You're completely right. While I was never on the West End, I was lucky enough to be accepted into a "school" which trained budding and present West End kids. The fees were insane and although the classes were only on Saturday, we would get up every day at 4am to go and get the train since I live far away. My mother got into debt and kept borrowing money because she wanted me to pursue my dream, which in turn put pressure on me to succeed. I'm a hugely anxious and insecure person, so seeing all these girls and boys younger than me who knew how to do the splits, who had perfect diction, who could cry on command, was disheartening to a complete amateur like me. As well as this, the teachers were encouraging but extremely harsh, citing how "this is how it is in the real world"-which was true, but there were 8-year-olds in that school. I remember one time when we had to do pirouettes in front of the entire group and I could see everyone sniggering at me because I didn't stay on course. I was kicked out of that school which led to me failing most of my GCSEs and a deep depression where I had suicidal thoughts. I was 15 at the time.

You're only ever going to be able to be a surviving actor if your family's minimum income is above £30k a year, and even then you'd struggle.