Issue dated March 6 1993
Daniel Newman has hung up his Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves smock, and is now on telly as Hugo Botney in the classroom comedy prog, Bonjour La Classe. FF's Helen Mitchell decided to quiz him about his real school days...
Which school did you go to?
I went to a couple of schools. There was Ravenscourt Theatre School, before that I went to Emmanuel Public School and inbetween those I went to a school called Corona.
What was your best subject?
Actually I really liked Latin believe it or not, that was definately my favourite.
Were you any good at PE?
Yeah I was pretty good at it. The sport I'm into at the moment is surfing, I went toVietnam to surf in December with a bunch of mates which was a good laugh.
Did you have school dinners?
Yeah, and they were absolutely disgusting! You couldn't tell what you were eating, everything looked and tasted the same, whether it was roast pork or mushy peas - you just couldn't tell the difference.
Were you any good at cookery lessons?
I didn't really do them, that's probably why I'm so hopeless in the kitchen.
Did you ever have a detention?
I had loads! They weren't for anything particularly bad, just for normal everyday things like not doing my homework.
Did you have a teacher that you particularly disliked?
Yeah, but I won't name him. He was a geography teacher and one night when I thought I was leaving my old school Emmanual I had a blazing row with him and was really rude - I told him where to stick his marks. Then I found out that I was staying at the schooland so ended up in real trouble - ooops!
Did you have acting lessons at school?
Only at Ravenscourt and Corona because they were actual theatre schools. I didn't even appear in any school plays. I only got into acting because I decided to go to the theatre school that my brother went to.
Did you have singing lessons there?
I had LOTS of singing lessons.
Will you be bringing out a record then?
Well, I've actually been offered two record contracts already, but I just can't sing so there's no point!
Did you pass lots of exams?
I did quite well at school although I didn't actually get that many exams. My acting got in the way of my school work quite a lot, I didn't always have time to do my homework and kept missing days at school. My exams were just after I had been away filming for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves so I'd missed a lot of lessons.