Peter Capaldi: There's something wrong with Glasgow

Speaking about the city today, he said: "I can't help feeling like something has gone a bit backwards."

Mr Capaldi was born in Glasgow in 1958, spending his formative years living in a tenement flat on Keppochhill Road, in Springburn.

The 67-year-old reflected on his "blissful" childhood surrounded by family in the post-war era.

"I didn't grow up in poverty," he said, adding: "My parents didn't have very much money, but they had enough."

But Mr Capaldi saw classmates at St Teresa's Primary School struggle with poverty.

"When I look at the school photographs from St Teresa's Primary School, there are clearly some kids there who were kind of in rags, almost Victorian, while most of the kids were well turned out," he said.

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Those experiences have led him to campaign, predominately with charity Magic Breakfast, to ensure children do not go to school hungry.

He added: “We were close enough that I would come back from school for lunch but I was conscious of people at school who had dinner tickets.

“There was something made of the fact that there were kids getting free meals, unkindly, the way kids often are.

“I think there were a lot of poor kids there at the school. We were conscious of that but I don’t remember becoming involved in any conscious cruelty about it but I felt sorry for the kids.

“I think the stigma of it is awful. The idea that children will become anxious about their status just simply because they can’t get food is awful. It’s an added worry.”

The Oscar and Bafta award-winning actor may not have his own story of growing up poor but there is something about the fact the issue still exists today that makes Mr Capaldi visibly angry.

In Scotland, 22% of children live in relative poverty while more than 80,000 young people are considered to be in “very deep poverty”, where they lack the basic essentials like food, clothing and heating.

Mr Capaldi visited schools alongside Magic Breakfast, where the reality of poverty immediately hit him.

“I was horrified that there were so many kids that didn’t have breakfast, that were still in this day and age, facing that issue. It seems absolutely ridiculous,” he said.

“I think breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day and it’s a place where you can get your head together and prepares for the day. A lot of kids are clearly not having that.

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“It’s just immoral that there are kids that are hungry anywhere but that we should have it here in our country that think so much of itself, that kids are walking about hungry, it’s scandalous.

“It’s really simple. There shouldn’t be any children who are hungry. It’s happening in your street, around the corner, all of these schools out there.

“The numbers are staggering in Scotland today.”

A particular source of issue with Mr Capaldi was that a November 2020 pledge by the SNP to fund universal free breakfasts was never realised.

A £3 million scheme was announced in the 2025-26 budget - but Magic Breakfast warns there needs to be a comprehensive plan.

Backing that call, Mr Capaldi said: "When I think back to my own childhood, I just keep thinking about that photograph of all the kids and how poor some of them were. It was a really hard time.

"But now, it's shocking from the statistics, really, to recognise how many children there are in Scotland who are going to school without being fed, without breakfast.

"I would like whoever the next Scottish Government is to recognise the urgency of this situation.

"It's not something that can be placed at the backburner because the hungry children woke up this morning hungry and is going to wake up tomorrow morning hungry unless the government does something about it."

He added: "You can’t have hungry children in a place that’s got these big football teams and rock bands and stadiums and posh restaurants and all of this stuff – a world which I happily inhabit. But you can’t, it’s shameful.

“This isn’t even about an improvement of society. It’s a gaping hole in the structure of our community that there are children who are going to school with no breakfast.

“Governments who have children go to school hungry is a betrayal of the responsibility.”

Mr Capaldi reflects fondly on his own childhood but told The Herald on Sunday that something is now missing from the city he once called home.

"Scotland has many, many wonderful things going on that I am deeply proud of but there still remains problems that exist in that tenement that I was in. They're still there today.

“These social issues have to be addressed. I understand that governing is complicated but there are just somethings that you need.”

He added: “I can’t quite put my finger on it but there is a lack of something – a gap that has opened up. Perhaps it's true of the whole of the UK.

“There has been a regression. The forward momentum has gone.

“The post-war ethos was very powerful, it drove things for 20 years to move forward from the utter destruction of the world wars but that has been forgotten and lost in a fog and in a frenzy of opinion.”

Mr Capaldi also backed The Herald's child poverty campaign, alongside more than 23 anti-poverty charities, which called on the Scottish Government to increase the Scottish Child Payment from £27.15 to £40 per week.

It also urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child benefit cap.