Page "Leslie Phillips" Paragraph 2

It was his mother who decided that Phillips should be sent to the Italia Conti Academy to receive elocution lessons in order to lose his natural cockney accent.

At that time a strong regional accent from any city was a major impediment to an aspiring actor.

It proved to be an astute move and by the age of 14 Phillips was the family's main breadwinner, saving his mother from squalor.