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A defrocked priest encouraged the Doc Martin star to start acting, but other teachers suspected his motives.
My best teacher, without any question, was a larger-than-life, wonderful, potty, beak-nosed but rather handsome man, known universally as EJ - full name Ernest J Burton.
He was a defrocked priest who became the divinity master at The Latymer School in Edmonton, London, where I had my secondary education. From the age of 11 I would go to his classes and he would always choose me to read out passages from the Bible. I think he recognised the actress in me long before I recognised it in myself.
When I was about 12, our relationship took on a new significance. My mother had written to the school asking if I could have elocution lessons to rid me of the cockney accent that was the result of my working-class roots. We lived on the White Hart Lane estate in Tottenham and that was just how people spoke.
The English teacher volunteered for a fee that my family couldn't possibly afford. But then EJ approached me in the corridor and said: "You can come to me in the...