FROM Abingdon School to St Trinian’s – there is no doubt about it, acting has been quite an education for Toby Jones.

The actor, from Charlbury, is now firmly established as the long-suffering bursar of St Trinian’s and returned to the role for a second term of punishment at the hands of the girls in St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold.

But his connections with Abingdon School, which is soon to have its first headmistress in 750 years, run far deeper.

He was a student at the same time as members of the rock band Radiohead and the actor Tom Hollander, all of whom he well remembers.

His school background came in handy while making the film.

Mr Jones said. “I was able to draw on the experience of being a boarder at Abingdon. Schools can be a little bit like ships or villages.

“They are little microcosms, worlds within worlds, with their own rituals and their own rules. Abingdon, however, was never all that traditionalist. It always struck me as more of an ex-direct grant kind of school.”

So, just how much more fun had it been on the set with those glamorous gangsters in gymslips, rampaging across the Millennium Bridge, dangling from the Golden Hinde and rocking out in a mass dance routine in Liverpool Street Railway Station?

He replied. “You are not going to get anything salacious out of me. I should warn you that my wife is a criminal barrister. But yes, I did enjoy making it a great deal.

“The girls were all incredibly well behaved and supportive to each other. There was none of the bitchy, over ambitious behaviour, that you might have expected.”

The film stars the Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding, who certainly knows how to party in real life.

But Jones like the rest of the cast was impressed by the star’sr eadiness to learn more about the serious business of acting.

“She was great,” he said. “There was all that stuff about her being a nightmare. But that was just not the case.

“My daughters (aged nine and seven) both loved the first film. So that was another good reason to do it. I think girls just love what I call the safe riskiness of St Trinian’s films.”

The fact that the first remake of the classic British comedy series grossed £12.5m at the UK box office alone, suggests he is right.

With the new St Trinian’s film, starring Colin Firth and David Tennant complete, he is to appear with Julie Waters in Mo, a new television drama about Mo Mowlam, the former Northern Ireland Secretary.

He is also fresh from Sex & Drugs & Rock and Roll, the eagerly awaited film about one of his own heroes, the late rock star Ian Drury.

And then there is his commitments to another educational institution every bit as famous as St Trinian’s on the big screen, the Hogwart’s School of Wizardary. For Jones, 42, is also the voice of Dobby, the elf in the Harry Potter films.