When I was 14, my dad’s job took us to Hong Kong. I moved from a one-horse village in rural Kent to Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

I went to the Island School, a school for expats. There were a lot of Indian people, Chinese people, some English people. It was a private school - I guess the state schools were Chinese, and we were the kids whose parents had jobs that took them abroad. It only occurred to me afterwards that I went to a private school. But I did, for two years.

My history teacher there, Paul Gillingham, also read the news on TV, which was really exciting. There were two English-speaking channels. Our history teacher read the news on one of the channels and, on the other channel, our English teacher read the news. It was the late ’70s and early ’80s: there wasn’t 24-hour news. They just read the news at half past seven or nine o’clock, or whatever.

Paul Gillingham was kind of glamorous. He was a very softly spoken teacher, but always really engaging. He made history interesting to me.

I remember this one particular lesson: we all had to do presentations on child labour. I did a talk on chimney sweeps - I remember there was a diagram of the inside of a chimney in it. Afterwards, Mr Gillingham said, “Matthew” - my real name is Matthew - “stay behind. I want to talk to you.”

He said, “Did you notice that the kids really listened to you, in a way they didn’t with the others?” I had noticed it. “You’re good at communicating with people. It’s a skill. You should use it.”

I thought that was fantastic. It was rare to get a compliment from a teacher, or any feedback at all. But that really stayed with me. It was exactly what I wanted to hear.

I had this creative side that I was keeping under wraps, because I wanted to be a doctor. It seemed a more legitimate career. Then I found I was good at English and art, as well.

Paul Gillingham only taught me for a couple of years. He’d have no memory of this whatsoever, I’m sure. But it has stayed with me. He saw something in me that perhaps other people didn’t, and that I always thought I had.

Of course, when I left medicine and decided to become a comedian, it was like an internal me that I was finally able to realise: that coming out from being a scientist to being a creative person. Admitting I was a creative person. We all do jobs for other reasons than necessarily because they’re what we love to do.

Harry Hill was talking to Adi Bloom.

CV

Born: Surrey, 1964

Educated: Island School, Hong Kong, Angely School, Kent and Carnbrook School, Kent

Career: Harry Hill is an English comedian, autor and television presenter. He’s best known as the presenter of ‘You’ve Been Framed’ and ‘Harry Hill’s TV Burp’.  He’s also the author of children’s book Matt Milz, which is about a pupil stand-up comedian, is published by Faber and Faber.