Happy Valley star James Norton criticises PM's school maths plan

Happy Valley star James Norton has hit out at government plans for pupils to study maths until they are 18, saying "we need to keep nurturing the arts".

The actor criticised PM Rishi Sunak's policy, arguing children should be able to pursue non-vocational subjects.

The PM said he wanted people to "feel confident" when it came to finances.

But speaking on a podcast about how the arts could be more open to children, Norton said the "first thing not to do" was Mr Sunak's maths to A-level plan.

Last month, the prime minister announced his proposals to combat high rates of innumeracy by ensuring all school pupils in England studied maths in some form until the age of 18.

The government has said it was drawing up options on how proposals would work, external.

But on the News Agents podcast, Norton, who grew up in North Yorkshire, said to give children the opportunity to thrive in the arts, the subjects needed to be nurtured early on.

"The most important thing is school, I guess, making sure they are supported and there are outreach programmes from centres of excellence in London and then in other big cities, and they get out to those schools and introduce kids to theatre at an early age so there's an awareness."

Drawing on his own experiences, the 37-year-old, who played villain Tommy Lee Royce in the award-winning Happy Valley, which was based in West Yorkshire and whose finale aired last weekend, said he had participated in youth theatre performances every summer.

"I went to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough for work experience one summer. So there was stuff there, it was just about finding it and making sure kids know it's there."

The actor said the UK had a strong arts and cultural legacy and shows such as Happy Valley had contributed to putting the country on the world stage.

He explained: "The way shows like Happy Valley travel over to America, it's amazing.

"I feel so proud when I go over there and random people come up to me on the street and talk to me about Hebden Bridge.

"They watch it with subtitles on, but they love it and it's an amazing advert for this country."

Norton also revealed that no Happy Valley cast or crew members other than himself and Sarah Lancashire, who played Sergeant Catherine Cawood, were aware of the dramatic ending shown on Sunday.

"No-one knew what was going to happen because they only gave the scripts to Sarah and myself and the producers who needed to know. So everyone was really excited to see what happened."

According to the BBC's overnight figures, the last 70-minute episode drew in an average audience of 7.5 million viewers.

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