Maxine Peake: 'We're still obsessed with class'

Maxine Peake has revealed that she thinks women in acting are affected by class snobbery.

Speaking to the Radio Times, the Shameless star claimed that there was a difference between how working class men and women are received.

She said: "I remember feeling, at drama school, that if you were male and working class you were a bit of a poet, a working class hero.

"But if you were female, you were just a bit gobby and a bit brassy and common."

The actress added that people expected her to be like her Shameless character in real life because of her strong Lancashire accent.

Peake will be seen as Martha Costello in legal drama Silk, which starts next week on BBC1.

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