His background is not something revealed to any great extent, though we do find out (scattered throughout the very last episode) that Woolley, like Sir Humphrey, is an Oxford graduate. In Episode 4 of Series 3 of "Yes, Minister", Woolley is shown wearing a Magdalen College, Oxford tie, suggesting that he may have attended Magdalen College, Oxford. (The novelisation, in an apparent mistake, refers to Bernard at one point as a graduate of Cambridge, but later follows the series in confirming that he attended Oxford. There is, however, no problem in suggesting that he attended both.) In addition, several areas of specialist knowledge surface from time to time: one example arises in "The Greasy Pole" where, while discussing the possible political dangers of building a chemical facility in Liverpool (to manufacture the fictional compound "metadioxin"), Woolley is quick to remind Sir Humphrey that Greek, unlike Latin, has no ablative case (Bernard may, like Sir Humphrey, have read Literae Humaniores, but equally a basic knowledge of Greek and Latin may merely suggest a standard classical schooling).