1. A primary school teacher

I HAD always fancied the acting malarky but all the groups in Govan where I grew up were full of girls and I felt really intimidated. But then when I was in primary six my teacher, Mr O’Kane, wrote on my report card: “This boy has a special aptitude for drama.” That gave me the confidence to go over the line and be in a room full of girls and I have never looked back. I loved it and took to it like a duck to water. I was only 9 or 10 but by the time I was 13 I was down in London at the Sylvia Young Theatre School.

There is a book called Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom that talks about the influence of teachers and how you never know where it will end, and it is because of my teacher I am in the line of work I am in today. Basically, it was all Mr O’Kane’s fault.

2. A ballet teacher

I WON a scholarship to theatre school in London which meant I had to do ballet, tap and jazz. In my last year, when I was 16, my teacher, a big 6ft guy, asked me to stay behind class and said: “Well Mr Robertson, you are never going to be a ballet dancer.”

I said: “Aye, I could have told you that.”

He said I was still to come to the classes for the exercise but he was also going to tell me what books to read and we would talk about them after class.

The first one was Catcher In The Rye, then I read On The Road which had a massive impact on me because the beat poetry led to my love of Bob Dylan.

Then we read Kurt Vonnegut – and Slaughterhouse Five is the only book I can pick up again and again. It blew my mind because I realised you could read a book which works on one level but has all these other facets if you think about it.

It’s a weird sci-fi story on the face of it but is actually a polemic on war.

That had a big impact on my acting because when I read a script I can see the other perspectives.

It’s ironic that my ballet teacher had more impact on my love of literature than any English teacher ever had.

3. A woman who sabotaged me

Iain Robertson in Small Faces (Image: PA)

WHEN I went down to the theatre school I stayed in digs. You were usually put with someone that had a son or daughter at the school, so I was staying in digs with the family of a boy in my class – until his mother sabotaged me.

She took the phone from me one day when I was calling my mother and told her I was unhappy and should not be in London but at home with my family. I had to call my mum back and tell her it wasn’t true, but she was still worried, so I told the woman I had to go home that weekend because of the things she’d said to my mum. She refused to give me a lift to the station so I had to get money from the school matron.

When I got to Glasgow my dad picked me up and said the woman didn’t want me back and I thought all my dreams of being an actor were gone.

Next morning my mum saw I was down in the dumps and said I should go and see my old pals at the Toonspeak theatre group in Springburn. When I was there the guy that ran it told me a director, Gillies Mackinnon, was looking for a 13-year-old boy and was coming in for the casting for Small Faces. I got the part but would never have been in that room if it hadn’t been for that woman’s actions.

4. Lightning

SHE was a rescue dog who lived until she was 23. She was a Collie cross and getting her was another one of these moments where you think there must be such a thing as fate. She had been badly abused by a guy until a woman in the same village went to his door and told him he could either give the dog to her or she would go to the police.

When Lightning was about nine, the woman died and my friend asked me to take the dog until a new home could be found. I wanted to keep her from the moment I laid eyes on her. She looked at me as if to say: “It’s you. I’ve finally met you.”

She was very needy at first but we gave her a good life and I don’t think I have ever had a better pal. I have had dogs all my life but there was something incredible about this wee soul.

She has been gone for just over a year and the interesting thing is how lonely I felt once she died. I also got fat as you don’t realise how much walking you do if you have a dog. She was absolutely herself until the last day of her life. If I could have an end as dignified as that dog I would be happy.

5. Robert Burns

WHEN I was 18 I was at the National Theatre in South Bank doing the Mysteries trilogy with Bill Bryden. I was having to understand all that old English in the play so thought I should give Robert Burns another go, even though I had hated him at school.

I bought a book and went to the gardens to read it and it just spoke to me.

I thought: This guy is saying a lot of stuff I feel but could never put into words. I looked up and I was sitting opposite a massive statue of Robert Burns and ever since I have tried to put a red rose there on January 25 every year.

That started my fascination with him and I do a Burns Night for the First Minister every year with the Govan Branch of the SNP. I think my fascination is down to the fact he was so fallible. He wasn’t perfect, and writes so beautifully about his feelings of remorse and self-loathing. I think that is the reason he has been so enduring.

He is someone a lot of people can identify with as he really fell short by his own standards.

That one book had a massive impact on my life – although I might have to retire Tam O’Shanter, as I’ve got to the point where I want to stop for a wee cup of tea in the middle of reciting it.

6. The person that helped me stop drinking

THEY will want to remain anonymous but this has been a massive thing for me. When I was talking about abstaining I started talking about the film Groundhog Day (above) as I am a big fan and must have seen it between 50 and 100 times. It’s ridiculous.

I was talking about how if the protagonist can just say the right thing everything will be all right. My friend said he thought it was fascinating I saw the film that way, as it seemed I thought that to get the outcome Phil Connors (Bill Murray) wants he has to be constantly manipulating the day.

My friend said that instead, when he watched the film, he saw a man whose world falls into place only when he changed himself. When he finally changes himself, the only person in the world he has real power over, he finally gets free of living the same day over and over again.

I realised I had watched that film many times and had completely missed the point. Suddenly it became quite a profound film and my friend’s statement changed my life. I stopped trying to manipulate things to get the outcome I desired and instead concentrated my energies into trying to be the best version of myself.

That change in me has been something I have eternal gratitude for. I was one of these people that if they had one drink they wanted all the drink and it just got boring. I wanted to be sober to enjoy life more. Now I don’t know where I would find the time to drink. I really don’t miss it at all and that has been three years.

7. Climbing hills

STARTING to climb hills was a bit of a reaction to Lightning being gone. You look a bit of a weirdo walking round the park by yourself, so if you want to go for a long walk it’s good to climb a hill.

It has been good for my health and has also had a good impact on my friendships. Although I was in contact almost daily with my best pals Brian and Mick (above) on the group chat, it was quite easy to not notice we were only physically meeting up once a year. Now we have quality time climbing a hill, rather than sitting watching Daddy’s Home 2.

It’s much more rewarding and I am suddenly seeing Scotland from a new perspective.

8. Directing a short film

Donna Franceschild

EVENTUALLY I want to segue into directing. I saw a short play only two minutes long in 2010 and it took me seven years to make it into a short film – but it has been a game-changer for me.

It was a short piece by Donna Franceschild about suicide.

I’ve known Donna since I was about 14 so I asked if I could turn it into a short film, but I wasn’t able to get any funding for it.

Eventually we just thought we’d crowd fund it.

The support was absolutely incredible. We raised £22,000 and managed to get it going.

It had a lovely tour of the festivals and won best short film at Dinard in France – which was great, as it was up against tough competition.

9. River City

Scarlett Mullen (Sally Howitt) and, Stevie O'Hara (Iain Robertson) in River City

I KNOW a lot of people denigrate soaps and I have never been a big watcher of them, but this has been one of the loveliest jobs of my life. I entered River City two years ago and I was just not expecting to enjoy it as much as I have. It is a pleasure to be in the regular company of such a smashing group of actors and I look forward to going to work every day.

The bonds go beyond the actors, as the crew are incredible and knock their pan in.

When I am sitting with Juliet Cadzow and Barbara Rafferty and hearing their stories, I realise acting is a charmed life.

10. Earplugs

MY friend Kevin said he couldn’t sleep without earplugs and when I was staying with him he gave me some to try – and I had the deepest sleep of my life. Now I can’t sleep without them.

I can only hear my breathing so it is a bit like a meditation and you very quickly nod off into the deepest of sleeps when you are wearing them. One or both of them usually falls out during the night, but that’s good because then I hear my alarm.

So I have got to that age that when I go to work and people ask how I am, I tell them how well I’ve slept. I’ve caught myself doing it many times. Earplugs are my biggest tip for anyone.