Actress Olivia Colman has said it is hard to implement domestic violence awareness classes in private schools, the Eastern Daily Press has reported.

Colman is a patron for the charity Tender which uses the arts to promote the prevention of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Colman said: “I still find it fascinating that it’s harder to get these classes into private schools. They think they don’t have issues like that, and statistically they do.

“Just because the front door is nice, there can still be coercive, controlling, unpleasant behaviour behind that posh front door.

“You are not avoiding it by being of a higher socioeconomic background and I would love all schools to want their children to have happy lives.”

Speaking to The News Agents podcast Colman added: “You need people coming into your schools to say, ‘It’s actually not cool and it’s not funny, and to be a man who is gentle and protective is a much more impressive thing’.”

Colman said she thinks there have been changes in how people view the LGBTQ+ community, women speaking up, and attitudes towards masculinity, adding: “A masculine role model of gentleness is so much cooler, so much hotter – those people do exist. Harry Styles is a very attractive man to the women who fancy him and he is not remotely an aggressive man.”