Stan's father moved him to Gainford Academy after a short spell in Bishop Auckland where he was not making good progress. He described himself as probably the worst pupil the school had ever had. Stan was highly intelligent - and the brains behind the hugely successful Laurel and Hardy films - but he was not an apt pupil as he readily admitted (Danny Lawrence, The Making of Stan Laurel. Echoes of a British Boyhood, McFarland 2011).
