Forest Grange was a really quaint, posh school in a beautiful setting with a lake, just outside Horsham, Sussex. It’s now closed down. My mum and dad were obsessed with us going to private school when we were younger. Later, they couldn’t afford it any more, so we ended up going to a comprehensive.

I was very lazy. Every report said: “Fails to live up to his potential. Romesh doesn’t focus.” Dad was an accountant and used to drill me with number work.

Howard Holdsworth became my English teacher when I was 9. He was actually deputy, then head, of the school. The only experience we’d had of him was when he popped in to investigate something that had happened - like a stolen lunchbox - and he seemed terrifying.

He was a big, broad man, bald with dark stubble and glasses. He dressed like one of the farmers from Fantastic Mr Fox, which sounds really bad.

At the beginning of the year, he did this thing where he wanted to give everyone a nickname; he called me “Mr Murder” because only “strangulation” rhymed with Ranganathan…I suddenly saw a different side to him and thought, “This guy is funny.”

I remember that moment - going from being terrified to slightly falling in love with him - because it was such a fun first lesson. He started talking about English in this really exciting and amazing way.

‘His lessons felt like an event’

It gave me a love for the subject that has stayed with me. He talked about things so passionately without being preachy. We started getting into writing poems and stuff I never would have done before. He would allow you to do what you liked and - wanting us to get to the nub - did a lot of getting us to analyse, asking: “Well, what d’you think the poet meant by this?” It sounds fairly textbook but at that time it blew my mind.

What really stuck with me was when he got us to write a poem: I wrote one about an astronaut being in a rocket at take-off, and remember using some simile for the downward pressure. It wasn’t even that great, but he said, “This is amazing!” and got me to read it out to the class.

He called me ‘Mr Murder’ because only ‘strangulation’ rhymed with Ranganathan…

He made me feel as though it was the best thing anyone had ever written. Other teachers in the school kept coming up to me and saying, “I heard about your rocket ship poem.” After that, I’d always end up looking forward to English lessons because of what he’d instilled in me.

He was drily funny, and his praise would be very sparing and occasional so that it would have the ultimate impact. He had this thing about making us really try as hard as we possibly could. Going into his lessons felt like an event.

Being aged 9 or 10 and as lazy as I was, school days were a long expanse of time. In the mornings, 3.30pm felt like an eternity away. Except, in his lessons that went really quickly. I’d get excited about showing him what I’d done. In the same way as any other nine-year-old, you are keen to please, but for him more than any other.

The difference a good teacher makes

If I’m being honest, I remember being put off maths and saw how a bad teacher can damage your relationship with a subject. I went on to become a maths teacher because I thought, “It’s amazing that you can do that for people.” If the children believe that you’ve got their best interests at heart, and that you like them, they will let you push them as hard as you like, even allow you to tell them off and not get annoyed about it.

It’s amazing how much of a difference that makes, and I would keep that with me at all times when I was teaching. If a kid doesn’t believe that you like them and want the best for them, then your relationship is over, and there’s a negative relationship with the subject that’s so hard to undo.

Last year, I did a gig at Christ’s Hospital in Sussex and Mr Holdsworth - who now teaches English there - was in the audience, watching me do stand-up. He messaged me on Facebook afterwards, and every now and again he texts, “I saw you on Mock the Week…” I’ve never told him what I think of his teaching - that would be difficult - but he was great, absolutely fantastic.

Romesh Ranganathan was speaking to Lilly Farrah