No Deposit Codec<\/span><\/a> website. When we spoke, Robinson was on location in Lincolnshire \u201clooking for Romans\u201d and still basking in his heroes Bristol City\u2019s promotion to the Football League Championship where they will renew their rivalry with Cardiff City.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve often enjoyed pleasant hearty greetings from Cardiff fans,\u201d he said, tongue tearing through cheek.<\/p>\n
Robinson, 58, comes to Cardiff on Thursday night with his shape-shifting one-man show Cunning Night Out, which he describes as; \u201ca bit of comedy, a bit of biography, a bit of history and some Q&A which will hopefully answer any questions people may have about my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that career is remarkable.<\/p>\n
Born in Leytonstone, London, Robinson\u2019s first taste of acting came at Wanstead High School, aged 12, when he appeared in Oliver!<\/p>\n
He left school with four O-levels, abandoning A-levels to study drama and graduating to perform and manage in theatre.<\/p>\n
Throughout the 70s he earned his living from stage and TV but it wasn\u2019t until 1983, when he first played Baldrick in Blackadder, that his career really took off.<\/p>\n
Over four series, Robinson so endeared himself to the British public, as the pock-faced dogsbody to Rowan Atkinson\u2019s Machiavellian schemer, that he has declined offers to resurrect the character.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had many offers to do Baldrick adverts or sub-Baldrick sitcoms but when you\u2019ve enjoyed great success with something the last thing you want is 10 more years of doing it in a lesser form,\u201d he reasoned.<\/p>\n
The opportunities his new-found fame offered him led to a series of children\u2019s programmes including Fat Tulip\u2019s Garden and Maid Marian And Her Merry Men throughout the late \u201980s and early \u201990s.<\/p>\n
In 1994 he began presenting Time Team, a dry concept elevated by his wit and enthusiasm, and more recently he presented a series on classical music for Classic FM.<\/p>\n
But parallel to his showbiz career Robinson has also been a genuine political force, firstly in four years as vice-president of the actors\u2019 union Equity.<\/p>\n
But bigger still, he spent two years on the Labour Party\u2019s National Executive Committee from 2000-4, which currently numbers Tony Blair, John Prescott and Gordon Brown among its members.<\/p>\n
That level of political life is surprising for a comprehensive school- educated comedy actor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the only person I know with more honorary degrees than O-levels,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first 20 years I carried a chip on my shoulder because I thought other people were cleverer than me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was only working with the Stephen Fry-sized brains of this world that taught me there were things I could do that others couldn\u2019t, as well as the other way around.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat gave me an enormous amount of confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut also, everyone on Blackadder was Oxbridge- educated so people presumed I was too and offered me the sort of jobs I would never have otherwise been given.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a sort of con trick.\u201d<\/p>\n
At one point Robinson was even touted as a candidate for Mayor of London and, while he is resolutely New Labour, he retains strong socialist revolutionary tendencies.<\/p>\n
He was reluctantly involved with the make Poverty History Campaign, believing it didn\u2019t aim high enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy problem with MPH, and it\u2019s not hindsight because I\u2019ve always said it, was that you don\u2019t change things by getting a million people on the streets for one day. You do it by getting a million people on the street every day for weeks and months,\u201d he said with conviction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should learn from the fall of the Berlin Wall and communism when the people of eastern Europe stayed on the streets until they got real change.\u201d<\/p>\n
The leap from comedy actor to history programme presenter isn\u2019t that big; the leap from both of those to politics is larger, but Robinson draws them together thus: \u201cPolitics and history are one and the same. They are both about the decisions people make at important times.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Source: Gavin Allen, South Wales Echo FEW celebrities have spent so much time covered in mud and come up smelling of roses as often as Tony Robinson. Robinson spent 16 years encrusted in dirt as scummy sidekick Baldrick in the classic British sitcom Blackadder. But having formed cunning plans, beyond that he found a second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cast-crew"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p54TBn-8z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":927,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=927","url_meta":{"origin":531,"position":0},"title":"Arise Sir…. Baldrick?","author":"admin","date":"15 June 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In what can only be described as the most cunning of all the cunning plans ever devised, and on today, the 30th anniversary of The Black Adder being shown on the tellybox, Blackadder star Tony Robinson has been knighted in the Queen's recent birthday honours list. And that's not all;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cast & Crew"","block_context":{"text":"Cast & Crew","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blackadder The 2nd","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.blackadderhall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/blackadder-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":468,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=468","url_meta":{"origin":531,"position":1},"title":"Blackadder cast and crew to appear at Cheltenham festival","author":"admin","date":"11 September 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Hot diggegy dang and huzzah to boot! Tony Robinson, Richard Curtis and John Lloyd (not Tony Curtis, Richard Lloyd and John Robinson as I nearly wrote in all the excitement) are going to be appearing at the Chletenham Literature festival in October. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first broadcast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cast & Crew"","block_context":{"text":"Cast & Crew","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":466,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=466","url_meta":{"origin":531,"position":2},"title":"Blackadder TV retrospectives – dates confirmed","author":"admin","date":"13 September 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Blackadder: The Whole Rotten Saga Thursday 9 October 2008, GOLD \u2013 The story of the sitcom, featuring contributions by Richard Curtis, Ben Elton, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Robinson, Tim McInnerny, Miranda Richardson, Miriam Margolyes, Patsy Byrne and Brian Blessed. Blackadder\u2019s Most Cunning Moments Thursday 16 October 2008, GOLD \u2013\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Specials"","block_context":{"text":"Specials","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":478,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=478","url_meta":{"origin":531,"position":3},"title":"Two 2-hour Blackadder specials announced","author":"admin","date":"14 June 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"UKTV Gold has commissioned IMG Media\u2019s Tiger Aspect to produce Blackadder Exclusive: The Whole Rotten Saga and Blackadder\u2019s Most Cunning Moments, two specials providing a behind-the-scenes look at the BAFTA-winning comedy series Blackadder, which was on the air from 1983 to 1999. Each two-hour special, both premiering this July, features\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Specials"","block_context":{"text":"Specials","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":480,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=480","url_meta":{"origin":531,"position":4},"title":"Rowan\u2019s blow to Blackadder reunion","author":"admin","date":"12 June 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"CAMERA shy Rowan Atkinson has SNUBBED a Blackadder reunion show, TV Biz can reveal. TV chiefs had a cunning plan to reunite all the cast members of the legendary comedy for its 25th anniversary. But super-private Rowan, 53, will NOT appear even though all his co-stars \u2014 from writers Richard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cast & Crew"","block_context":{"text":"Cast & Crew","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":809,"url":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?p=809","url_meta":{"origin":531,"position":5},"title":"Baldrick’s Cunning Plan For A Movie","author":"admin","date":"27 November 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Source: PA Tony Robinson hopes all the Blackadder team can reunite on the big screen. The Time Team presenter starred alongside Rowan Atkinson in Richard Curtis and Ben Elton's comedy Blackadder for four series and two special episodes as \"I have a cunning plan\" sidekick Baldrick. And he is keen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cast & Crew"","block_context":{"text":"Cast & Crew","link":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1414,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions\/1414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackadderhall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}