Caine blasts cockney racism

London-born actor Michael Caine claims he suffers racial prejudice because of his working class roots and cockney accent.

The Oscar winner fumes when people presume he has it easy because he frequently plays people with a similar accent to his own.

Caine says: "I play a butler in Batman and this interviewer said to me, 'I thought you were wonderful in Batman.' And I said, 'Thank you very much.' And then he said, 'But then servants are easier to play, aren't they?' And that's the closest he ever came to death, I could have strangled him! But I smiled. He thought that servants were simple, working class people, were simple.

"I have people say to me, I thought you were good in that part but it must have been easy, you had a cockney accent. And I say, so there are about a million cockneys and you think we're all exactly the same do you? Do you realise what a racist remark that is?

"All black people can dance. Two of my best friends are black and they can't dance. Sydney Poitier and Quincy Jones. I dance better than they do. And I can't dance!"