AS soon as Johnny Ball begins to talk about maths, you can tell it is his biggest passion.

The comic has spent a number of years helping young people get their head around the subject on TV shows such as Johnny Ball Reveals All, Think of a Number and Knowhow, but the 75-year-old admits he was a bit of a late bloomer in school.

But his mixture of humour and genius has captured the attentions of millions of children across the UK over the last 50 years since he first hit the small screen as a host of the infant education show Play School — and last month is no exception when he smashed the world record for the biggest maths lesson in front of 6,400 pupils.

The entertainer, who is the father of TV presenter Zoe, conducted his free “lesson” at Leeds United’s football stadium, which was sponsored by Help Link UK in Leeds, delivering a practical maths class to youngsters aged between nine and thirteen.

Johnny said: “I just thought — you can do a pop concert there so there’s no reason why you can’t do a maths lesson.

“It was a great day, although it was freezing cold. But the kids were marvellous and so well behaved. We’re still waiting for the official results but we have smashed the previous record of 2,300.”

Johnny, who was born in Bristol, moved to Daubhill, his father’s place of birth, when he was 11.

He said: “I started at Bolton County Grammar and was in form 2B, meaning I was in set B for maths. Then the next year I was in 3C. Then the next year I went down again, so I don’t really know what happened then.

“When I took my O Levels I passed maths and geography and got 100 per cent for my maths paper, but I was in the bottom set.”

After working various factory jobs, learning drums, working as a Butlin’s Redcoat and a stint in the RAF, Johnny got into TV comedy writing before being led down the numbers path once again.

He said: “I came out of the forces when I was 24 and hadn’t had the London experience so I decided to move down there. A neighbour had two sons who were both struggling with their maths homework so I helped to turn that round and one of them went to Oxford and the other went to Cambridge.

“I was writing comedy for TV at the time and someone said that I should be writing a maths show. I was about 29 then. That’s when they gave me the chance to do maths and science — but the asset for me was having no training. I had to research everything beforehand because if I didn’t understand it then no one else would.

“Comedy is like that — the ability to explain things very quickly. If people don’t know where I am going in 15 seconds then there’s no point.”

Johnny is not the only member of his family who has forged a career in entertainment.

He said: “It was lovely to see both myself and Zoe go into the entertainment industry, although I did not help her. Zoe did the ground work before getting a runners job working in Manchester with Michaela Strachan.

“She didn’t go to university and used to say she felt guilty for that — but I told her she mustn’t. University is only part of learning. If you’re learning and earning then that’s good enough. A lot of degree courses these days you could cram into six months. It’s not the right path for everyone.”