Robbie Williams is looking to go back to school and resit his GCSEs after leaving education early for the bright lights of showbiz.
However, the Rock DJ chart-topper will have to fit in any qualification aspirations with his 2025 world tour as well as promoting his eagerly anticipated musical biopic Better Man.
But Williams, 50, whose single Forbidden Road from the new movie is up for best original song at next month’s Golden Globes, has reportedly been busy Googling home education options.
‘I’ve been wanting to set up a university,’ he revealed, ‘but, actually, I wouldn’t be able to attend if and when I do, because I didn’t get any GCSEs.’
‘I got nothing higher than a grade D, and everything else I failed or I didn’t turn up for. I really want to go back and get them,’ the star explained to The Sun.
Always full of ideas, the former Take That member admitted he couldn’t remember his English teacher’s name but was ‘thinking there might be an interesting TV show in it, where I have to go back to school – obviously in an age-appropriate way’.
As depicted in Better Man, it was Williams’ GCSE year that saw him plucked from obscurity to join the boy band with whom he enjoyed massive success after a couple of years’ hard graft.
The Angels and She’s the One singer has felt self-conscious about it since though, sharing that throughout his life ‘I’ve felt really stupid because we didn’t know about dyslexia in the ’70s and ’80s in Stoke-on-Trent’.
‘I’ve got dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD, but we didn’t have those then, so I left school thinking I was a dumb-dumb and it’s taken ages to get over that.’
This has never held back Williams though, who went from hits like It Only Takes A Minute, Pray and Back For Good with Take That to co-writing his own major solo songs with Guy Chambers like co- Angels, Millennium, Feel, Let Me Entertain You and Rock DJ.
He is officially one of the biggest music names to have ever come out of the UK, with all of his studio albums bar one reaching number one, and also holds the record for the most Brit Awards with 18 wins – including five while he was with Take That.
In Better Man, Williams is unusually portrayed by a CGI monkey (played by Jonno Davies), with his own music adding to the narrative of his turbulent rise to fame and struggles with relationships, addiction and mental health.
Directed by The Greatest Showman’s Michael Gracey, Better Man also stars Steve Pemberton, Alison Steadman, Raechelle Banno and Damon Herriman.
Better Man hits UK cinemas on December 26. In the US, it has a limited release on December 25 before releasing widely on January 17, 2025.
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