I never had an affluent well connected family and public school education

And you think I did?

Born to a Polish immigrant manual worker and a shop girl in a two up two down terraced house with no bathroom. After they pulled that down, lived on council estates until I married and bought a two up two down terraced house with an upstairs bath but the toilet was downstairs and only inside by virtue of the fact that someone had built a lean to next to it. Educated in catholic primary and secondary modern. Went to 6th form but dropped out after 3 months. I didn't even get to university like some I could mention...

But let's not get into the four Yorkshiremen sketch :-)