The son of Nick Brigstocke, a stockbroker from a Welsh landed gentry family,[2] and Carol, daughter of senior Royal Air Force officer Air Marshal Sir Walter Pretty,[3][4] Brigstocke was raised in Surrey,[5] and educated at St Edmunds School in the village of Hindhead in Surrey,[6] at Westbourne House School[7] in Chichester, West Sussex, King's School, Bruton in Somerset,[5] and Hammersmith & Fulham College in west London.[8] He then attended the University of Bristol,[6] where he studied Drama, but did not complete his degree.[9]