney and dad's from Canvey Island so I suppose that makes me at the bottom of the barrel 🤣

[@chrisbacos]

As an American I can say what a great guy Sir Michael Caine

[@elswick4636]

Any reason for the "as an american"? You people can't help yourselves.

[@lohi172]

⁠@@elswick4636 I too, as an American, can say what a great guy Sir Michael Caine.

[@elswick4636]

@@lohi172 Agreed

[@grandmaisback6052]

Now that is one classy guy... to live a life where you are not ashamed of or will not allow others to make you ashamed of who you are... that is real class...

[@milton7763]

This idea of it coming from both/all sides is an important one. What I found throughout my life, is how people will very often have a the presumption of what people ‘on the other side’ think about them. Often without any real basis

[@rickyb5499]

I love this guy and could listen to him all day. Just the best 🥃🇬🇧

[@justdoitsolutions269]

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"

[@ThursoBerwick]

"Real lady" often refers to someone's manners though, not their socio-economic stsatus.

[@1258-Eckhart]

They vote for Etonians because they're "real gentlemen". Class deference.

[@MissZiggys]

A "real lady" would have a personal driver.

[@liamedwards8394]

I had the pleasure of meeting this legend last year at an event in London, my acting inspiration.

[@bigjramplin1]

National Treasure!!

[@elcid7549]

International treasure..

[@WillSavage]

As an englishman living in Switzerland, my friends, neighbours, colleagues etc are all baffled when I tell them that class in Britain will have just as much influence (sometimes more) on your accent than where you are from. I know middle or middle/upper class people from Cumbria, the Scottish borders, the Gower, Cornwall, Lancashire and North Wales who all sound fairly alike (tiny differences) simply because they all come from broadly the same social class. If you speak to working class people from all these areas they will sound drastically different because the location will influence their accent more than their social class.

[@czechmeoutbabe1997]

This! I went to a posh school in England but the poshest people there were Scottish, it shocked me to understand that not only did they not sound like what I expected them to, but that they spoke with the *highest* level RP possible.

[@theemperorofindia1403]

Yeah man I sort of subtly cringe when I hear someone who I swear could be from the posher parts of my home town turn around and tell me they're actually from like Wales or up North (I'm from Essex), but they speak dead identical to someone from say Chelsea or Surrey. Mental

[@CroisMoi]

I had wondered why Scottish lords don’t have much of a Scottish accent. I’m always disappointed. 🌷

[@karenscigliano9787]

I'm here to listen to Michael Caine's voice💓I love him & his accent & his attitude😍

[@smallbluemachine]

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.

[@seansmith445]

The economic decline is caused by high taxes, big government and lack of long term investment, nothing to do with the class system.

[@maknavickas]

@@seansmith445 It's the social contract being broken, the old deal was that the upper class would be in charge and the lower class would listen. The reward would be that the upper class would ensure continued economic growth and military might globally and those forces would provide for good social services for the lower. class back home. Since the British upper class got defeated all over the world by native peoples and decided to become largely traitors to their own people transform into countryless international capitalists and financiers, and collaborate with wealthy foreigners to fight against their own people. Once people stopped being in ideas like nationalism, racism, and colonialism there became no reason for the rich English to view the poor English any differently from the poor of the rest of the world. The poor English were betrayed and never received the spoils from the world conquests and industrial might that their service and labor provided the country. They get no higher legal status than a refugee shows up into the country on a raft.

[@JJ-fr2ki]

This still exists!!! I went to Oxford as an academic but knew an architect who worked with builders who I met on site, and a female hairdresser in Oxford, and was astonished by the classism which even separates people in pubs. It is also subtle. And if a foreigner is introduced to someone and the classist host doesn’t think the foreigner will recognize the class you get informed! Finally, British academics have a habit of unprompted telling you famous people they are related to. It got so absurd on a second trip with an American to a conference we played a game to count who would meet more academics related to Darwin. Btw… If a descendent of Darwin was one’s nanny, that counts! And they bring they up. It is even in a biography of the philosopher Frank Ramsey.

[@aftonair]

I like him even more now.

[@joeviking61]

My absolute favorite Actor of all time. He was fantastic in everything he did. If I see Michael Caine listed in a movie, I watch it, and I'm American.

[@danmurphy9480]

Your place is where you choose to place yourself! It took me years to finally accept that about myself.

[@THEKILLERWHALE]

The happy ending to this story is that he was finally able to add that turret to his house in Windsor.

[@grizwoldphantasia5005]

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]

No British person calls themselves “low class” 🙄

[@grizwoldphantasia5005]

@@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.

[@karl-heinzblass6098]

@@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. ??

[@chipcook5346]

Tall Poppy Syndrome. Worse in Australia and New Zealand than in the UK.

[@BeautifulDove-i7u]

Oh my

[@margaretgreenwood4243]

Absolutely Mr Caine. This was called 'Front' when I grew up in the Stepney Docks 💪 with the Best of Men, the Eastenders

[@blackphillipppp]

This is very ahead of its time.

[@johnryan5582]

I love this man he is just such a real human being who doesn't put on any fronts what you see is what you get and that ladies and gentlemen is a dying breed.

[@chrisstewart8259]

I left the UK permanently in 1975 & this was one of the reasons why.

[@msr1116]

Where did/do you feel most comfortable ?

[@faisalmemon285]

Where are you now?

[@Sirinwara]

@@faisalmemon285 North Korea

[@faisalmemon285]

@@Sirinwara Yes. When it comes to not living in England, there is no place like North Korea.

[@sharonyoxall7553]

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 🤷‍♀️

[@benavidesruiz]

How clever and clear he explains that question!!

[@rfsalad4118]

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.

[@PippaRilley]

😂 Do you mind the sketch Two Ronnie's & John Cleese did, just as you commented. Brilliant.

[@lindsayheywood7195]

@@PippaRilley that was a brilliant sketch. And so true.

[@CursedWheelieBin]

Working class will treat middle class with destain too

[@rfsalad4118]

@@PippaRilley I haven't seen that one. I will look for it though.

[@juniorjames7076]

I remember back in college in the '90s, every visiting student or visiting Professor from the UK would tell me how great it was to be in the United States where no one could tell their accents. Nobody could tell if they were from Liverpool or Manchester or if their accent was "posh" or Cockney- they were just British and it was liberating for them!

[@CaptPoco]

There you go, bringing CLASS into it again!

[@Jon77Levy]

That's what it's all ABOUT! If ONLY people would LISTEN -

[@civlyzed]

I'm being repressed!

[@cessna1729]

What a great actor and man. I love his passion!

[@mireklalas]

The British love to hate the British class distinctions. This makes them distinctly British.

[@deanoallen5096]

This guy is a national treasure. One of my all time favorite actors.

[@asmrcarousel]

I'm not British and there's no such thing in my country. I don't particularly like my country but at least that's one thing to appreciate. What a depressing thing about British society... disappointing really. People thinking they're better than others based on things that don't matter and don't necessarily mean anything. In my language there's this saying, "quem vê caras não vê corações", meaning "you see faces but you can't see hearts".

[@riobabic8960]

My mother was born in England in 1939 to a working class family of ten kids ! She came to Canada in 1959 and has always said she doesn’t like the class system of the UK. She actually took to my father’s Croatian background with ease !

[@TechboyUK]

He has stayed true to his word 👍

[@Leonardqh5kp]

Wonderful gentleman our Michael

[@papadampreach]

This dude does an amazing Michael Caine

[@randolphpinkle4482]

Aye, that he does, but a wee bit young.

[@irenewilm8900]

Love this man, a great actor and love all his movied

[@alisheriff9289]

That is one of the reasons why immigration to the US had so much appeal.

[@chrisholds1]

Thanks for this! He's a true gentleman.

[@regplasma7906]

When the brilliant Michael Caine looked more like Michael Caine than Michael Caine.

[@Losrandir]

Whuh?

[@BrandonLeeBrown]

I had a British neighbor here in America and she was here for 5 years before visiting the UK again. She said she didn't realize how strong the class separation is in the UK, until after she lived in America for 5 years.

[@davidk7212]

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.

[@redtobertshateshandles]

Well, they're not upper class. Old chap. 😂

[@DenkyManner]

Deeply intellectual and emotionally intelligent person.

[@miamijim5964]

I was born in East London and grew up in Essex, I went to a Comprehensive school and failed most of my exams... I was in all honesty useless at school... at 15 I went to work as a Tea Boy for a firm of solicitors and at 16 was made a clerk... for the next few years I was to travel to London delivering documents to the High Court and to Barristers around Lincoln's Inn... I dressed as well as I could and tried to speak less Essex... at 21 I travelled the USA on my own by Bus and found that a correct English accent got me a lot further than would my OG Essex accent.... by the time I was 28 I was invited to dinner at the Athenaeum Club in London and did not stand out against the diners there.. diners that included the Lord Chief Justice and other ranking individuals, I have never been anything other than who I am, I have never pretended to be from somewhere I am not (bar speaking less Estuary English) … but politeness, and a well presented manner will open a lot of doors.

[@karlscher5170]

Bootlicker

[@miriamhavard7621]

I love this man. A TREASURE!!!!! 💗💖💖💖💖💖💗

[@NoName-jq7tj]

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.

[@wozslater7695]

Can just hear Eric Idle saying 'That's a great story Guv, pity about the Knighthood Huh?'🙂

[@ingramdw1]

Ah, England. The land where everyone has a place and by God you better be in it.

[@willc1294]

SHE WAS ONLY 16! ....16! 😂😂

[@NoName-jq7tj]

Ah England where everyone was once a German hence Anglo Saxons.

[@ivok9846]

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....

[@ivok9846]

@@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....

[@ThursoBerwick]

​@@NoName-jq7tjNo, the Anglo-Saxons were late arrivals. Try the Cornish and Welsh. Pre-Roman.

[@Stevie_GMT]

Now I love him even more.

[@thedarkhugheshughes2640]

Well said Michael money shouldn’t define anyone

[@lewisham]

Class in the UK is separate to money. He had money but was still seen as lower class.

[@thedarkhugheshughes2640]

@ it really isn’t when you think about it, the so called middle and upper class wouldn’t be living from day to day and therefore money changes that, everything in the world is based on money and greed it’s horrible

[@GK-fq3cy]

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

[@justanothergunnerd8128]

As if I needed more reasons to like Mr. Caine - what a man!

[@denverlove]

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!!!

[@johnpatrick5307]

Lack of intelligence.

[@CursedWheelieBin]

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

[@CanadianMonarchist]

@@denverlove Americans just watch The Real Housewives.

[@denverlove]

@Eddievonnosy Very insightful Eddie. True, the ruling elite wants us to believe immigrants are the problem.

[@auberginemanproductions1608]

I don't think the phenomenon is exclusive to the UK, we just dressed it up in a crown and sceptre, you dressed it up in a suit and tie. Every culture has those muppets who are fanatical about the rich, powerful and "upper-class" when those upper class people couldn't give a toss

[@transporter8884]

His autobiography is a great read.

[@grandmaisback6052]

thanks for the tip... I will look for it

[@carljohnson1997]

Very well said Michael best wishes to you and your family ❤

[@abstractronnie]

Thanks love. Michael here.

[@PaperbackWizard]

You really have to possess a firm understanding of that mentality in order to portray it, from any point of view. While watching this video, I was reminded of the character he portrays in "Miss Congeniality" and the disdain that character has for Sandra Bullock's "lack of refinement". Michael Caine is such a great actor because he understands humanity so well.

[@ddewittfulton]

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!

[@sichere]

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.

[@affectionatepunch]

Your bang on mate

[@gradyparsons6678]

The problem they have is called paedophilia.

[@RickDeckard6531]

He still does.

[@QEDCap]

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 😂

[@markc.1816]

LEG-END... One of the best to ever do it.

[@johnrofsocalgroover2645]

He is just an über rich tory so far from his roots its unimaginable

[@somecontrol268]

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.

[@krishnan-resurrection714]

first and foremost was a freemason . .

[@limeyhooligan2536]

When I took the Oral English exam in British high school, I scored a "D", so my cockney accent was very bad as a teenager. Now that I live in the States and look back, I can certainly see the ingrained class distinctions in the UK based on how you speak. In fact my British cousin married into wealth, and being from east London working class she had to quickly improve her elocution to "blend in" with her new circle of friends. My sister attended the wedding, and while mingling with the guests she was asked where she was from, Australia? Even though she grew up her whole life about 30 minutes down the road from the event. Just shows how UK classes really don't mingle socially - it's got to be the most segregated in the world due to the country's history and added aspects like land ownership and titles passed down from generation to generation.

[@toni25681]

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.

[@CursedWheelieBin]

That’s not what we’re talking about mate 😂

[@toni25681]

@CursedWheelieBin It was Michael Cane who was talking mate.

[@RyanDoctor-xh5qd]

Yankee Doodle went to town, Riding on a pony, Stuck a feather in his cap, And called it macaroni

[@Celticsamuraiblue]

Britain is DONE , FINISHED 👎🏻🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☮️🇪🇺😎

[@joanneorwell9680]

Hear hear well said Michael some of the most famous stars are from working class backgrounds. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@AmusementPerks]

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!

[@TheSaltydog07]

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. 🌹

[@thesexygrandpacollective]

But… how good is the queen?

[@paulcadman6051]

Roehampton eh? You stuck up so and so !😂

[@pascalnorvins2187]

He had class and that’s all that counts

[@fiachramaccana280]

Its not about money. Its about race. The upper class are mostly Norman....the rest mostly Anglo Saxon. The Normans choose to forget they are descended from Viking yobboes!!

[@suchanhachan]

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...

[@louisewilliams7492]

Absolutely! This has passed through my mind too. I rather incline to the latter but the former will also be true.

[@nopejoeandangie]

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

[@cerdic6586]

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.

[@carolgiangreco6548]

A group of young men making fun of Kate to William for any reason shows a complete lack of any class.

[@msr1116]

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.

[@nooshoff]

Love it, he was ahead of his time

[@roberttrott5259]

It is interesting that he says it is difficult to explain the class system to the English. It is impossible to explain it to Americans, Canadians and Australians. Slightly less to Australians, perhaps, since so much of life there exists around a vestigial class resentment exhibited by the "tall poppy syndrome". One of the odd things is that Americans have gotten this idea that all English accents display intelligence and sophistication without understanding that every one of them has its own stigma whether it is to display its owner as incredibly vulgar or disgustingly "posh" depending on the viewpoint of the listener.

[@hannotn]

There's some validity in that notion, though. I'm a working class New Zealander, but highly educated and I find most working class people very limiting to talk to. They tend not to be interested in much outside their daily experience and have a minimal vocabulary. It's part of an anti-intellectual cultural norm present in many/most working class people around the world.

[@sharonyoxall7553]

Like trying to explain water to a fish, perhaps?