Trivia

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".

He hosted the short-lived 1964 series, "BBC-3", a mixture of songs, satirical sketches and discussion. The most famous segment of this show, which went out live on Saturday nights, featured Kenneth Tynan and Mary McCarthy in a discussion of censorship. Tynan, taking advantage of the fact that it was all live, deliberately used the F-word in his remarks, thereby occasioning a national scandal, as he intended. Robinson, however, remained urbane and simply told Tynan that he'd found an easy way to become famous. Years later, after Tynan's death, he described the critic as "a clever fellow, but a frightful weed".