I went to a bit of a ropey school. I failed my mock A levels, and it looked like things were going to go south for me. 

Until suddenly in walked to one of my English A-level classes a guy who must have been in his late forties, wearing a denim jacket and with a roll-up cigarette hanging from his lower lip. 

He set to work with Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. And, in that first hour, he transformed my life. 

‘Who is this boy?’

The school I went to was close to where I lived, and I could walk there, but the teaching was pretty poor. I lost all interest and all love of learning. I was heading downwards, at a rather remarkable rate, despite being a naturally academic child.

I made a right hash-up of my GCSEs, and ended up with pretty ropey grades: something like five Bs, a D and an E. For someone who had been in the top sets for all their classes for their entire life, that was woeful. 

I just used to disappear out from school, into the woodlands near my house. I remember having one report card saying just: “Who is this boy?”

I had a geography teacher who, for a double period on a Wednesday afternoon, would just read from the book that we all had in front of us. He would just read from it, word for word, for about two hours.

We used to have a very conservative teacher, who cut out all the bits of Romeo and Juliet related to sex and violence. All the bits that made it relevant for me. 

The voice of God

And then Rob Brown came in. He was six foot two, and he had the most extraordinary voice. (It was an unbelievably gravelly, deep voice. He has since had voice work in adverts and radio adverts, playing, among others, the voice of God.)

He took Measure for Measure - which doesn’t have any of the immediacy of Romeo and Juliet - and it absolutely came alive for me. It set my imagination alight. I remember it being more powerful than any film I’d ever seen. 

It’s hard to quantify what he did, but he was just a great storyteller. He didn’t quibble too much about what the syllabus said: all he cared about was that every single one of us wanted to pick up that book, wanted to read it, and wanted to relate to it. 

When other people taught Shakespeare, they went through it, line by line, and tried to find a modern equivalent. It’s almost like you’re translating it into modern English. We might address some of the themes, and do a little bit of the history of the time. 

Rob made it personal. It was all about the things I think and feel. It has a universality about it, which transcended place and time. That’s what makes Shakespeare still relevant today, but you need the right teacher to unlock that. 

He turned Shakespeare from meaningless words on the page to a cipher to unlock the common themes of love, fear of death and power. He linked all of us in the room back to the 1600s. 

In love with him

He played the bongos and sang in a blues band. Quite a few of us would go and hear him play in the pub. All the girls in the class were in love with him, and probably a few of the boys as well. 

He turned learning from a job - something that had to be done - to something that captivated all of us. And that mentality affected everything in my life. That forensic approach to learning - the sense of life as a puzzle that has to be solved - is all something I got from Rob. 

I’m pretty sure I only had him for three or four months, but he managed to resurrect that excitement for learning that was natural to me. I went from the kid wandering about the Surrey heaths with a dog, looking for grass snakes, to a kid who was in the library. 

In those three months, I went from a kid who had failed mocks to near enough all As in my A levels. From leaving school and going straight to a job to getting a degree at a good university, and having the career I have now. 

And I look on that moment - when Rob walked into the classroom - as being one of the key moments that transformed my life. 

All the other things that have happened in my life - all the other things I’ve personally achieved - I wouldn’t have done them if it wasn’t for Rob. I’ve no idea what I’d be doing, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as cool as what I’m doing now. 

Steve Backshall is a naturalist and television presenter, best known for the BBC series Deadly 60. 

He is an ambassador for the Scouts and the A Million Hands Campaign. Over the next four years, Scouts from across the country will tackle six of the UK’s biggest social issues, including homelessness, mental wellbeing and displaced children. Find out more at:  www.amillionhands.org.uk