Lord Attenborough – one of the grandees of British cinema – has blamed film violence for the scourge of knife crime.

The 84-year-old star of gangland film noir Brighton Rock, who won a Best Director Oscar for the film Ghandi in 1982, backed our Knives Cost Lives campaign and said he “abhorred the pornography of violence”.

Speaking exclusively to The Argus as he prepared to retire from his role as Chancellor of the University of Sussex after ten years, Lord Attenborough said audiences had become desensitised to on-screen violence.

He said: “Thirty years ago if Gary Cooper pulled out a gun the audience would give a sharp intake of breath.

“Now the act of violence with a gun or a knife is the norm and we in the entertainment industry are partly responsible in making the presence of weapons such as knives almost an acceptable commonplace.

“So now knife crime is not thought of as something that is horrific and to be abhorred.

It’s part of normal existence.”

Although sad at leaving his post, he said it was “absolutely right” he should leave and that he would be taking up a new role forging a future for the university’s Gardner Arts Centre.

He said: “I passionately believe in the future of the centre but I think it’s lost its way. We need to discover what the people of Brighton want from it before we can take it forwards.”

Lord Attenborough, who lives in Richmond, Surrey, said he enjoyed coming to Brighton. He said: “I love the cosmopolitan feeling of Brighton. It is such a wonderful amalgam of all kinds of industries and activities and has people from all over the country.

“You immediately feel at home in Brighton. There’s a wonderful welcoming atmosphere and then of course there’s the arts. The Brighton Festival, which I was first president of, is a phenomenal achievement and the theatres here are superb.

“I love the city’s old piers and I hope that the old West Pier will be rebuilt.”

Lord Attenborough has starred in numerous films including Jurassic Park and directed A Bridge Too Far among others.

He said he preferred the cinema to the theatre but would rather direct than act because it meant he was in control of how the film would appear.

He said: “I’m bewitched by the cinema, not the theatre.

“In the theatre you have a direct relationship with the audience and you play to the audience because they are there and a part of a performance that will not be repeated again.

“But in the movies, you read a script and you act to play a certain part but at the end of the day you don’t have any particular control of that performance. Directing is my passion.”

Lord Attenborough will officially stand down today after the final graduation ceremonies are held at the Brighton Dome.

His link with the university began in 1969 when he was looking for extras to appear in his musical Oh!

What A Lovely War. He approached the then vicechancellor Asa Briggs about students appearing in the film and hundreds took part.

He was appointed a pro-chancellor in 1970 and became chancellor in 1998.

Vice-chancellor Professor Michael Farthing said Lord Attenborough had “served the university with great distinction and with tremendous energy and passion”.

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