 Garden was educated at Repton School, and studied medicine at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he joined the prestigious Cambridge University Footlights Club (of which he became President in 1964), and performed with the 1964 Footlights revue, "Stuff What Dreams Are Made Of" at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.Garden qualified in medicine at King's College London, but has never practised.Asked how he justified making jokes rather than saving lives, he answered