Biography

Robert Robinson

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Born
December 17, 1927 · Liverpool, England, UK
Died
August 12, 2011 · Paddington, London, England, UK (following a long period of ill health)
Birth name
Robert Henry Robinson

Soon after Robert's birth in Liverpool in 1928 , his parents moved to New Malden in Surrey where his father was an accountant for a large chemical company. He was educated at a grammar school in Raynes Park before going to Oxford, where he obtained an Honours degree in English. While there, he was editor on the university magazine Isis. When he left, he joined a newspaper company working on 'The Weekly Telegraph' and progressed to the Sunday Chronicle, Sunday Graphic and Sunday Times. The mid 50's newspaper strike led him to television where he worked on 'Monitor', 'Picture Parade' and 'Points of View', before becoming chairman on 'Call My Bluff' and 'Ask the Family' . .After 1967, he did 'The Book Programme' and, on radio, 'Brain of Britain. Since 1972, he did 'Stop the Week With Robert Robinson' and three years on the 'Today' program. He wrote a number of novels, including 'Landscape With Dead Dons' (his first, written when he was 26), 'The Conspiracy' and 'Inside Robert Robinson'. He had a son, Nicholas, born 1960, and daughters, Lucy, born 1967, and Suzy born 1973.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tonyman 5

Avuncular BBC radio & TV presenter of such shows as Ask The Family and My Word.
Father of actress Lucy Robinson.
He insisted on writing all his own dialogue for his brief appearance as himself in "French Dressing", although he received no credit for it. Director Ken Russell agreed readily to this, telling him he could write everyone else's dialogue, too, if he wished. He didn't go that far, however.
He was the film critic of the London "Sunday Telegraph" newspaper for a time in the mid-1960s, although it was a job he didn't enjoy much. He claimed he was removed from this post after panning a movie which was enjoyed by the wife of the newspaper's proprietor. He also frequently reviewed films on the popular radio program, "The Critics", as well as hosting the long-running BBC-TV series, "Picture Parade".
His deadpan introductions to the other regulars on the long-running panel game "Call My Bluff" were famous and a source of great pleasure to viewers, especially as they were usually impromptu. For example, he once referred to Patrick Campbell as "eight feet of rippling muscle"; to Arthur Marshall as "the Cesar Romero of the panel game"; and to Frank Muir as "the real moustache with the clip-on face".

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