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Post by tarzanontarmazepam on Aug 13, 2011 4:24:34 GMT
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Post by tarzanontarmazepam on Aug 13, 2011 5:09:37 GMT
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Post by housesparrow on Aug 13, 2011 6:32:33 GMT
My memories of him were as chairman of Brain of Britain. He was described by one critic as "patronising" but I never thought so; I thought he hit just the right note with the contestants.
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Post by jean on Aug 13, 2011 8:38:40 GMT
Throughout the 70s and 80s I sang in the choir of a fashionable Catholic church in Chelsea. We used to rehearse before mass on Sunday mornings in a studio at the end of a garden attached to a house next door to the one Robert Robinson lived in.
The previous inhabitant of our house had been Richard Ingrams of Private Eye, later of The Oldie.
RR's wife was a stalwart of the parish, and his daughter sang in the choir for a while - she had a lovely voice and was going to go to music college, but I don't know whether she made a career in music.
RR did not normally darken the doors of the church, but he did come if we ever gave a (non-liturgical) concert.
He was known to have a particular animus against people attaching their bicycles to the railings outside his house, and was particularly proud of having addressed this problem by adding another lock to one so parked.
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Post by Weyland on Aug 13, 2011 8:42:49 GMT
What I love in that clip is how the Baynes family look slightly bewildered when they play a blast from The Police Message In A Bottle.  I love the mental image of a police message in a bottle washing up on the Cullercoats shore: "Hello, hello, hello, what have we here then? Think we're Sterling Moss, do we sir?" Sting was at my grammar school. And he lived over the road from my primary school. Maybe he's stalking me. A Great Man (Robert R, not Sting). His style was perfect for Brain of Britain. Much missed. |
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Post by tarzanontarmazepam on Aug 13, 2011 8:54:56 GMT
What I love in that clip is how the Baynes family look slightly bewildered when they play a blast from The Police Message In A Bottle. I love the mental image of a police message in a bottle washing up on the Cullercoats shore: "Hello, hello, hello, what have we here then? Think we're Sterling Moss, do we sir?" Sting was at my grammar school. And he lived over the road from my primary school. Maybe he's stalking me. A Great Man (Robert R, not Sting). His style was perfect for Brain of Britain. Much missed. LOL...brilliant. |
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Post by housesparrow on Aug 13, 2011 12:55:38 GMT
He was known to have a particular animus against people attaching their bicycles to the railings outside his house, and was particularly proud of having addressed this problem by adding another lock to one so parked. What an ol' meanie. Okay, I suppose if you are the one who has to paint them, a succession of chains and frames rubbing against the railings would add to your load. But there are seldom enough places to tether a cycle in town. I once saw a cyclist being berated for a shopkeeper for trying to chain it to a pillar outside his shop inCliff High Street, Lewes. The bike was moved, but goodness knows to where. |
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Post by everso on Aug 13, 2011 12:56:56 GMT
I used to watch "Ask the Family" when I was young and those families stood out a mile as middle class (or what was considered middle class in the sixties). My family was lovely but nothing, absolutely nothing, like those families. In fact it used to make me laugh to imagine my mum and dad, my brother and me appearing on that programme. Talk about living in a different world.
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Post by everso on Aug 13, 2011 12:58:35 GMT
Still, I'm sad that he's gone. He was a good quizmaster. I especially enjoyed Brain of Britain.
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Post by jean on Aug 13, 2011 13:17:38 GMT
But there are seldom enough places to tether a cycle in town. There are lots in London now - and lots more bikes, too. But in those days there were none.Here's the Guardian's obituary. |
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Post by Weyland on Aug 13, 2011 14:00:44 GMT
But there are seldom enough places to tether a cycle in town. Don't you have lampposts dahnsahf? |
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Post by housesparrow on Aug 31, 2011 15:02:37 GMT
According to what I heard on the radio this morning, Robinson was very put-out when he discovered that someone had planted artificial flowers in her garden.
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Post by jean on Aug 31, 2011 15:34:01 GMT
I'm not surprised!
I was interested to learn from Ann Leslie that he didn't have a very high opinion of women broadcasters. When she pointed out that she'd been on STW with him for aeons, he said he'd never thought of her as a woman.
(The programme isn't LAable, unfortunately.)
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Post by Weyland on Aug 31, 2011 16:25:46 GMT
I heard the programme. None of his business, surely. I can sympathise with Ann Leslie (on this occasion) for his rudeness, but that's not the same as not having "a very high opinion of women broadcasters". I loved the man's way with words, but sometimes, from time to time, he was nothing less than an ill-mannered bore. Less and less as time went on, fortunately. [Laurie Taylor, on the other hand, started off pretty well in days of yore, but turned into a monumental bore a few years ago. But not ill-mannered.] |
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Post by everso on Aug 31, 2011 17:05:40 GMT
Yes I heard that programme this morning. Seemed like they were having a bit of a go about him at times.
As for Housey's comment about Anne Leslie planting artificial flowers in her garden, I don't blame him for being put out. At the cemetery where my parents' ashes are buried, some people put artificial flowers on the graves. It looks horrible. Especially when they fade and get all frayed at the edges.
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Post by jean on Aug 31, 2011 17:18:29 GMT
That was Ann Leslie, was it? In France they go for glass flowers, which are a bit lurid, but at least don't fray at the edges: 
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Post by Weyland on Aug 31, 2011 18:31:47 GMT
Yes I heard that programme this morning. Seemed like they were having a bit of a go about him at times. As for Housey's comment about Anne Leslie planting artificial flowers in her garden, I don't blame him for being put out. Sniffy, yeah. Disdainful, yeah. But put out? I'd call that OTT. Disclaimer: I admired the man. I wish I had his knowledge and sheer command of (old-fashioned) idiom. |
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Post by housesparrow on Sept 1, 2011 17:32:10 GMT
I only heard it in the car, and hadn't realised it was Ann Leslie.
I don't think the Greenham Common peace protesters thought she was a woman either. She invited them out for a nice meal, was really sweet to them and wrote a vitriolic piece about them.
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