Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Simon Lederman radio show

Wow! Just happened upon a radio show out of London which interviewed Robin today! You can hear it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p011lh4y for now, but I don't know how long they keep shows on their website. Robin comes in around 30 minutes into the show and stays for about 20 minutes or so. Talks about the new play he's in, reminesces about the Confessions films, and tells us that his hair is in fact NOT dyed these days, it IS still naturally blond! Wow, eternally young, cool! Great interview, he always does good ones and always sounds just so cheerful and nice.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Caught in the Net - Dec 11, 2012 - Jan 26, 2013

Looks like Robin is in another play this holiday season! It's called "Caught in the Net" and will be at the "Inn at Sonning" venue from Dec 11, 2012 to Jan 26, 2013. You can read more details here: www.uktw.co.uk Looks pretty funny! Hope someone will be able to take some photos!

Friday, November 2, 2012

It's a Celebrity Knockout - 1977

It pays to dig deep every now and then on the search engines – I just found some clips from this show, which I never thought I’d ever get a chance to see. It’s listed on Robin’s online filmographies, and I assumed it was some sort of long-forgotten game show.

Anyway, this blog that is dedicated to the girls that danced on British tv dance shows, put the clips up because some of those girls were also contestants. I did some further research and on this site you can read all the details about the show, including the names of all the contestants and who won.

It’s kind of a silly event, but looks like they had fun. You can’t see much of Robin, but if you look hard enough you’ll glimpse him here and there. He’s wearing a dark suit and is on the “Lord's Taverners” team.

I also read on the site that “As this programme was played purely for the purpose of raising money for charity, all of the famous celebrities involved gave their time for free.”

There were also shows from 1978 and 1979, so hopefully they’ll also turn up in the near future!

04/12/13 UPDATE! The complete shows from 1977 and 1978 have surfaced on YouTube! Watch this one in its entirety here:

Friday, October 12, 2012

Happy 62nd birthday, Robin Askwith!

I can't believe another year has come around again! Hope Robin is having a great day!

I must mention one of those cosmic occurences that happened in my own life last week. My husband and I have been looking for a new car for me...my old one has way too much wrong with it to put anymore money into it. Anyway, been looking around, nothing has excited me too much. Last weekend, I saw a car in a lot in the color I like from the highway and we stopped in. The salesman who came out was probably in his 60s, and introduced himself as Robin, with a last name starting with A. Hehe, I'm taking it as a sign that this is our car. Just thought it was weird, as Robin is a pretty rare name for a man here in the U.S., it's mostly thought of as a female name. So yes, the universe has spoken! Still need to take it for a test drive, though.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Caroline Ellis

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It has recently come to my attention that a childhood idol of mine, Caroline Ellis, was in “Confessions from a Holiday Camp” and I had not even recognized her when I watched it for my review! Granted, I wasn’t really paying attention to the girls, as my attention was mostly on Robin.

Caroline Ellis played “Joy” the sweet, happy, singing butterfly in Sid and Marty Krofft’s 1970 children’s show The Bugaloos.







I caught it in re-runs in 1977 when I was 8 and was enchanted by her and her pink outfit. I remember really REALLY wanting that costume for Halloween that year, but as I always seem to be a bit behind the times, it just wasn’t available. She was so sweet, so happy and so nice! You couldn’t ask for a better role model for a little girl, eh?



Little did I know that very year she was filming stuff like:
Ha ha. I watched Holiday Camp again and recognized her straight away, now that I was looking for her. Oh yes, that’s her all right. Wonder why I didn’t recognize her the first time. Probably the bad Birmingham accent threw me off. Her normal voice was like a sweet melody. So funny how all my childhood idols keep crossing paths. I would have never imagined a correlation between Robin Askwith and the Bugaloos! And here’s another I found while looking her up on Wikipedia – she shares his birthday of Oct 12, 1950!

I have shown my son all the Krofft shows and he wasn’t very impressed by the Bugaloos, unfortunately, although he liked the others like “Pufnstuf” and “Land of the Lost”. I can boast that I do have the Bugaloos record album and love their groovy music! Caroline Ellis should have gone on to have a singing career.

I see she also did another kids show called “Freewheelers” in 1972, that I’d not heard of:
I couldn’t find any photos of her as she looks today. All Wikipedia could offer was: “Ellis no longer acts. She is divorced and the mother of a daughter, Sasha. Today, Ellis is an estate agent and lives in Spain with her daughter.”

Anyway, viewing Holiday Camp again and watching the characters other than Robin this time had me thinking how nice young women looked back in the early 70s. Slim, natural, no orangey spray tans or black-and-blue tattoos covering their backs and arms. Why is trashy “in” these days? Don’t guys prefer a cleaner look on a girl?

Anyway, I also really liked this Bugaloo, he was hot. Can you see Robin in this role?
:)

Friday, September 7, 2012

Phoebe “Vanessa” Shaw


Last time I mentioned this co-star of Robin’s in “Horror Hospital” and that got me wondering if she had done any other movies. It turns out she was in just a few, and they were all during that same time period as HH. Guess HH was her biggest role, the others seem to be brief, no-character-name appearances. This one was the easiest to view:

The File of the Golden Goose – 1969
Yul Brynner stars as U.S. Secret Service agent Peter Novak in Sam Wanamaker's London-based thriller. Novak goes undercover with Scotland Yard officer Thompson (Edward Woodward) to halt a murderous gang of counterfeiters known as the Golden Goose. Although Peter is unsure about John's loyalties, the two infiltrate the gang and win the trust of thug Nick "The Owl" Harrison (Charles Gray) before enduring a series of double-crosses.


Netflix had it on its “Play instantly” list, so I quickly scanned through each frame on my computer until I spotted her playing a dancing hippie in some party scene which Yul Brynner bursts in and breaks up. No talking part, but she does do a good “Horror Hospital” esque scream!







Friday, August 24, 2012

2005 interview part 5

Interview comes back to the early '70s and touches on "Flesh and Blood Show" and "Horror Hospital" again! His co-star Vanessa Shaw is brought up, and I'm glad. Always thought she was lovely and wanted to look like her when I first saw this as an awkward 12 year old. Richard Gordon mentions her name being changed from "Phoebe" to "Vanessa" for this "because he didn't want the leading lady's name being up there as Phoebe". Weird to look back on that being an issue. Phoebe, Vanessa, they both sound like out-of-date names to me but maybe back then Phoebe was considered very old-ladyish. Neither knew what became of her, other than Robin's "she ran off with a Frenchman after my affair with her!" They then go on to cover some of his stage work, and how he finds classical parts a joy to do. They wind it up with an amusing "behind the scenes" story shooting one of his more recent films, "Asylum".

LOVED seeing this interview! Robin seems just SO charming and smart and friendly and outgoing. Wish so badly I could have been there! Thanks so much to Darrell Buxton for conducting the interview AND posting it on YouTube for us all to see! :)

Saturday, August 18, 2012

2005 interview part 4

Hilarious reminisces about "Queen Kong" in this part! Robin gets pretty silly. Then calms down as the topic switches to the "If...Britannia Hospital" series. He gets in the middle of a funny "behind the scenes" story and then a part of the interview is cut out! Hmmm! Anyway, this segment then ends with a question from the audience regarding Anthony Balch's association with William Burroughs, which Robin didn't know anything about, but Richard Gordon did and proceeds to elaborate on it while Robin sits by patiently looking interested as he nibbles on his fingernails and rubs his nose.

Friday, August 10, 2012

2005 interview part 3

Darrell talks to Richard Gordon and Robin about Horror Hospital in this segment...very fun to hear firsthand accounts of the behind-the-scenes stuff of my favorite movie! Although I wish this part was longer. Too soon it looks like the conversation is going to be steered toward "Confessions" talk, but happily Robin discourages that a bit and they veer off into more interesting territory: his relationships with the actors he worked with.

Friday, August 3, 2012

2005 interview part 2

In this part of the interview, Robin briefly fills us in on how he got his part in "Canterbury Tales" (although those of us who read his book already know!) and how he just recently saw the movie himself at an Italian film festival! Imagine being in a movie you've never seen before! Oh, those blase celebrities! ha ha. He also covers what Sid James was like, and how he worked on "several episodes of" Fenn Street Gang and Please Sir! -um, really, "several episodes"? I wish! I would have liked him to elaborate further on why, after Robin started the "Confessions" films the producer and director of the "Carry On" films "never spoke to him again". Was there a lot of competition between the two series? Richard Gordon is then brought on. They first talk about "Tower of Evil"...which leads me to wonder if the VHS copy I have has some parts cut out or what? I don't recollect Robin's character talking about jazz festivals OR being crawled all over by crabs. I will have to watch that one again, I guess, or find a DVD version of it to see if I've missed some scenes.

They start to chat about "Horror Hospital" when this segment comes to an end. I love watching Robin when the focus is on someone else talking, hehe, his cute personal mannerisms and such...

Friday, July 27, 2012

2005 interview part 1

Darrell Buxton has been kind enough to post his 2005 interview with Robin on YouTube! It was held at the Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester. I've been dying to see this one, which up until now could only be seen as an "extra" on the German DVD of Horror Hospital (which I've mentioned here before but still have not bought).

This is really fun to watch! I've never seen this much of Robin just talking as himself and not acting before.



Robin seems like a lot of fun, very outgoing and enthusiastic. Darrell does a good interview, keeps things flowing nicely, asks good questions that are different than the usual I keep hearing over and over again. In this segment, he gets Robin reflecting on "what an interesting way some people think of his career...shagging his way through show business" and how his intent really was to be a classical actor. He has good humor as he describes this, but you can tell he enjoys talking about his earlier, non sex-comedy days.

Funny how he dares anyone in the audience to have a copy of Hans Brinker! Is it still that rare in the UK to get ahold of? Probably not, I would guess? I got my VHS copy in some bargain bin some time ago.

Robin is just SO sharp and quick with everything! You can tell by just watching this he has a brilliant mind and memory! And so full of life and energy! He really is quite a unique person.

Friday, July 20, 2012

RobinAskwith.com !

Has it really been two months since I last posted? Wow. Time really does go by too fast. I've been pretty busy with a lot of other things and haven't had much time to devote to searching for Robin appearances. However, it has just come to my attention he now has his own website! http://www.robinaskwith.com/ It seems to be dedicated to his favorite charity "Our Disappearing Planet" and is selling autographed items to benefit that. What a nice thing to do! I'm proud that I seem to like nice, unselfish celebrities...I kind of remember my other fave actor Rutger Hauer also having supported an animal charity, dolphins or something like that.

Friday, May 18, 2012

First review of "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy"

The memoribilia show I mentioned last time apparently went well. So far the only review I can find that mentions Robin is on one of our fave blogs: The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth and a nice picture as well, so go over and check it out! He mentions that Robin was sitting right next to Linda Hayden and they were quite friendly with each other. He also teases us with a hint that there may be something new Robin will be appearing in soon! I'm dying to know!

Anyway, I browsed through YouTube trying to find any video but after sitting though a few which were nothing but shots of Dr. Who and Star Trek characters I'm wondering how Robin even fit in with what seemed to be a hardcore sci-fi convention!

Friday, May 11, 2012

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy - May 12, 2012


Well, it looks like Robin will be making an appearance at another one of those TV/Film memoribilia shows tomorrow, May 12, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, along with some of his female co-stars in various movies! Wow! Including ex-girlfriend Linda Hayden! Wonder if this is the first time they've seen each other since the olden days? Are they on good terms? Hope a fan will be able to be there to let us know how he and any of these co-stars interact, and maybe take some photos for us to see!

Friday, April 27, 2012

Interview

Nice interview with Robin from the NEC Birmingham March 31- April 1, 2012 show I mentioned a few weeks ago. Read it here: BHF Blog There's a photo too!

Friday, April 20, 2012

If you like Robin Askwith movies, you’ll love….

Turkish Delight – 1973

I’m going to get sidetracked this week and do a “recommendation” post.

Ten to twelve years ago I went through a major, Robin-esque obsession with Dutch actor Rutger Hauer.
If there was such a thing as a blog back then, perhaps I would have done one on his movies. I went crazy for awhile and started buying up all his movies on VHS. At least most of them were pretty easy to find! He was hottest in the early ‘70s, with his long blond hair and piercing blue eyes.

Anyway, I decided to watch this one again for old time’s sake. And I noticed quite a few things in it that reminded me of some of the Robin movies. Besides his hair and nakedness and doing bunches of naked girls, I mean. If you’re not familiar with it, you should check it out.

The story: Rutger plays Erik, a sculptor who takes home girl after girl to sexually torment. He seems bitter, angry, and cruel. Then we flash back two years to when he was happy-go-lucky. He meets the woman of his dreams, a carefree teenaged Olga. They marry and have a passionate relationship that soon turns tumultuous. A turn of events soon show why Erik has become bitter and angry at the world. This is probably simultaneously the raunchiest and tenderest, saddest movie I’ve ever seen.

I can’t say I can see Robin playing this part. Rutger has a type of brooding and darkness that Robin does not. When Rutger gets angry, you do get scared. When Robin gets angry, he more often has the appearance of a scowling child, ready to burst into giggles again.

But there were some nice silly moments in this that are reminiscent of a Confessions film. And others too: 1.The driving scene. When Erik first meets Olga, she has picked him up hitchhiking. He tells her to pull over, and what happens next is straight out of “Confessions of a Driving Instructor”!

2.Meeting the parents. Erik is making out with Olga on her parents’ couch and they come home and interrupt. Reminded me of Timmy and Liz on the couch in “Window Cleaner”.

3.The Wedding Scene – all the running around, trying to get to the wedding on time…didn’t quite turn out the same as in “Window Cleaner” but the hectic rush still made me think of it.

4.Bicycle riding - Erik riding recklessly around the busy narrow European streets was just SO Timmy Lea!

5.Sculptor - Wasn’t Robin’s character a sculptor in the movie “Bless This House”? I’m already forgetting!

6. Queen visiting the hospital - Erik sells a sculpture to be placed outside a hospital, and the Queen is coming for the unveiling. Hospital staff are rushing around in a panic to make sure things look proper for her. Just like in “Britannia Hospital”!!

7.Erik and Olga standing out in the rain, hair drenched. They look SO much like Jason and Judy in “Horror Hospital”, don’t they?

8.Seeing his girl make out with another man – Erik sees this from a distance when she thinks he’s not watching, similarly Timmy sees Liz making out with his brother in law. In this one, he throws up on her as revenge….in Timmy’s case, he turns the hose on her.

9. And….the good ol’ Bubbles scene! This one Erik is simply taking a bath. But, he’s enveloped in bubbles, and who can NOT be reminded of that infamous “Window Cleaner” Bubbles scene??? Wonder if Rutger complained about it as much as Robin does!!!

A lot of Rutger’s later movies are action-packed and really stray far away from what he did in the early ‘70s, so don’t worry, I’m not going to flood this with Rutger movies now. Perhaps one more. We’ll see.

Rutger is about 7 years older than Robin and still looks absolutely fantastic these days! He keeps a very professional website that’s fun and informative (hint, hint, Robin!) Back when I was more into him I’d visit his chatroom, not sure if that’s there anymore, but it was funny how possessive his fans were. Middle-aged ladies, talking jealously about his wife and stuff like that. Really weird. Robin’s fans seem saner and nicer.

Anyway, the videoclips I put on above are from my copy, which I had to watch with its bad dubbed in English which makes Rutger's voice sound dorky. Here's more scenes I found on YouTube with their real voices:

Thursday, April 5, 2012

NEC Birmingham March 31- April 1, 2012


Wish I could say that I didn't post to this blog last week because I was away at the NEC Birmingham Memoribilia Show where Robin was a guest.

Wish also that was ME in that photo above, but no such luck.

I just found it here at "StantheFan's Photostream" on Flickr because it looks like he was lucky enough to be there! Check out his collection, there's more of Robin as well!

Boy, the U.K. sure holds a lot of these memoribilia events! And Robin seems to like appearing at them!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Looking for: The Doctors “A Lion or a Sheep” Season 6, episode 77, May 7 2004


Trying to search out hard-to-find appearances but am having no luck. Anyone have this one? Anyone even see this one when it aired and could maybe write in a description of Robin’s role? Here’s really all I could find.

From Wikipedia: Doctors is a British daytime television soap opera, set in the fictional Midland town of Letherbridge, defined as being close to the City of Birmingham. Its storylines deal with the lives of staff and patients at the fictional Mill Health Centre and its offshoot, Letherbridge University's Campus Surgery, although earlier episodes were set at the Riverside Surgery and, later in the storyline, The Best Practice was regularly featured as well.

From TV.com: (In Lion or a Sheep) Kate spends an emotional final day in Letherbridge, and a record shop owner finds himself struggling to face up to an uncertain future. Robin Askwith plays David Cordman

From Locatetv.com: Kate says goodbye to Letherbridge and a record shop owner suffering from a serious illness refuses to accept the results of his diagnosis. Robin Askwith guest stars.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Tower of Evil updates

I originally reviewed this movie a couple years ago here.
I just added some better pictures to it, as well as a videoclip I just uploaded to YouTube. Here's some extra stuff I found as well:

Isn't that way too cute???



I can't remember this scene actually being in the movie! Where was it?



And now you know how he ends up! :)



Here's the original trailer!



And here's the clip I uploaded:

Friday, February 24, 2012

"This is Your Life Timmy Lea" dance by Pans People

No Robin in this one...sortof a "Robin once removed" post this week. But enjoyable and humorous to watch. I guess these "Pans People" dancers on the UK show "Top of the Pops" are similar to the "Solid Gold Dancers" here in '70s US.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Old article


Fast running out of new discoveries to talk about. But here's a cute photo from "around 1980" I'd not yet seen. The article that accompanied it talked about some festival he attended at the time, I can't really understand what it's all about: http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/why_bowls_skill_won_t_feature_on_epitaph_1_469218?action=login

Friday, February 10, 2012

Confessions of a Pop Performer SOUNDTRACK!


I don't have this, but a really cool person uploaded all the tracks from it to YouTube! "Timmy Lea" narrates! I'll link to track one here and you can easily find the other tracks from there!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Lots of photos of Robin!

Nice site to get a lot of Robin all at once. Unfortunately, you can only view them in small format. I guess you can purchase them to see them larger, I didn't investigate very far into it:

Rex Features

Friday, January 27, 2012

New photos added to my review of "Asylum"


I just added a lot more photos to the review of "Asylum" I posted a year ago. The computer I was using at the time did not have screen capture capabilities and the photo was a blurry "digital camera taking a photo of the screen" type. Decided to fix that with some bright, sharp new photos that do Robin justice! Enjoy!

Friday, January 20, 2012

German review of FRANKENSTEINS HORROR-KLINIK dvd release


Pretty fun to watch this review of the German release of "Horror Hospital". I just know a little German so I can understand a few words here and there. This guy is pretty thorough as he shows us the cover, the discs, the booklet inside - which I notice is pretty big and has photos! Cool! I can read German better than I can understand it spoken, so I'm anxious to get this! Wonder what that whole booklet is saying??? I'm just waiting for the price to come down. So far Amazon.de has it from about $25 used to $45 new. But I'm confused about the shipping thing, as it looks like one place is asking for 15 Euros to ship world-wide? Almost 20 bucks? That can't be right. Ugh, annoying.

I'm particularly anxious to get this, as Darrell Buxton has mentioned on one of my previous posts that his interview with Robin in Manchester in 2005 is one of the extras! Ahhhhh!

I'll wait a little longer for the price to come down. Darn confusing Euro system. Ordering stuff from England is at least easy to comprehend!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Queen Kong lobby card auction on Ebay




I'm always perusing the auction sites for anything Robin I MAY need. For being a huge fan, though, I'm not that into collecting a lot of paper goods or autographs. Especially not at this time in my life where I'm realizing it's all just stuff that people are going to have to deal with after I'm gone...and they're sure not going to cherish it the way I did! I shudder at the thought of my son and his future wife sighing as they load up the truck with piles of rare Robin Askwith and Sweet posters and heading for the church rummage sale....who will not be able to sell any of it and throw it in the dumpster afterward - yikes. Better leave the rest of it in Europe where people know who they are and collect it!

So....that is the reason why I'm not bidding on this super-cool auction that I would have IF I (1) was young enough to not worry much about far into the future and (2) also had a lot of extra money! These lobby cards are amazing! The seller is located in Lebanon, of all places. Wonder if they'll sell? $200, whew.

Queen Kong Lobby Card Auction on Ebay

See my original review of "Queen Kong" here!