Peter Capaldi on the Value of the Arts

Alex Skerratt is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

New Time Lord Peter Capaldi has spoken of his concern for school leavers of the 21st century.

In an interview with The Big Issue, the Twelfth Doctor admitted that today’s students do not have the same opportunities that he was blessed with when he was studying in Scotland in the 1970s.

“I went there at a time when you could go,” he explained. “My parents wouldn’t have been able to afford to send me to university or art school. I went at a time when you got a grant.

“It may sound nightmarish to some people now, but the government paid for you to be educated, because they believed it was a civic responsibility. I certainly would not be here, being Doctor Who, if they hadn’t done that.

“So I find it alarming that we live in an age where it doesn’t work like that any more. That we don’t think as a society, it is worthwhile paying to help people be educated, and become the best they can be.”

Peter Capaldi has given some credit to The Glasgow School of Art for enabling him to fulfil his dream of becoming an actor, (even though he initially graduated in graphic design!)

“It is a fabulous establishment,” he stated. “The Art School – any art school – is a good place to be, generally.

“But that place, in particular, has a great atmosphere. Which comes from the fact that you have this big, meaty, industrial city which can be quite rough and tough.

“But you have in the centre of it, this great temple to art, which I think is a fabulous thing. It opens its doors to that city, and to me that is what art should be – an expression of the place and the people that it springs from.

“And obviously I had my student days there, and they were wild and crazy as they should be. But always at the Art School, you always had the sense of a kind of, if not a higher purpose, then a sense that the arts were valuable, that talents were valuable, that these were things that people had that should be developed and cherished.”

It would have been a tremendous shame had Peter Capaldi not been able to fulfil his desire to work in the film and television industry, and my DVD collection would certainly be in a much sorrier state! Whilst it is true that it is becoming increasingly difficult for school leavers to move on to higher education, it could be a few years before we see the full extent of the consequences, if indeed there are any.

Let’s champion the arts! After all, we can’t all be sporting heroes, (yours truly is the living and breathing proof of this!) What do you think Kasterborites? Are you in agreement with the Twelfth Doctor’s views on the value of the arts and higher education? Should we set our ambitions on Olympic gold medals instead of BAFTAs? Let us know.

“Football’s the one with the sticks, isn’t it?”

(Via The Sunday Times)

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