Morrissey, whose father was a cobbler and whose mother worked for Littlewoods, agrees, but adds that acting is not the only profession closed to many young people.
The legal profession closed ranks and defended Goddard's reputation against Levin's attacks.
The home state of the secretary of education should be leading the way in enacting reforms, especially when they are as straightforward as using data to track student growth, finding ways to recruit non-educators into the profession and closing down failing schools.
But most other professions were closed to women.
As a man of mixed-race — a black father, a South Asian mother — many professions were closed to him.
A new national internship scheme is intended to get young people into professions otherwise closed to all but those who know people in the field or "your father's friends", in Nick Clegg's words.
Alternatively, if a serious sex conviction should cost a footballer his entire career (along with the professions routinely closed to sex offenders) then a similar vigilance should, surely, be applied to discernible sleazebaggery in any other profession, from whistleblowing to royal work, where clemency might be mistaken for approval.
He writes movingly of Jenny Hill (1848 96): "She was more than a great performer – she was a feminist trail-blazer, a professional success, at a time when women could neither vote nor borrow money without a male guarantor; when the professions were closed to them and their only employment choices were low-paid factory or shop-work, or domestic service.
He readily acknowledges that few blacks attend his performances and adds that there has been opposition to his chosen profession closer to home.
"There is so much I don't know about Francis, so much that I'm learning... I've always thought that the profession closest to that of an actor is being a detective.
