Wuthering Heights, Yorkshire actors and working-class stories | Letters

2026-02-19 - 17:43

We can do without another boring adaptation of repressed middle-class sexuality, whoever happens to play Cathy, says Josh Guiry. Plus a letter from Chris Goldie Angelika May rightly states that a considerable portion of working actors are privately educated (Wuthering slights: why are film-makers afraid of casting Yorkshire actors as Cathy Earnshaw?, 17 February). She neglects to mention, however, that Jessica Knappett, Wuthering Heights’ sole Bradford actor, is also privately educated. Angelika points out that “northern characters, particularly women, are coded as working class”, to which I say, there’s northing wrong with that. Working-class culture, humour and identity should be celebrated. The key is to avoid what Angelika goes on to describe as “comic, chaotic or intellectually limited”. These stereotypes are deeply rooted in the British class system, and to overcome them, working class artists must smash the structures which uphold them. Continue reading...