Picture a six-foot-eight drama teacher spending 13 years wrangling hormonal teenagers in suburban English classrooms, then channeling all that exhaustion into becoming one of Britain’s most intimidating comedic figures. At the height of his fame, he discovered his tyrannical persona wasn’t entirely an act.

This episode is a master class in late-booming success, exploring how Greg Davies turned a decade-plus in the education system into the psychological toolkit that made him a comedy institution. From The Inbetweeners to Man Down to the Taskmaster throne, his story argues that the detours we resent might be the exact training ground we need.

• The cross-border dash that saw his father drive his mother into Wales mid-labour to ensure a Welsh birth
• How classroom crowd control became the ultimate stand-up comedy boot camp
• Why Man Down filmed its school scenes in the exact classroom where he used to teach
• The 2014 double loss of his father Bob and his TV father Rick Mayall, and how he wove grief into the show
• The ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ revelation tracing his bloodline to Owain Gwynedd, the first Prince of Wales