Bloody hell, look at the time [starts laughing immediately]. I’ve got to be somewhere in half an hour, but how are you, my lovely? Right, my best teacher. I’ve got two and I can’t pick between them, so please don’t make me.

There was Mr Clegg and he started at Wandsworth Boys secondary on the same day that I did, so we had a bit of a connection from the get-go. He was a music teacher who had an amazing influence on me. He had this ability to make every pupil feel instantly comfortable, had a great sense of humour and later on in life I believe he became the head of the lower school. But far more importantly, a few years after we’d left school, we were able to have a pint with him in the Gardener’s Arms, in Merton. Every time we walked into that pub, Mr Clegg would be propping up the bar [more laughter].

I’m pretty sure he had a bit of a crush on my mum, if I remember rightly. My mum would send me in to school with baked, spiced buns, Caribbean-style, and I think he enjoyed that. So I was a bit of a fave of his and sometimes, if I got into trouble with him, I didn’t get detention, just a bit of a glare - which was alright by me. He would say in the pub, years later, that he’d look at me as if he was ready to hand out a detention, “but Harriott,” he’d say, “I’d take one look at you and I just couldn’t do it.” [More laughter now].

It was a great school, actually. I was captain of the cricket team and I loved all the sports. Academia, not necessarily my forte. I loved economics, which has never been of any use to me, but I mention it because the second teacher I need to talk about taught me it. He was called Mr Lufflam. He had the right pedagogy for me, absolutely. He was just right for my learning style, if that makes sense? He made economics so interesting, which makes it all the greater shame that I’ve never actually had to use it in my life [laughing hard now]. But I excelled at it because of him. So often teaching goes in one ear and out the other but not with Mr Lufflam - he had me hooked. I think any teacher who makes their subject interesting will have students who excel.

It was a great school, Wandsworth Boys, it really was. There were kids who were naughty enough to be at borstal and brainy enough to be at Eton. Wonderfully diverse. Some of the naughty kids were quite brilliant in their bad behaviour. I mean genuinely brilliant. One pupil [tries to suppress laughter], I’ll never forget, would hollow out a piece of chalk using a compass and he would thread a match into the hole so that it was just about hidden from view.

Any teacher who makes their subject interesting will have students who excel

When a teacher would start writing with it on the blackboard it would suddenly spark into flame [laughing hard now]. I mean that is genius, is it not? I like to think that kid went on to become a great inventor. The teacher would swing round in shock: “Who’s done this?” he’d shout [laughing like a drain] and the whole class would get detention. Totally, totally worth it. Great fun. Some teachers went through absolute hell. We had 2,000 boys at that school, so it was obviously going to be a battle at times.

But I digress. Yep, beer with Cleggers was fun: [bursts into song] “His name was Clegg, with a wooden leg” [more laughter]. A lovely, lovely man. Music teacher - I’ve told you that, haven’t I? Wonderful blond hair. Beautiful blond hair. Right, I’ve got to race off for a lunch meeting but lovely to chat to you [laughter as the phone is hung up].

Ainsley Harriott was speaking to Tom Cullen. Ainsley is an ambassador for the National Lottery Awards. Watch him present the heritage category award on National Lottery Stars, Monday 12 September on BBC One. To find out more, visit lotterygoodcauses.org.uk