Passed / Failed: JOHN SUCHET

Jonathan Sale
Thursday 05 February 1998 00:02 GMT
Comments

JOHN SUCHET

John Suchet, 53, presents the early evening bulletin on ITN. Beginning as a journalist on Reuters, he became a foreign correspondent for Independent Television News and then a newscaster. He is just completing Passion and Glory, the third of his novels based on the life of Beethoven.

But First? I was born and brought up in London, so it was fairly traumatic to be sent, a fraction short of my ninth birthday, to a boarding prep school on the Kent coast. I can still hear the foghorns and it still gives me a feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was fairly lonely until my brother came to the school. I have to say that it was a very good school. In the Fifties they really taught you your times table - and French declensions; when I'm speaking French, I can still see the verb endings written down in front of me.

Uppingham, Up and Away? I passed the Common Entrance to Uppingham, which was a shock. It is hunting country. I'm not a country man and would rather have gone to St Paul's or Westminster. I never really felt it was home but another planet.

The Russian Rush? My career at Uppingham was not distinguished - apart from modern languages. I couldn't wait to learn German and my only school prize was for German. A teacher called Mr Goodall really nurtured me in both French and German: he gave me a lifelong passion for languages. Later I read a lot in German for my Beethoven books. I was in the first class to do Russian and the first boy to pass Russian O-level. I also look back with great pleasure to playing the trombone. I had learned the violin and was in the school orchestra. Then I founded the jazz band. I knew a banjo and a trumpet player; for me, it was a case of learning either the clarinet or the trombone; the clarinet is very difficult so I borrowed a trombone, which I took to like a duck to water.

Don't You Give Me None Of That Jelly Roll, Boy! A notice in the Music Rooms said: "The playing of dance music" - they still called it that! - "on school premises is forbidden." I will never forgive them for that. We used to play in the tuck shop, which was owned by a chap who wasn't a school employee and it didn't count as school premises. We used to go there and play by the door in the hope that the music master, a nasty, horrible, vicious little man, would hear us. One weekend we sneaked into the music rooms to practice and he caught us and gave me, as the ringleader, a Saturday afternoon detention.

Don't Know Much About Historee? I didn't do that well at A-levels: too much jazz playing. As well as French and German, I wanted to do English but had to do history. I hated history. My father, bless him, sent me to a crammer in Notting Hill Gate and I got good passes. I wanted to go to university to study modern languages but there was a vacancy in Social Science at Queen's College, Dundee, which was then part of St Andrew's University. People said that I should take it and then switch to languages after a week but when I went to see the professor about changing, he said, "No. Grasp the bull by the horns" - the bull being Social Science. It was a blow, a serious blow but I stayed on and specialised in Philosophy and Political Science in my last year.

Anyone For Tay? Most of the time I was in Dundee but I used to go across the River Tay to Fife for debates and won the Debating Society prize three years running. I also founded a New Orleans jazz band. The highlight was the dental graduates' leaving do; we were the sole band and played for three or four hours, improvising.

And Finally? I got a 2.2 and became a graduate trainee for Reuters. I told them I could speak French - and they didn't test me! I'm convinced that because of my name they thought that I was half-French. My family was French once.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in