WW L L INTERVIEW
AN INTERVIEW WITH SIR TONY ROBINSON
Sir Tony Robinson actor, comedian, author, presenter, historian and political activist talks to Wirral Life in an exclusive interview.
Sir Tony Robinson is probably best known for his portrayal of Baldrick, featured in the long running BBC historic comedy TV series Blackadder. In recent years, he has emerged as the face of popular history presenting Time Team, made numerous documentaries and is an award-winning writer of children’ s books and television. He spoke to Clare Barber about his cunning plans and his love of the Wirral …
You’ ve travelled the world and worked on some fantastic projects, but what’ s your connection to this neck of the woods? My wife is from here, so the Hillbark Hotel is our second home. We stay there about half a dozen times a year visiting family. We spend quite a bit of time zig-zagging around the area visiting Louise’ s old friends and stuff.
I have a soft spot for the place. It’ s really beautiful. My favourite part is the Wirral coast. I hugely enjoy walking along it – it’ s one of my guilty pleasures( they are always the simple ones, like sneaking a cheese and onion pasty in the car). New Brighton is a lovely spot. In fact I’ ve got a great photo of New Brighton by the photographer Martin Parr at home.
I have worked in Liverpool lots of times over the years but not the Wirral. It’ s more of a destination really, you must have a reason to go there.
You made 20 series of Time Team and many more historical documentaries including the award-winning“ Tony Robinson’ s Time Walks”, and“ Tony Robinson’ s Tour of Duty” about World War One. You’ ve even made one about the Wild West! So, what impresses you about the Wirral? I particularly like the Viking place names: Tranmere, Thingwall, Meols, West Kirby, Heswall etc. A lot of southerners know about the Scottish coast and Cornwall, but the Vikings also came to the North West. There are so many village names in Wirral relating to the Vikings and I’ m fascinated by that.
I’ ve spent 20 years in archaeology and I don’ t think you can ever be finished with the subject even though I’ m not making that kind of programme now. It’ s a special way of looking at the landscape. You can never lose interest in archaeology when you see the world through those eyes.
I think a lot of the Wirral is under-dug and under-explored, so if anyone finds a Viking mast in their back garden then be sure to give me a call – don’ t just dig it up it by yourself!
Were you always interested in history as a child? I have always been fascinated by history even before I knew what the word meant. The interest came from my Mum and Dad. I mean, I was an only child growing up in London after the war. I was born in 1946 so WW2 wasn’ t a distant memory, and they both had lots of stories about their wartime experiences.
My mum was in the WAAF and my Dad was and RAF fitter in Scotland. They met loads of people that they would never have met if they hadn’ t been mobilised. I started to realise that there was a time when I didn’ t exist, and I was part of human history. When I realised you could actually get marks at school for this thing called history, I was amazed!
What was your childhood like? Being an only child meant that my mum and dad had time to focus on me. There was always a showbiz aspect in the house because Dad had learned to play boogie piano in the war, and Mum had immersed herself in amateur dramatics. This was an enormous advantage to me.
I became a child actor. My first professional appearance was at the age of 13 in the original version of the stage musical“ Oliver!”. Then I went on to drama school at the Central School of Speech and Drama. I spent a number of years in repertory theatre after that.
Do you prefer TV or the stage? I have a bit of a butterfly mind and I love moving from thing to thing and getting engrossed in whatever my current project is. That’ s always the most interesting thing to me. Due to the fact that I work across a number of mediums and genres I’ m always finding out interesting things and learning interesting new skills. I’ ve been lucky enough to do a wide variety of things outside of acting too and not a lot of my contemporaries get to do that.
Would you consider yourself lucky? I’ m incredibly lucky to have been able to do the things I’ ve done! In fact, I think I’ m the luckiest person I know! The other day I got
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