Sir Ian McKellen sweeps into Golborne High School, long coat flapping and surrounded by a crowd of excited pupils. The great knight of stage and screen – and famous son of Wigan – stops at a poster that proclaims ‘Some People are Gay. Get Over It’.
“That’s brilliant,” booms the actor. He’s bringing a message of tolerance to young people, supporting the council’s anti-bullying initiative. “When I was growing up in Wigan in the 1940s, the word ‘gay’ had not even been invented,” he says. “I knew that if I was open about my sexuality when I was young, I could be put in prison – and people are still being hanged for it even today.”
A guest of Golborne High for the day, Sir Ian is visibly moved by what the children and teachers there are doing to raise awareness of homophobia and all aspects of bullying which can blight the childhoods and future chances of so many people.
The school is running an anti-bullying pilot in conjunction with the council and Stonewall, the group who lobby against homophobic behaviour.
You can change the world you know. That is why you are here.
And the pupils have really taken it to heart with a huge variety of projects as part of their GCSEs and BTECs. They have been using their multi media skills to create a DVD called ‘Same Difference’, and Year 10 treated Sir Ian to a performance of a thought provoking drama about bullying.
Later on during his full day at the school, The Lord of the Rings star stunned the school council with a powerful and moving private performance as Sir Thomas More, in his speech on tolerance which is said to have been penned by Shakespeare. But the actor was himself moved to tears by the discussion he had with them.
In a wide ranging discussion on his career and convictions, Sir Ian praised the pupils’ knowledge and maturity, and was enthusiastic about the work being done by the council in combating all kinds of bullying in the classroom, and how far things have moved on since he was at school.
The actor turns 70 this year, and recalled the many changes in society’s attitudes to minorities since he was growing up.
Sir Ian spoke of his love of theatre as a child, although it was the patter and showmanship of local market traders which first caught his attention and triggered the performer in him.
Bitten by the bug, as a boy Sir Ian attended Wigan Little Theatre to see shows. “I enjoyed it so much that I thought I’d better find out what it was like,” he smiles. “But after going to see the Royal Shakespeare Company, I didn’t think I would be good enough”.
This from a man who was to successfully play some of the most demanding roles in theatre, Shakespeare’s troubled Kings Richard III, Macbeth and Lear. But it was his starring role as the wizard Gandalf in the trilogy of Tolkien movies that brought wider recognition with many younger people and the actor was happy to sign all manner of discs and photographs which the Golborne pupils had brought with them.
He encouraged the children to aim high. “You can change the world you know,” he told the school council. “That is why you are here.”
Impressed by the detailed questions the children asked him on politics, literature and social change, Sir Ian was determined everyone understood that he wasn’t there to promote being gay: “I am promoting being at ease with being gay. We need to make everyone feel secure and a part of society.
Sir Ian discussed with school leaders about how the adolescents are supported as they mature, and who they can look to in school for advice and guidance.
He finally came out as gay in 1988 and has since become a founding member of and prominent spokesman for Stonewall.
The intolerance, or lack of understanding, from previous generations, was something he is anxious is not repeated in modern times, and Sir Ian was stunned by the work already done in the borough to move beyond past prejudices.
Regarding the bullying he had experienced in the past, the actor muses: “The closet is for old clothes and spiders. You don’t want to live in there.” Looking at the children sat with him in class, he advises them simply: “Follow your feelings.”
Golborne High School’s Kirsty Macey said she was proud of the way pupils and international star had mixed: “Sir Ian was incredibly impressed with all our anti-bullying work and took time to congratulate all staff and pupils on their awareness raising. It reinforced the emphasis we put on quality relationships and mutual respect. The day’s events will really help us in the next stage of our development”.
Sir Ian is fast becoming an unofficial ambassador for Wigan borough as a tolerant and diverse community.
And he’s happy to embrace that. At the end of a long and busy school day, he declares loudly: “I love Golborne High! Here in Wigan, with the support of schools and the council, society is changing for the better.”
If you are being bullied, free online advice and confidential counselling is available from the council-backed Kooth (external link), especially for 11-25 year olds.
Sir Ian McKellen factfile
- Born in Burnley in 1939, Ian McKellen grew up in a modest house opposite Wigan’s Mesnes Park, in the 1940s.
- His father was Wigan’s borough engineer and he went to the Wesleyan school and then on to Wigan Grammar School before the family moved to Bolton when he was 12.
- He got his first taste of Shakespeare in Wigan. His sister took him to see Twelfth Night at Wigan Little Theatre, shortly followed by Macbeth and Wigan High School for Girls' production of A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Sir Ian returned to Wigan in 2003 to open the rose garden in Mesnes Park. He said at the time: “When I hear the name of Wigan mentioned I feel a tug on my heart. So much good has come out of this town.”
- His earliest theatre credits came as an undergraduate in Cambridge, and soon led to repertory success in the 1960s in A Man for All Seasons and works by Bernard Shaw and Keith Waterhouse.
- Joining the Royal Shakespeare company in 1974, he appeared in Romeo and Juliet and The Winter’s Tale. A notable television Macbeth in 1979 brought much wider popularity, culminating in Hollywood epics with Schwarzenegger, Patrick Stewart and Daniel Craig.
- In 2001, he played the part of Gandalf for the first time in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (as he expects to in the prequel story, The Hobbit) and Magneto in the Hollywood blockbuster the X-Men.
- Sir Ian will soon be seen on screen in the modern version of 60s cult classic, The Prisoner.
