Simon Farnaby is an actor and writer who is best known for appearing in shows such as Ghosts, Detectorists and Horrible Histories, and for co-writing the smash-hit film Paddington 2. He has also written a series of children’s book, the latest instalment of which, The Warrior in My Wardrobe, is out now.

He spoke to Tes about his memories of school, recalling the English teacher who helped him to pursue his love of writing, the art competition he won without being very good at art, and why he wasn’t the biggest fan of school trips.

1. Where did you go to primary school?

I went to Croft CofE [Church of England], which is in a little village near Darlington, and the school is in the centre of the village and there’s only one way in, one way out of the village. So it was a very quiet place to go.

My daughter is at school in London and my mum sent some photos of my school days. [My daughter] looked at this photo [of] me and about 15 other kids, and she said, “Dad, your class was really small,” and I said, “That’s the whole school!”

2. What was it like, going to such a small school?

It was great because the school was opposite a street called South Parade and most of the kids [at the school] lived on that street, and I was friends with four or five of them, and the parents all knew each other, too. The school would have bring-and-buy sales and jumble sales, usually encouraged by Blue Peter, so it really was the hub of the community.

3. Were there any teachers there who you remember?

Mrs Garwood, she was my first teacher - she was great and quite strict, but nice, and I wanted to please her. Then we had Mrs Cameron, who was also lovely. And then, for Class One, as it used to be called then, was Mrs Day. She was quite hard, very harsh, but fair. So those are my three teachers. I can’t remember what they taught, but it seemed to work alright.

4. Overall, then, did you enjoy primary school?

When I was at primary school I wasn’t really worried about anything. I just went, “Oh, this is what you’re supposed to do,” and learned it, and I was good at some things, not so good at others. I do remember art being quite good; I wasn’t actually very good at drawing, but I miraculously won a county-wide art competition because I painted this space station, which didn’t require much…It was just sort of scaffolding and a moon, and that was quite easy for me because I could do straight lines. I wasn’t very good at drawing horses or anything like that.

5. Where did you go to secondary school?

I went to Richmond comprehensive; it used to take us an hour to get there on a bus. My daughter still can’t believe this. You used to get the bus at [7.50am]…It’s not actually that far [to Richmond] but it went really slowly and picked up kids on the way from, like, farms and stuff. So kids would come to the end of their [lane].

6. How did you find the transition from primary to secondary?

I remember when I got my first bit of homework in the first [year], and going “What is this?!” I was supposed to have done school! Now that is considered normal, but for me, that was the most surprising thing.

7. Was there a teacher at the school who inspired you?

English was all I was interested in. I had an English teacher called Miss Rushton, and she really opened my eyes because up until that point you got given books and you had to read them…but she encouraged us to find things that we liked.

I had an older brother who was into literature so I’d go into his room and pick out things from the shelves, and I [saw books by] Oscar Wilde and I knew he was sort of a controversial figure for some reason. He was naughty, or he’d been in prison, so I thought “he seems quite cool”. And I got really into Oscar Wilde, and Miss Rushton allowed me to do essays on Oscar Wilde rather than things like Shakespeare. She was quite a rebellious teacher like that, and we all thought she was great for that - she was really cool.

8. Did she help you develop your writing skills?

Absolutely, yeah. I think I once did a poem that was supposed to be mine and it was actually sort of a rip-off of [Philip Larkin’s] The Whitsun Weddings, and I think Miss Rushton pulled me up on it. But then instead of tearing me apart, she said, “This is a good example of finding things you like and then making them your own because that’s what artists do: they look for inspiration and they make original things.”

9. Did you ever perform in any plays at school?

Yes, I did school plays, which was great. At primary school it was just the nativity and that sort of thing, but at secondary school I started doing drama. There was an after-school club and I used to do everything I could in terms of getting involved with plays - I quite enjoyed making people laugh and being in front of an audience.

10. Did you ever go on any good school trips?

School trips were always some of the worst experiences I can remember! They were always to some windy place…I remember we went to a place called Brimham Rocks, and we went to a monastery and we went to Hadrian’s Wall, and they were all the same - you had to bring a cagoule because it was guaranteed to rain. You were never told to bring a sun hat. And you had to bring a packed lunch. And all I remember is rustling cagoules and huddling under rocks eating soggy sandwiches, and just thinking “I can’t wait to get back on the bus!”

The Warrior in My Wardrobe by Simon Farnaby is out now, published by Hachette. He was talking to Tes senior editor Dan Worth. You can listen to the full interview here

This article originally appeared in the 15 October 2021 issue