Michael Winner: How I made it in the movie business

Michael Winner began his career as a talent agent earning less than his secretary. It took almost 20 years to make his first million, but finds investing money more of a challenge than making it.

Michael Winner, 73, has a confession to make. "I used to steal money as a child." While boarding at St Christopher's in Hertfordshire, "I would go around the boys' pockets at school and steal all their money", says the film director, who has made a bigger name for himself in recent years as the caustic food critic of The Sunday Times.

He felt so guilty that he even tried to give it back years later, via a newspaper advert. But nobody replied. "Which shows you what idiots I was in school with. One boy wrote in who wasn't at the school at all. But at least he had a brain. 'Some arsehole is handing out money, I might as well have it.'"

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