it is not billy elliot, not the hollywood story where i faced resistance all the time from teachers orought it was brilliant. they loved coming to see me appear in a school play. they'd not think it was silly, nor non— masculine, any of those things you normally associate with the arts in working—class communities. i remember my mother burst into tears when i got on a train for the first time to head to london, because you didn't go to london from nottinghamshire, when i was moving down here. the only reason i am now a playwright with, fortunately, having plays on broadway or having tv dramas and films in america and finding myself at the emmy awards last year in hollywood is because i went to a comprehensive school with the teacher who thought that working—class kids should read plays and that is the only reason i am doing what i do today. and yet in a funny sort of way, you are not really a political writer. you do not have, it seems to me, a strong political set of views which colour all of your work. it is more that you are trying to find the humanity in politics. is that true? i s