Doon Mackichan is an actor known for appearing in a huge array of shows, including Smack the Pony, The Day Today, Plebs, Two Doors Down and Toast of London. She has also starred in numerous stage shows across the UK.

She spoke to Tes about her school days in London and Scotland, including how her English teacher, Mr MacKay, helped uncover her natural acting talents, how she used her comedy impressions to impress other pupils and a very surreal trip back to her former school.

1. What are your memories of primary school?

Primary school wasn’t the best. I did feel a bit like the girl on the edge of the playground. I don’t know why but I found it quite hard to fit in.

I remember once getting out of the car and I was late, I was feeling sick and I didn’t want to go in. I was running and one of the women at the gates said: “Oh, what’s the matter darling, do you feel ill?” And I thought: “Yes, yes, I’m ill.” So I turned around, ran back to my mum and chased her car. And I remember we went out that day for a Chinese meal with her friend Penny, which was the most unbelievable thing. It was just utter luxury.

2. Was secondary school a different experience?

Well, we moved from Surrey to Scotland, to the middle of nowhere, so I was suddenly at a big state school on the outskirts of St Andrews and that was terrifying.

That first school I went to was called Kilrymont and it was a kind of feeder school to something called Madras College, which was a much more beautiful cloistered school in St Andrews.

But my test at Kilrymont [to see if I could attend Madras College] was a maths test that I failed horrifically and so I ended up in the bottom stream for everything [at Kilrymont].

But then, one day, one of the teachers realised I could speak fluent French, because I’d been sent off to France to live when I was younger, and then there was a creative writing [assignment] and I wrote a story that everyone got excited about. So I was moved to the other school after a year or so.

3. Was there a teacher there, too, who helped you to settle into school?

My English teacher, Mr MacKay, who had just joined the school, encouraged me to join the drama group.

I remember his first class on Macbeth and he asked something like: “What’s the point of literature?” And I put my hand up and said: “So we can get into the heads of the characters.” And that’s when he said: “I think you should join the drama group.”

And the very last thing I wanted to do, really, was to raise my head above the parapet. But [in my first role] I was able to play a kind of bitchy queen with an English accent in a Brecht play, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and I absolutely loved it, the whole experience.

4. Have you kept in touch with Mr MacKay?

When I left that school after O levels, he and I kept in contact. He became the headmaster of the school and now he’s retired.

He comes and sees all the shows that I do and he’s a great friend, so he’s my best teacher, obviously. He’s been down to see me in Twelfth Night at the National Theatre and he comes and sees me when I’m filming because I film a sitcom called Two Doors Down every year in Scotland. I am very grateful to him.

5. Have you ever been back to the school?

I went back and visited the first school, Kilrymont. It had been condemned for asbestos but I walked the corridors and there was a lone guy practising his bagpipes in the playground. It was so weird and eerie.

When we would usually arrive at school, there’d be a thousand kids trying to push through the doors and I remember being utterly terrified on my first day, stuck in the middle of them all, and then you’d go through the doors and it was sort of like a riot - so it was very surreal to walk the corridors of that school.

6. Were you popular at secondary school?

I used to hide in the toilets and I did get kind of - not beaten up - but pushed around and pushed over. But then I just remember using comedy [to deflect this]. I made this girl called Ann Cameron laugh by doing impressions of Basil and Sibyl Fawlty.

My mum had dressed me in these hilarious thermal bloomers to keep me warm, because it was so freezing but you weren’t allowed to wear tights or leggings. So [these girls] were throwing my skirt up going “let’s get a look at your bloomers” and I launched into my Basil Fawlty impression, and I just remember thinking, “Wow, that is my absolute get-out-of-jail-free card”.

7. Was the food good at the school?

The ice-cream van used to come up, and we would have one pence, and we’d go and buy a bubbly [ice cream], and that was just a huge luxury.

And for lunch, I remember when I was at Madras College, I would go out with my naughty mates. We would get a buttered roll and a packet of crisps, and then buy cigarettes. That was our lunch - a roll with crisps and a cigarette. Heady days.

8. Have teachers inspired any of your comedy?

Oh, my God, of course - many times I’ve played teachers. I tend to channel two or three people when I’m working on a character and I’m thinking, “Well, I’ve got a bit of her body language and I’ve got her tone of voice, and I’m definitely going to use her clothes.”

So teachers were the very first people I did impressions of. I began as a mimic; I’m nothing more than a sort of parrot, really - I just would get a voice and be able to do it.

It must have been such a nightmare for teachers because I was just, sort of, the class clown as I got more confident. I was a bit out of order, really!

9. So, did you ever get into trouble?

There was an incident where we all thought it was incredibly clever that we would go shoplifting and get biscuits. We’d stick the biscuits up our sleeves and think that we were just the most brilliant Bonnie and Clyde-type of thieves, and we’d come running out going, “We’ve got the biscuits! we’ve got the biscuits!”

And then we were all sitting in assembly and the headmistress said: “It’s come to our attention that some of the girls have been shoplifting.” And we just got hysterical giggles, so it was obvious that it was us. I mean, they couldn’t prove it. But that stopped after that.

10. It sounds like school was quite tough at times, but did you enjoy it overall?

I’m kind of glad I went to that school - it’s informed a lot of what I’ve done - and I’ve ended up in a hugely popular Scottish sitcom [Two Doors Down], even though I’m English.

We can’t change the things that happen, but we can put them to good use in the way we live our lives when we’re writing about it or passing it on to other generations.

Doon Mackichan was talking to Dan Worth, senior editor at Tes

This article originally appeared in the 11 June 2021 issue