The Robin Askwith movie review blog

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

2012-02-24T15:01:00.002-08:00

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.

Old article

2012-02-17T15:44:00.000-08:00

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

Confessions of a Pop Performer SOUNDTRACK!

2012-02-10T12:01:00.001-08:00

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!

Lots of photos of Robin!

2012-02-03T14:11:00.001-08:00

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

New photos added to my review of "Asylum"

2012-01-27T14:07:00.000-08:00

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!

German review of FRANKENSTEINS HORROR-KLINIK dvd release

2012-01-20T13:15:00.000-08:00

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!

Queen Kong lobby card auction on Ebay

2012-01-13T14:13:00.000-08:00

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!

Updates: New "Canterbury Tales" photos

2012-01-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Added some new ones to my post of "The Canterbury Tales". Did a bunch of screenshots while watching his scenes on Netflix's "play it now"...they did not have it on there when I originally had reviewed it. Much better quality ones, I think you'll agree. Here's a sample for your enjoyment!

End of year stats!

2011-12-31T15:52:00.001-08:00

For fun, I'll share with you an end of the year "top ten" list of the most-viewed posts on this blog! What do you think would be the #1 Robin performance people looked up? Horror Hospital? Nope, didn't even make the top ten, unfortunately. None of the Confessions films hit the #1 spot either. Ta Da! It's "Canterbury Tales" for some strange reason! Way out ahead of the others! #2 spot was my own "To Start With" introduction, so that doesn't really count. And #3 is predictably a "Confessions" film. This isn't a true "2011" count, as this covers all the way back to the beginning of my blogging. Anyway, There you go! Have a Happy New Year!

New Robin photos from his current play "Funny Money"!

2011-12-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

Don't forget! Robin's currently appearing in "Funny Money" - a play that looks like a lot of fun! The website has a slideshow of photos from it as well as the complete program! Check it out!

Magicote Paint Ad – 1971

2011-12-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

A nice surprise this week! A Robin fan let me know about this ad he’d found in a compilation video of Henry Bentinck commercials for J Walter Thompson. I edited the others out and uploaded just this one to YouTube. Such a treat to see another glimpse of Robin from this early 70s era, even though his segments are brief. Love the flip of his hair as he turns around to look while he’s painting (with his left hand? Is he left handed or was this the most convenient position?) and how enthusiastic he is as he happily shows the owners how well his paint job turned out. He really does bring that happy enthusiasm to everything he does, doesn’t he? I am told that the older lady who appears is Noel Dyson, who played Nanny in Father, Dear, Father and also appeared with him in The Last Bus!

New Robin interview! - 2011

2011-12-02T12:01:00.001-08:00

I found a brand new photo along with an interview about the play Robin will be starring in - the one I mentioned last week. Cool! Check it out here!

Robin Askwith confesses at The Mill at Sonning
By Phil Creighton
November 24, 2011

Isn't he just adorable in the photo? :)

Funny Money Play - Dec 2011 thru Jan 2012!

2011-11-25T21:17:00.000-08:00

All those of you lucky to live close enough, Robin will be appearing in a play in December and January! More info can be obtained here! http://www.millatsonning.com/wp/
If you do go see it, how about letting me know how it was? :)

Horror Hospital – 1973: NEW 2010 DVD release!

2011-11-18T12:05:00.000-08:00

Isn’t this where I came in? Yep, HH was the first movie I reviewed here, and it just may be the last. :( Although I’ll keep looking, I may have come to the end of finding the Robin movies/appearances that are available.

I was very excited to hear that HH was re-released in June of 2010, in HD transfer from the original 35mm camra negative. Wow! And it definitely was noticeably crisper and brighter. You can see everything in the previously too-dark rock club at the beginning of the film. But now you also see that the “blood” on Robin’s nose in that scene is WAY too bright to look like blood and looks laughingly like paint. Someone online mentioned that this release has 2 extra minutes but I couldn’t tell if and where this was true. There’s no extra scenes that I’d not seen before, so perhaps it’s just a few seconds here and there interspersed throughout the whole thing.

There’s a very interesting commentary by producer Richard Gordon.(RIP 2011- see here for info) Why Robin never does DVD commentaries, I have no idea! He apparently thought quite a lot of Robin and talked highly of his work ethic. I loved hearing how Horror Hospital came to be and some of the behind-the-scenes goings-on. Also talked about are some scenes that were in the original screenplay but never got filmed due to one reason or another. You also find out about Director Antony Balch’s uncredited surprise cameo in HH, rare because he did not like to appear on film! It is even a talking part. I’ll keep that a secret just so you’ll have to buy this! Richard Gordon seemed like a fun, smart, likeable guy and I’m glad he did this insightful commentary!

Not a lot of “extras” though. Oooh, what I would’ve given for some “deleted scenes” or “bloopers” but alas, no. There is a slideshow of publicity photos and posters, but not a lot have Robin in them. Weird how you rarely see him in photos from HH, even though he’s the main star!

What more can I say that hundreds of movie reviewers haven’t already said about this extraordinary film, so I won’t rehash the storyline yet again. I must say I did notice a “continuity” issue I hadn’t in the past. Robin’s shirt gets pretty torn up in the fight scene with the bike boys…yet in later scenes the shirt will sometimes be torn, but sometimes not. Hehe.

I’m proud to say this was a DVD I was able to easily and legally purchase, brand new. I can only hope Robin receives big royalties from this new release!

Well, that’s it. I have no more appearances lined up to review. I’ve exhausted almost all possibilities. There’s some stuff I will probably never get to see. But I’m amazed at how much I WAS able to get my hands on! Wow! There’s a couple of things out there I’m still waiting for the price to come down on, so perhaps half a year to a year from now I’ll finally have something else to comment on. From now on I’m just going to write about things that I’m still searching for, things indirectly related to Robin, or any current news about him that I hear of. Please feel free to let me know ANY news or stories you may have! And if you know Robin, casually mention that there’s a whole blog dedicated to his body of work, will you? :)

Confessions of Robin Askwith – 1999

2011-11-11T13:20:00.000-08:00

I’ve made mention of Robin’s autobiography so I may as well include it in my reviews of his work!

Maybe it’s just because I’m a huge fan, but I found this highly engaging and could barely put it down! Upon starting it, I was a little confused, though. He jumps right in at the beginning with how he got the part in “Confessions of a Window Cleaner”. At this time, I had not even seen all the Confessions movies and was a little confused by the people he mentions. Was he not going to talk about his family and childhood? I flipped through the chapters and right around the middle of the book he does a jump back in time and fills us in on his birth, genealogy, getting polio at age 4, schoolday shenanigans, etc. So that’s where I started reading. He continues on with his early acting jobs, and so on. At the end of all that I started back at the beginning and the “Confessions” stuff was then a lot more comprehendable! Maybe if all you liked about Robin was those movies that’s what you care about finding out first. Who knows.

Anyway, I love his style of writing. Not sure if he did it all himself or had help, but it sounds like it’s just all him, telling his story. He definitely has a very cute, wry, “British” sense of humor. And yes, you can tell he’s writing it for a British audience, making references that he takes for granted people will understand. At least I have the internet to look up stuff like the actors who may be famous over there but unknown in the U.S., sporting teams, areas of London or towns in England (thoroughly confused about what he meant getting "Ruislip Lido" in his lungs, ha ha).

The book ends with you wanting to know MORE!!! He published it in 1999 and at the end just gives us a brief overview of the years 1981-1998, promising a few things that he’ll be covering next, implying that there WILL be a next one? Yet here it is, 2011 and still nothing, humphs.

Any fans who are in communication with him, please urge him to write a part two! Or, if he thinks anything that doesn’t have to do with the “Confessions” years wouldn’t sell well, perhaps Republish this one, with a part two added on!

Mystery: Is it Robin…..or not? Madhouse – 1974

2011-11-04T11:49:00.001-07:00

OK, a mystery to solve!

Truly by chance I stumbled across this film. I enjoy early 70s British horror films so I found this one I hadn’t seen before while browsing through Netflix’s latest “instant play” offerings. A little while into it, I saw that there were TWO Robin connections: his girlfriend at the time, plus his co-star in “Confessions of a Window Cleaner” Linda Hayden, plays one girl who gets killed. And then Natasha Pyne, who played one of the daughters in “Father, Dear Father” and a friend to Robin’s character in one episode, plays another girl. I kept thinking, wow, this would be a great movie for Robin to have been in! But then again, didn’t really see a part for him after all as I watched further.

BUT…here’s where the mystery comes in! There IS a character named Nigel who does not have a speaking part who strangely looks like Robin and has a similar way of moving. You don’t see him for more than a few seconds, so it’s hard to tell. The credits do not list who this “Nigel” is at all. Could it be an uncredited spur-of-the-moment appearance by our hero? Perhaps he was on the set that day hanging out with his girlfriends and was asked to step in for a scene? Hmmmm!

Here’s the summary of the plot: Vincent Price plays Paul Tombes, an actor who was famous for playing the role of a “Dr. Death” in many horror movies. Soon each person who has annoyed him starts getting violently murdered. Is he the one who is doing it? Linda Hayden plays Elizabeth, a young actress who pesters him to give her a break in one of his movies. “Nigel” is some kind of gofer on the set of the latest Dr. Death movie whom one of the main characters asks to go fetch something. He nods and leaves, and then we don’t see him again.

I can’t find any info about who this “Nigel” was. He looks so much like Robin, but you only see him from the side and back. His hair is darker than Robin’s usually is. I don’t know. Hard to say. Would be very funny if I really stumbled across a secret appearance, though, wouldn’t it!!!!

The Festival of Fantastic Films, Oct 21-21, 2011

2011-10-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

Got word from a couple people that Robin appeared at The Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester, England, to speak and sign autographs.

A guy who writes the "The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth" blog went and took some fantastic photos that really capture Robin's personality well. Love the ones where he's flashing a huge happy smile. Great to see current photos of him as a 61 year old! Some people change so much as they grow older...Robin is still VERY much Robin Askwith, isn't he?

Soooo jealous I cannot be in England to go to these events! You know, I keep hearing of events happening or movies or shows being filmed in or taking place in, or bands being from Manchester lately. Is Manchester the new London these days?

Public Eye – “How About A Cup of Tea?” 13 January 1975

2011-10-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

“Public Eye is a British television series that ran from 1965 to 1975 (7 series in total). It was produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four series. The series depicted the investigations and cases handled by the unglamorous enquiry agent (i.e., a Private Eye - hence the twist in the title) Frank Marker, an unmarried loner who is in his early forties when the series begins.” – Wikipedia

I ordered this from Amazon UK at the same time I ordered “Boon”. I knew Robin appeared in an episode from 1975 so I ordered the “complete 1975 final cases” and crossed my fingers! And yes, whew, his episode was on it.

The episode starts out with Marker recovering from having been beaten up in the previous episode. He is bitter and tired of the dangerous aspects of his line of work. So, once released from the hospital he goes to an employment agency and inquires about what is available. Robin plays the employment clerk! Odd role for someone with his groovy longhaired look, being behind a desk, asking official questions better suited for a more clean-cut type of guy. Remember, back in “Fenn Street Gang” he played the out-of worker on the OTHER side of the employment desk! But anyway. He looks awesome in his big-collared ‘70s blouse and is hilarious as he gripes about people who say they want to work, but don’t have any skills to offer. That’s the extent of his role in this one, but it’s worth seeing. I also watched all the other episodes. Good series, good stories. I enjoyed the title character (played by Alfred Burke) with his quiet, sneaky way of getting things accomplished. I see that he just died recently, in Feb 2011, age of 92. He had also been acting as recently as 2002, when he played Professor Armando Dippet in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hehe, if you go to their wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Eye_(TV_series)You’ll notice that Robin’s name is inserted in the place where they talk about this episode. I put that in! First time I ever made an “edit” to a Wikipedia page!

Happy 61st birthday, Robin Askwith!

2011-10-12T10:52:00.001-07:00

It doesn't seem like a whole year's gone by since I wished him a happy 60th birthday on this blog! Yikes, does time go by fast. Have a super fun one, Robin!

Care Care Magazine advert 1985

2011-10-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

Wow! Found another old tv ad on YouTube that Robin was in! Even though his hairstyle is super-80s and the picture quality is rather bad, it was still fun to see him in this. He enthuses about Care Care Magazine, and how helpful it can be in instructing you how to take care of your car, whether you are a beginner, or more advanced in your knowledge. Where do I sign up to subscribe??? :)

"Scramble" update

2011-09-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

I am considering myself very fortunate for having seen 2 of the 3 "Children's Film Foundation" movies Robin has appeared in since having originally written my description of each here.

The hunt continues on for "Scramble" though. I feel myself getting closer. I know someone out there DOES have a copy of it and DOES have the ability to upload it to YouTube because...ta da!...here is what I've found so far: The first 4 minutes and 45 seconds! Unfortunately, Robin is not in the first 4 minutes and 45 seconds, sigh.

This person has uploaded quite a few clips from the CFF films, but does not seem to have whole episodes. He has not responded to my query about Scramble. So, we'll see if anything more promising will come out of this. You can also see the first 5 minutes of "Hostages" http://youtu.be/V7cy07H67xI which Robin IS in! As well as the first 5 minutes of "Hide and Seek" http://youtu.be/mWJG1l81FW0 which he is not.

Horror Hospital shirt!

2011-09-23T12:03:00.001-07:00

Starting to run out of Robin appearances to report on. I have a few still banked, but am going to stretch them out, ha ha. So this week I am here to let you know about a really cool shirt I stumbled across while browsing the internet looking for Robin stuff. I'm amazed this even exists! Who but the hardest core b-movie fans would even know what "Hairy Holidays" refers to...and then how many of them would even purchase it? Even me, Robin's most devoted fan :) is pondering if I should or not. 12 year old me would have in a heartbeat! 42 year old me is rationally asking myself, now, where would I wear it, and would I have to explain it to every single person here in small-town Oregon who glances at it quizzically? Hmmm. I will think about it.

But...you can get yours at Cafe Press if you want one!

On The House – 1971 – (season 2, 6 episodes)

2011-09-16T12:18:00.000-07:00

Since I started this blog I’d been hoping against hope that this series would be made available on DVD by the time I’d come to the end of accessing what was already out there. Here we are, a year and a half later, and still no sign of it. I’ve seen a VHS of some episodes from season 1 on Amazon UK, but that’s it. Recently, on my latest hunt for it I did come across ONE clip that included Robin (from "Take Me to your Leader" (#2.3) 6 May 1971 ) which can be found here but I also downloaded it and uploaded it to YouTube in case the original page gets taken down. Ooooh, how I want to see this show!

Please, please, contact NETWORK DVD here and let them know you want to see it too! They are an amazing company which puts out all the interesting old British shows. I’ve already made a few requests to which they reply that they currently have “no plans” but will keep it in mind. Perhaps if you Robin fans actually living in the UK can ask for it your requests will carry more weight than mine.

Here’s a little synopsis of the show I was able to gather:

“ON THE HOUSE" depicted the classic 'them-against-us' situation rife in blue-collar trades in Britain in the post-war years. Kenneth Connor starred as Gussie Sissons, chief labourer for house builders Thomas Clackwood and Sons, who pitches his comrades into a series of 'what-about-the-workers?' skirmishes with the exasperated site foreman Charlie Cattermole (played by co-star John Junkin).

Guest stars throughout the series included Hermione Baddeley, Brian Glover, Milo O'Shea, Madeline Smith, Patrick Troughton and Paula Wilcox. In the second series, Derek Griffiths as a carpenter and Robin Askwith as a long-haired idler were added to the regular cast.

The show aired at 7:00pm and there were two series; the first in September/October 1970 (6 episodes), and the second in April/May 1971 (6 episodes).”

Boon – Season 3, episode 8: “Peacemaker” 20 December 1988

2011-09-09T13:22:00.001-07:00

Amazon U.K. has this series for sale so I’d been watching the price on it for the past year to see if it’d come down. It finally did come down to an acceptable price so I bought the complete season 3.

Boon was a show that ran from the mid-80s to the early 90s. The story was about an ex-firefighter, Ken Boon (he’d gotten injured on the job and had to go into some other line of work). During the life of the series, he takes on different jobs. In season 3, he operates the “Texas Rangers” a motorbike courier firm, with young longhaired assistant “Rocky”. A few episodes in, he also joins up with friend Margaret’s detective agency. The title sequence shows Boon imagining himself as a “Lone Ranger” type, riding a horse in the Wild West.

So, in “Peacemaker” Robin plays “Bograt” an Ozzy Osbourne type middle-aged rock star who was getting ready to make a comeback…only to get cold feet and run away. His promoters hire Margaret to find him. Ken’s assistant Rocky turns out to be a huge fan and offers to help. Mainly all they do is pester the girlfriend, who also doesn’t know where he is. But, her walls are decorated with “Bograt and the Necros” posters featuring photos of Robin in heavy metal costume. Wonder where those are now??? Also other real photos of a younger Robin, which I’d seen before. Eventually the girlfriend starts coming on to Rocky, and at that moment Bograt walks in and starts a fight.

In the end, Bograt clims up to the top of a rickety platform on a building which is under construction, intending to kill himself. Rocky climbs up after him and they wind up having a heart-to-heart talk. Bograt reveals his insecurities about the comeback, but eventually Rocky talks him into going through with it for the sake of his fans. As they start to come down, Robin slips and almost falls off the building, only to be rescued by Rocky and Margaret, who has also come up.

Robin was okay in this. He over-acted in parts with the “grouchy rock star” attitude. He was better toward the end when he was talking instead of growling, ha ha. His hair was very long but maybe a wig or extensions? It wasn’t very attractive.

I like this show and don’t mind watching the whole of season 3. If it were readily available I’d probably go on to watch all the seasons! Some day when I’m old I think I’ll just spend a year in England watching all their old TV shows. It gets expensive trying to buy them and watch them here!

Smith’s Crisps ad – 1967

2011-09-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

On Robin’s wikipedia page, this is listed as one of the ads he filmed. Now, this is so very early in his career, you might even say it is pre-career! So I’m assuming he did not have a substantial speaking part in it. I’m going to throw this youtube clip out there as the one he is in, as it seems to be the right year. It is a super-groovy mod dancing scene, so whether this is in fact him or not, it’s still pretty cool to watch. I’m thinking he is the guy dancing in the white pants and white shirt sort of at the top left of the quickly moving ad. Near the beginning.

EastEnders - 4 August 1997

2011-08-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

It was a little difficult pinpointing the exact date of this appearance from the scant info available on the internet. But, thanks to a longtime Robin fan who has been personally chronicling his work, I got the correct date and was able to order the right episode from an EE fan who is selling them on an auction site!

This is a long-running popular soap opera in England and not surprisingly, the stories featured revolved around the typical drama. Robin was a breath of fresh air in the sea of depressed, moping characters. He is animated and expressive. And he happily had quite a few scenes. He plays “Jason Lafal”, a motorbike race organizer. One of the main characters, Ricky, wants to ride in the motorbike races and his manager convinces “Jason” to let him try out. Once he rides – and wins -, Jason is impressed and admits he has what it takes. An annoying side story is “Ricky”’s bossy wife who initially thinks that he is cheating on her because he’s gone so much. And when she finds out what he’s really involved in she appoints herself his manager and fires the other guy. Robin looks on in puzzled amusement at this wimp of a guy who lets himself be walked all over by a chick…especially after he showed himself to be so strong in the race!

High points: when Robin introduces himself as “Jason” – ahhhh! I just have to wonder if his mind was flashing back to a time when he introduced himself as “Jason” to a pretty girl on a train zooming toward Horror Hospital….. And then I loved it when he snaps, “This isn’t a videogame!” Ha, that just struck me as hilarious for some reason!

Here's a little clip from it for you to enjoy!

Marc – 1977

2011-08-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

I’d seen this some time ago…my sister was a big T. Rex fan and had this in her collection. She knew about my Robin obsession and was pleased to show me something I hadn’t seen. Then, years later, I found bad quality copies of it on YouTube. Now, thanks to the guy who sent me all this new stuff, I have a rather decent-quality copy of it! Robin sings his (I assume) only hit single, “Confessions”. Rather catchy bubblegummy pop tune. I just looked up information about the 45” and see the flipside is called “This Space is Reserved for You.” which I’ve never heard. I will keep an eye out, perhaps it won’t be too hard to track down the actual record.

SEPT 2 UPDATE:
You can now hear "This Space is Reserved for You" here:

http://gavcrimson.blogspot.com

I have to say I like the A side better, although this one is catchy as well and is very "1977"! Very "Bay City Rollerish", which, I'm embarrassed to say, was my favorite group as an 8 year old in 1977.

The Hostages - 1975

2011-08-12T14:39:00.001-07:00

The next CFF film! This one was great! Robin had a huge role in it and had his “Window Cleaner” look. Pretty hot. He played a bad guy, though. A prison escapee who, along with a friend, is looking for a place to hide out from the cops. They stumble onto a sheep farm where 3 kids are home alone while their parents are away for the day at the market. They break in and wreak havoc as they look for clothes to change into and food to eat. Robin IS pretty nasty – although I must admit when he roughs up the 9 year old girl I found myself getting a little envious….ahem. Oh, did she realize how lucky she was! As I was just a little younger than her at the time (6) in a parallel universe it could very well have been me getting shoved around by THE Robin Askwith! ;)

His character is “Terry Sladen” and takes care of a lot of the action: keeping the kids hostage, chasing the little boy that tries to run away, stealing the doctor’s car. And then, I’m not certain, but the voice on the radio that announces that prisoners have escaped and are on the loose also sounds a lot like Robin’s voice.

He gets caught in the end, of course. His partner, who he’d abandoned back at the farm, takes off with one of the kids in the family car and embarks on a very exciting chase scene (my son loved that) which ends in a literal “cliff-hanger”! But all turns out all right in the end.

Hide and Seek – 1972

2011-08-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

In a previous entry I’d written a bit about the “Children’s Film Foundation” movies Robin was in, although I hadn’t seen any of them at the time. But now, thanks to the guy that sent me so many Robin appearances, I’ve been able to watch 2 out of the 3!

Hide and Seek was a fun film. And, one I could watch with my 8 year old son! The story: A boy (Peter Newby, who had a very interesting look, like a young Keith Richardsy type…wonder where he is now?) runs away from some kind of reform school to look for his dad in a section of London named Deptford. Really beautiful old brick buildings there! But it looked like a lot of them were abandoned and getting knocked down, so I wonder how much of the area is left today. I loved the scenes of the kids running through what seemed like interesting brick-walled passageways with mysterious doors – what fun!!!! I love old architecture. Anyway, the boy squats in an empty basement apartment and goes out to steal food. A couple of neighborhood kids find out about him and help him find out where his dad is. Now, the dad is at a nearby demolition site, and has dug a tunnel into a bank in order to steal millions of pounds. He has a gang of helpers, one of whom is Robin, dressed up as a policeman. When one of the kids come nosing around, Robin and another fake cop grab him and lock him up. My son’s favorite part was when the kid gets helped out of the hole in the roof by the other kids and they all start running away from the bad guys…very suspenseful! Hehe

This was 1972, so I had been expecting Robin to have his “Dimensions of Greta/Tower of Evil/Flesh and Blood Show” length hair but no, it appeared pretty short in this. Even my son commented: “I thought Robin Askwith has long hair! This guy doesn’t even look like someone you’d like!” Ahhhh! I assured him I like Robin no matter what he looks like.

I love these CFF films, I wish they still made these type of movies for kids! I have a few non-Robin ones I’d shown my son as well, and he aways enjoys them. I try to make sure he’s not too exposed to modern-day movies so he doesn’t get too jaded to enjoy the simpler, more innocent stuff. How wonderful it’d be if the whole CFF collection were to come out on a big boxed-set collection!!!

I have just found out that “Hide and Seek” at least is available for purchase here in the U.S.! Check it out! http://www.tower.com/hide-seek-peter-newby-dvd/wapi/117246105

Crumpet! A Very British Sex Symbol – 2005

2011-07-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

Can we really stand another “Sex Film retrospective”? Yep, I guess so! I found this one easily on the web (see below!).

This one focuses on the more innocent side of the genre. “Crumpet” - a word I never really noticed before – refers to the sexy-yet-innocent type of woman who was in everything from sitcoms to movies to pop music. They cover a lot of territory and near the end is when they get to the “Confessions” movies (we are again treated to a bit of the “bubbles” scene from “Window Cleaner” – can they not show us anything else??) and mention how these films were the beginning of the end for the “Crumpet” era – which focused on teasing instead of out-and-out sex. Robin is then brought out and thankfully does NOT again launch into how traumatized he was by that toxic foam. ;) This time he looks to be in a more cheerful mood, hair brushed, and tells us how everyone else turned down the role of Timmy Lea but finally he accepted it. And he also tells us how he enjoyed showing up to work every day while filming these movies.

And, alas, yes, that comedy-sex-crumpet era is long gone. I’ve been watching a more current UK show now called “Shameless” and the innocence and fun is Definitely. Long. Gone.

X-rated: The Films They Tried to Ban – 2005

2011-07-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

This may also be titled “Sex in the ‘70s – Blue Movies”?

A year after the film from last week’s entry comes yet another “Sex comedy” retrospective, covering all the same things about the “Confessions” series that was already talked about in the other one. Britain really must be proud of their Sex comedy heritage? Robin is trotted out yet again to complain about that toxic foam he was made to perform in….and it looks like they dragged him right out of bed to do it! His hair is wild and ungroomed. He looks like he wishes he didn’t have to rehash all this stuff yet again. Compare this interview to the one he gave 10 years ago where he seems enthusiastic and pleased to be giving us his overview!

So….we are again told by the announcer that “hardcore porn was illegal in 1970s Britain blah blah blah and sex-comedies were a way around that blah blah blah.” Robin tells us that millions of people saw these films, yet oddly you’ll never meet anyone who’ll admit to seeing them. A few young people I’ve never heard of: a film critic, a comedian and a ‘sex-film expert’ come on and weigh in on the series (doesn’t matter they weren’t born yet, of course) and then we get to see Sue Longhurst, the actress who did the “bubbles” scene with Robin! I fell off the couch. She looks very very old now, grandma-like, even!!! I always freak out when I see someone who used to be young and sexy as an old person. Why do some people morph into elderly people with the short grey hair? I gotta admire Robin in his attempt to keep himself looking the same.

One thing that bugged me was that the announcer referred to Robin’s hair as mullet-like. Ummm, NO you can not describe his hair that way! Mullets were that ridiculous 1980s ‘short-on-top, long in back, hesher/redneck’ style. Robin’s is more mod-60s/glam 70s! Come on, people!!!!

I do have to commend them for having the super-happy pop song “Tiger Feet” going on in the background!

X-rated: The Films that Shocked Britain 2004

2011-07-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Almost 10 years later comes another “look back at Britain’s sex comedies” retrospective.
Robin 54 here, not looking too bad. He talks about the “Confessions” movies, about how successful they were and how, even though there was nudity they were considered acceptable because of the comedy. The whole concept of this genre of films was trying to make sex funny…more slapstick than sexy, even trying to be a continuation of the “Carry On” films, but taking them to a whole other level.

Clips from “Window Cleaner” are shown. Robin talks of that bleach-based foam they used in the bubbles scene, how it made his skin peel off. He also mentions, after we see his naked backside in the bubbles, that he now has a dolphin tattoo on his ass. Sigh. If it’s one thing I liked about 70s porn is that everyone had clean, un-marked bodies. I’m not into all this tattoo craziness of today. But, oh well. I wouldn’t say no if someone has a picture of his tattoo to show me, wink wink!

Doing Rude Things 1995

2011-07-08T14:58:00.001-07:00

This is I guess a kind of documentary about the sex-comedy films of the 1970s. Just the parts concerning Robin were added to the discs of appearances I’ve been reviewing in recent weeks. And, oh my gosh, I cannot be more thankful to see this probably pretty rare piece!!! Robin is amazingly adorable here! He walks us through some of his feelings concerning being in the Confessions films. You don’t often get to see him just talking as himself instead of acting, so that was a treat. He seems to have a very fun personality. I’ll add a videoclip of some of it to this so you can see for yourself how hot he is.

Coronation Street – Aug 1, 2007: Episode 6611

2011-07-01T15:32:00.001-07:00

Another freebie from the nice guy who sent me all the things I’ve been reviewing in recent weeks. And, very helpfully, he only included the Robin scenes. As I’ve mentioned before, I hate soap operas and was glad to not have to wade through a bunch of storylines that he had nothing to do in. Typical, he only had a few scenes in this episode. He plays “Aidan”, a travel guide in Gozo! What a beautiful place! So sunshiney and historic and flowery! I need a vacation!

So, here’s what I surmised without knowing the characters or the backstory. A middle-aged couple is vacationing on the island, and Robin is showing them around. Only they stress that they are not actually “together” nor do they like each other (not sure of the reason why they’re there together, then). The only hotel room available was a small one with one bed, and the woman “Eileen” is annoyed about that. Robin is his friendly, flirty self with her and she seems flattered at that. Later, the guy “Steve” warns him that she can be dangerous and violent and “Aidan” wonders aloud why Steve is even with her. To which Steve confides that he does find her intriguing and suggests Aidan get together with them for a threesome. This scares Aidan off and he leaves just as Eileen joins them. She disappointedly asks where he’d gone off to. Steve reveals he purposely scared him off because he didn’t want to be left out of his half of the hotel room had Aidan and Eileen hit it off too well!

I guess he never pops up again. Too bad, this would have been a nice spin-off role for him had they developed it further.

Here’s some more reading you can do on this episode if you’re interested:

http://www.gozoluxury.co.uk/press.html

Bottle Boys – Season 2, episode 7, “The Milk Cup Runneth Over” 24 August 1985

2011-06-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

This very last episode was a letdown. Not very interesting nor very funny. Robin’s Dave is trying to obtain at ticket to a football match. First he tries to get it when it goes on sale but after getting into a fight with a fan of the opposing team is hauled out of line by a policeman. Then he goes around town following up on leads about who may have a ticket to sell. Finally he gets one from a scalper outside the stadium but is turned away at the gate for having bought a ticket to last week’s game! Ho hum.

But overall, I enjoyed the series, and still need to see the 4 lost episodes. If they ever come out in boxed-set form, I’ll definitely be buying it!!
PLEASE request it by contacting: Network DVD Thank you!

Bottle Boys – Season 2, episode 6, “I Love Paris” 17 August 1985

2011-06-17T14:30:00.001-07:00

This one was so funny! One of the milkmen, Billy, (David Auker, who’d also been in “Hans Brinker” with Robin) wins a trip for two to Paris. The rest of the gang all try to talk him into choosing them to go along….but Robin’s Dave is the quickest-witted and winds up tricking Billy into asking him. Thank goodness, because how funny would the show had been if he didn’t? I laughed out loud during the airplane ride segment! Dave had little experience with airplanes and his confusion and fear were both hilarious and adorable. Then…Paris, with all its misunderstood-language mishaps and a run-in with the French police which leads to Dave having visions of being guillotined. Mmmmm, Robin in 18th century French costume!!! I swear, WHO are these people out there on the internet saying this is the worst British sitcom ever? I could watch this episode over and over I liked it so much! One more final observation. Robin wears THE most ‘80s style sweatshirt covered by a denim vest decorated with those pop music buttons so popular at the time. Just kinda funny. I’m so used to him being “Mr. Ultra 70s” I guess I forget he went through that whole awful 1980s too.

Bottle Boys – Season 2, episode 5, “High Noon” 10 August 1985

2011-06-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

The one just before this one is missing. Here's the synopsis of that:

Season 2, episode 4: “If the Cap Fits” 3 August 1985
Dave tries to win the chicken-selling drive in order to secure promotion.

Now onto "High Noon":

Probably the least funny and most predictable one of the lot. A milkman from a rival dairy has started making deliveries to a wealthy neighborhood on Dawson’s Dairy’s route. Robin’s Dave gets annoyed and vows to go to the guy’s house and give him a piece of his mind. Of course, when he gets there the guy turns out to be big and scary and challenges Dave to meet up the next day for a fight. Dave studies up with a karate book, and we are treated to a bunch of his wacky moves. Terrified, he shows up for the fight and bravely goes up against the guy…..only just in time the guy’s wife shows up to bawl him out for making deliveries to that new neighborhood because of the high-class housewives who live there – and forbids him from ever doing so again. The guy slinks off, defeated, and Dave has saved face with his buddies!

Bottle Boys – Season 2, episode 3, “Out of the Frying Pan” 27 July 1985

2011-06-03T13:14:00.001-07:00

This one started out with all the milkmen again sitting round the breakroom having their tea. The boss comes in and tells them they need to start upping the sales of eggs and he thought of a way to do it: having one of the milkman and a lovely young lady give a public egg-cooking demonstration! Dave is picked, but alas, finds out he has to wear a chicken suit to do it! (I wonder exactly how many TV shows are out there where one of the characters has to do this. I was actually not too long ago watching an episode of “That Girl” in which this happened as well….) So then I groaned about how stupid it was looking. But, no, Robin made it turn out quite fun. I’ve added a little clip from it below. After they finish the demonstration, they find they are locked out of the dairy building where they’d left their clothes! Of course. They drive to her place – I can’t remember why she didn’t drop him off at his place? – turning heads along the way. So then, they’re at her place changing out of their costumes, are in their underwear, and, naturally, her burly boyfriend shows up. “Dave” hides in the closet and throws on the girl’s wig and clothing and manages to make his escape. Finally, while waiting at the bus stop he sees two of his mates from the dairy who try to make the move on him.
Yeah, lots of predictable cliches, but for some reason I was laughing out loud at all of it !

Bottle Boys – Season 2, episode 2, “I Gotta Horse” 20 July 1985

2011-05-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

The first episode of season two is one of the missing ones so first I'll give you the synopsis of that one, according to the BFI website:

Season 2, episode 1: “Things that go bump in the night.” 13 July 1985
Stan loses the key to the depot safe so Dave Deacon offers to spend the night in the dairy to guard the cash

Now on to my viewing of episode 2:

One of the milkmen is found to have a special ability to pick winning horses….so of course the rest of the gang use his info to make some bets. They keep winning….and then the TV set blows up. Hilarity ensues as they rush around town trying to find a place where they can watch/listen to the results and also a phone where they can phone in their bets. Ah, remember those quaint days before cell phones? Anyway, they keep on winning until (bet you couldn’t’ve guessed it!) the guy’s psychic ability gets confused by two horses with the same name and, boo hoo, they lose everything. Robin’s riding a hyper high in this one!

Bottle Boys Season 1, episode 6 “Here Comes the Groom” 6 October 1984

2011-05-20T11:21:00.001-07:00

“Dave Deacon” amusingly falls in love with the odd-looking, big-haired secretery. They quickly decide to get married…tomorrow. Crazy premise, as they barely pay attention to each other on the other episodes! She goes home to get ready, he goes out to the pub with the boys to celebrate…although he had promised her he wouldn’t drink anything harder than a seltzer water. Yeah, right! He gets plastered! Cute seeing Robin act “drunk”…it doesn’t seem to be something he plays often. So….his friends carry him out and throw him in the back of their car and guess what? It’s stolen and…let’s borrow from “Confessions of a Window Cleaner” shall we?…is driven way out of town. When he wakes up the next morning, he must find a way back to London where the ceremony is about to take place. He hops on a nearby bicycle (that Robin and his bicycles!) and finally gets there only to have her yell at him and break up. Oh well! Life goes on, so he takes her best friend down to the beach town where he had made reservations for the honeymoon!

Bottle Boys Season 1, episode 5, “One Good Turn” 29 September 1984

2011-05-14T12:54:00.001-07:00

The guys at the dairy have agreed to put on a comedy show to benefit charity. They are having a hard time selling tickets so Dave says he can get “Bernie Winters” to perform. I guess this is some famous comedian of the time but I never heard of him before so the jokes pertaining to him kinda flew over my head. Anyway, Dave calls him up, but accidentally gets a “Benny Winters”, car salesman, to come round for a meeting about the show instead! Ha ha. After that’s taken care of, they still have the problem of having promoted (and sold lots of tickets to!) a “Bernie Winters” show, so Dave tries to dress up as the guy and try out the costume at the pub. When who should walk in but the REAL Bernie Winters! Not really recognizing him, Dave tries to talk HIM into impersonating the comedian but winds up insulting the guy instead and too late finds out it had really been him. Luckily, at the show, Bernie has a change of heart and shows up just in the nick of time to save the show! Yay!

Funny stuff! I laughed at all Robin’s scrambling around trying to work things out, especially while carrying a big stuffed dog!

Bottle Boys Season 1, episode 4, “All in a Day’s Work” 22 September 1984

2011-05-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

No work getting done in this episode – funny how this is supposed to be about milkmen on the job (I’m assuming) yet you never see them “on the job”. In this episode one of them is out sick, so Robin’s Dave is sent around to bring him some things to cheer him up. Humorous part where the woman doctor arrives and thinks Dave is the patient, but of course that’s been done before loads of times. But uniquely cute when it’s Robin! A couple of the other milkmen then arrive by then and when they all leave the guy’s building, they get stuck together in the elevator! More fun! Some funny but predictable gags, including ones about having to pee and resorting to cannibalism. At the end they get an electric shock trying to figure out what went wrong with the buttons. All I need to say is that Robin looks especially hot in this one, and my is his hair sparkly shiny!

Bottle Boys Season 1, episode 3 “Danger, Woman at Work” 15 September 1984

2011-04-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

The same wonderful person who sent me last week’s offering also sent me the 9 episodes of “Bottle Boys” he had. I’ve been looking for this show forever!!!! Although unfavorable reviews here and there on the web had me a little leary. Was it really “the worst British sitcom ever”??? Now that I’ve seen these 9 episodes I can say no. They’re actually very cute and funny. Originally I had had the notion that they’d be a continuation of the “Confessions” movies. Something about a milkman servicing every need of each housewife on his route. But, no, nothing like that. It’s all very innocent and light-hearted. Robin has said of the show that by the ‘80s comedy in the UK was getting more restrictive, and they were unable to do the kinds of humor popular in the ‘70s. Nevertheless, this was a good, solid comedy that shouldn’t be dismissed as it seems to be. It should be released on DVD. I promise to buy it, as there are a few episodes I still need to see! Who over there has something against Robin Askwith, I’d like to know!! It’s like pulling teeth to get all his series officially released!!!! And yet, our American PBS carries at least a million of truly the MOST god-awful things that have ever come out of Britian. Ugh, it frustrates me to no end. Our local PBS station, Oregon’s OPB, is a wasteland of BAD British comedy on Saturday nights. Something called “My Hero”? I think? I’m not even going to put energy into looking it up. About a woman whose boyfriend is a superhero? OOOOH is it bad. And some other thing, don’t know the name ‘cuz I don’t watch it but it stars Geofferey Palmer (who is a good actor, he’s in lots of other things) as the husband of a middle-aged woman (no not “Butterflies” I didn’t mind that one) but OOOOH is it mind-numbingly DULL! Britian must have some deal with PBS that says, “Okaaayyyy, if you want our Dr. Who you need to ALSO take these 10 OTHER shows…..!”

Whew. OK, long-winded rant over. But nothing makes me more furious than Robin’s stuff stuck somewhere on a back shelf in storage and absolute JUNK thrust at us instead!

Finally, on to the review of the first episode I have of “Bottle Boys”:

An elderly milkman is retiring, so he needs to be replaced with someone new. This is a time when things are getting more “PC” so the job placement office has renamed the position “Milkperson” and sends along a woman to fill the job. Of course, for the laugh factor, it has to be a stuffy-snooty type of woman that gets right to work fancy-ing up the breakroom with flowered sofas and a feminine tea set. Also rips down all the pornography on the walls. The guys don’t appreciate any of this and set up a plan to force her to quit. The boss doesn’t allow husbands and wives to work together so Robin’s “Dave Deacon” is nominated to ask her to marry him – much to his dismay. Some funny moments as he akwardly attempts this feat – and discovers she is desperately attracted to him!

Good glimpse of Robin’s arms in one of the scenes…wearing a skintight bright pink sleeveless top!

The first two episodes, which I still need to see are:

1. "Fools Rush In" 1 September 1984: "Dave Deacon finds an elderly customer on a sixth floor windowsill, threatening suicide."

2. "God Save Our Dairy" 8 September 1984: "Dawson Dairy is on the rocks and the staff rally to fight for their jobs."

Evil Calls: The Raven – 2007

2011-04-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

Guess what? I finally got to see this elusive film! The nicest person I’ve ever come across on the internet was reading my blog and offered to make copies of quite a few things I needed that he had! So….first up: The Raven!

He warned me it was pretty bad. Well, yes. Not even in the “so bad it’s good” kinda way that I like. Actually, the story has potential. A group of computer-savvy 20-somethings go on a murder investigation a year, broadcasting their adventures live on the web. This year it’s off to a remote wooded area where, two years prior, a family had gone missing: writer George Carney, his wife, two kids, and his brother Vincent….Robin! One girl is psychic and through her the story of the family is shown to us in sepia-toned flashbacks. We find out Vincent had been having a long-standing affair with his brother’s wife… and George, upon the realization of this, descends into madness.

Now…that’s the part I understood. Amidst this story, there’s a lot of convoluted, dreamy, confusing sequences that I just could not decipher. Plus, a lot of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” being read. I guess you can sorta make a couple comparisons between this poem and the movie (guy descending into madness, reference to a woman named “Lenore” who had cursed this wooded area centuries ago) but otherwise, I don’t really see why this movie was called “The Raven”. Maybe if I watched it a few more times I’d get it.

When this film wasn’t being confusing, it was being boring with long, drawn out scenes of the computer kids poking around the woods and the cabin, just asking to be killed off. You know, though, these parts make it fit right in with “Flesh and Blood Show” and “Tower of Evil”!

Anyway, my fave part was the glimpse of Robin making out with the wife. Ah, the way she ran her hands through his long hair…..it’s like the ‘70s never left us….
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 1, 2011 update!

I just stumbled across this site:

http://www.moviola3d.com/movies/legend-of-harrow-woods.php#

It looks like they've re-titled this as "The Legend of Harrow Woods" and are re-releasing it in July of 2011! You're in luck! There's also a trailer for it on YouTube:

Bless This House - 1972 – Season 2, Episode 12, “A Touch of the Unknown”

2011-04-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

This is the TV series from which the movie of the same name (which Robin starred in as son Mike) was spun off. It was easy to buy an official release of just season 2 from Amazon UK for not too much. It’s not that great of a show, I found the movie lots funnier. The parents are fine as actors but the “teenaged” kids are just horrible. The guy who plays son Mike is good-enough looking with his long dark hair, but I couldn’t help but being mad at him for being in a role that should have been Robin’s! hehe. The show is full of tired old jokes about “the older generation just doesn’t understand! blah blah blah” by the kids.

However, the last episode of season 2 is the one Robin is in, and it is by far the funniest episode. And not just because of him, either, his role wasn’t very big. It was just a really good one, and I laughed out loud at times. The family decide to have some fun with a Ouija board and later on think they have brought a ghost into the house because of some weird noises in the night. Those noises, though, are due to Mike’s friend Sam (Robin!) sneaking around in the house and clumsily bumping into things. The reason Sam has to sneak around is because the dad didn’t like him and didn’t want him around, but Mike was letting him stay the night. Robin was cute but you just don’t see enough of him as he dashes through the hallways!

In Robin’s book he mentions that while filming this episode he understood why the producers didn’t want to use the same Mike for the movie, as he kept showing up late for work every day and making up silly excuses. Lucky for our Robin! Who, in the movie, makes a much better Mike!!

Confessions from a Holiday Camp – 1977

2011-04-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

Been holding off on watching this as….sob…I’m at the end of my “Confessions” movies! I kept this one unwatched so I could always have that last one to look forward to, but alas, the time has come.

As for quality, I’d put it down as a little better than “Pop Performer” but not as good as the other two.

Robin is again Timmy Lea, and for some reason has now found himself, along with brother-in-law Sid, working for some kind of English vacation club. It is still March, and mentioned that the weather is quite chilly…but there are still a lot of people there, not worrying about it and quite willing to lounge around in their bathing suits. Brrr! Robin, in his book, mentions that it really WAS March while they filmed it and he wound up in bed with a fever after filming the water-skiing scene!

The story is predictable. Timmy and Sid of course get into trouble with their boss. Sid comes up with an idea of having a beauty contest (um, didn’t this already happen in “Carry On, Girls”?) and then he and Timmy find themselves getting a lot of “favors” from the contestants! The sex does seem to be toned way down in this one…especially if you compare it to “Pop Performer”. But, like “Pop Performer” Timmy again doesn’t have much depth to his character. He goes through a lot of motions without the insight or thought he had in “Window Cleaner”. He also doesn’t have a love interest in this one. His real-life girlfriend at the time, Lynda Hayden, (who played the love-interest in “Window Cleaner”) is back but as a completely different character, “Brigette” with a bad French accent. Robin looks like he’s bored with the sex scenes and doesn’t seem to make too much of an effort in trying to feign enjoyment. And oh! Did I cringe when they introduced the “Black” girl along with all the very UN-pc racial jokes!

The humor is all slapstick, culminating in a huge pie-fight in the end. There are some laugh-worthy moments, but generally it’s just silly. There is a suggestion at the end that another movie may be coming along, about them going into the plumbing business, but I guess that fell through. And that’s probably a good thing.

On a side note…on Netflix I sometimes rent non-Robin early 70s British shows just for fun. Recently I watched a few early ‘70s “Til Death Do Us Part” which is what the American “All in the Family” is based on. But I noticed how the “Confessions” series may have been based on it as well. The family’s mom is played by the same Dandy Nichols. The lazy live-in son-in-law is played by Anthony Booth. There is an adult daughter (who looks familiar – she may have been in some other Robin things) and they have a baby boy. The dad is different, though, very obnoxious, and there’s no Timmy Lea type character, nor any sex in it. It’s not very good at all, really, but it’s interesting to think that this COULD have inspired “Confessions”.

Alfred the Great – 1969

2011-04-01T12:21:00.001-07:00

Very hard to find on VHS…and it’s not on DVD. Luckily, I came across someone who had a copy and posted it in segments on YouTube! Gold mine!! I am so thankful I didn’t again have to shell out money for something Robin was in for 5 minutes. Thankful also that he was in the FIRST five minutes of this film and then gets killed off, so I know he wouldn’t pop up again somewhere later. So I only downloaded and watched the first 10-minute segment.

In 9th century England, it tells us, the country was not yet unified, but consisted of several independent kingdoms. Alfred was a young prince who dreamed of uniting the country. When the movie opens, the savage Danes are beginning to invade. Robin is a young shepherd with nothing more on his mind than making out with his girlfriend. In his biography he mentions that she was played by Phil Collins’ girlfriend at the time. So….in the midst of making out he hears the invaders come ashore and, despite her trying to hold him back, runs out to…what, defend his country? One lone boy against an army? Well, he tries. And gets speared. And they carry off his girl. And that’s the end of that.

As always, he makes the most of his role, getting in practice for what he’ll go on to do a lot more of!

Anyway, sorry I’m too lazy to watch the whole movie and offer you a decent review. I’m sure it’s very interesting and informative but I’m just not in the mood for a complex history lesson right now.

Britannia Hospital - 1982

2011-03-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

This is the third in the “If…” series. The second movie (which Robin was NOT in) was “O Lucky Man!” (1971) where Malcolm McDowall reprises his role of Mick Travis. I’d seen it before, but decided to watch it again before I went on to Britannia Hospital. When you first see Mick in it, he is an ambitious coffee salesman touring the north of England trying to make sales. He seems like a completely different person than his “angry at authority” self in “If…”. He travels around, meeting up with one unfortunate incident after another. At the end, he stumbles into an audition for some movie directed by Lindsey Anderson. He is told to hold a machine gun, as he did in “If…” You see another guy who played a schoolboy from “If…” sitting there waiting to audition. Ahhhh! So is this actually a PREQUEL? Everything that led up to “Mick Travis” playing a role as an anti-authority schoolboy? Interesting…

So…on to the third installment in this trilogy…In Britannia Hospital we catch up with Mick Travis again 10 years later. He’s some kind of reporter now. He’s been to America and has brought back a couple of guys (including Mark Hamill!) to help him uncover what’s going on with a crazy doctor at Britannia Hospital – who is harvesting body parts in order to sew together a Frankenstein monster sort of creature. I am thinking this may be the same crazy doctor he ran into in “O Lucky Man” who was trying to do similar experiments? Which would make sense for Mick to be interested in going back to pursue that as a reporter. Unfortunately, Mick gets caught by the doctor and killed. Head taken off and used as the creature’s head. Rather gruesome moments there.

Meanwhile, the rest of the staff is getting ready to celebrate the hospital’s anniversary which will be highlighted by a visit from the queen. Except, there’s social unrest outside, by the masses who are upset that the hospital gives private-paying patients preferential treatment.

Robin reprises his role of “Ben Keating” from “If…”. He’s now a union leader, head of the striking hospital kitchen staff, angry because they have to cook “special request” meals for the private-paying patients. He has quite a few good scenes of being outraged. This is now a good ten years after “Horror Hospital” but his hairstyle is right back where he had it in that, which is a good thing. My fave part is when he is wearing a suit and primping in front of a mirror in preparation to meet the queen. Definitely has an “older Brian Jones” look in this scene. I took a little videoclip of this so I’ll post it to YouTube and share it.

TV AM Good Morning Britain – 1984

2011-03-18T11:57:00.001-07:00

According to Wikipedia “Good Morning Britain was TV-am's flagship breakfast television show, which broadcast from 7am until 9am five days a week between 1983 and 1992.” Robin appeared on this during a segment called “Star Turn” where they had a celebrity jokingly read some silly made-up news. Thankfully, someone somewhere recorded this and it’s all over YouTube now! Robin’s adorable as he fakes being serious about the news he’s reading and at the end reveals he’s wearing no pants! Hehe. But why bother with my review….go head on over and watch it for yourself!

Update for today: Just after I posted this I was perusing other blogs I subscribe to and found out that Michael Gough of "Horror Hospital" has died at the age of 94. Details: BHF Blog - Here's to the best mad doctor ever!!

Father, Dear Father – “The Life of the Party” Season 5, episode 2 – 1971

2011-03-11T10:15:00.001-08:00

Some nice person who was selling bootlegs of the entire series agreed to sell me just the season I needed, season 5. So glad! I didn’t want to get trapped into watching another million episodes of some show (like with Please Sir!) again! Because, I’m just like that…if I pay money for something I feel obligated to get my money’s worth.

Father, Dear Father is a fun, silly, half-hour sitcom. Not something I’d seek out, but amusing enough to keep me entertained. The story revolves around a wealthy divorced writer and his two grown daughters who live with him. The older one is so gorgeous! Has such a unique look and mannerisms. Palest blond hair you’ll ever see on an adult. The humor is very classicly British. Lots of those kinds of “saying-one-thing-and-people-thinking-you’re-talking-about-something-completely-and-hilariously-different” situations.

In “The Life of the Party” the girls decide to throw a party because their father is going out of town. Only at the last minute he doesn’t go after all, so they switch the party location to their mother’s house across town. But the party-goers don’t get the message and all show up at the father’s house. Robin is “Monty”, the leader of the group, who takes the frantic phone call from the girls and rounds up the kids. Hilarity ensues as he herds the group back and forth from house to house as the father gets wise and starts following them around to see what the girls are up to. It’s a good-sized role for a guest appearance, and you get to enjoy seeing him in super-tight ‘70s clothing and a hippie-headband around his hair. He brings a lot of energy into the role and was the perfect choice for it! And so cute at the end when he gets talked into playing children’s party games by the father!

No Sex Please, We’re British - 1973

2011-03-04T11:48:00.000-08:00

Aaargh, this is another one of those “Why did I bother?” films. Robin is in it for about 5 seconds, and his face is covered in cake. He plays a delivery man for a bakery. When a jogger comes alongside his truck and pushes the door aside to squeeze through, it crashes into poor Robin, who winds up with cake all over himself. His only line, a sarcastic: “Thank you very much.”

This was a pointless and ridiculous comedy. Some things were so absurd you can’t help laughing here and there but on the whole it’s not worth wasting your time on. Here’s the story: A young banker and his wife, only just married, move into an apartment above the bank where he works. Before long, they start receiving packages full of pornographic photos, books, and films due to an address error. I guess such stuff is illegal at the time in early ‘70s England? Because a big fuss is made to try and dispose of it before the law finds out. Lots of gags involving the mother-in-law coming to visit, bank officials stopping by, etc.

Now the question is, why did Robin bother taking this role? Why did they bother getting a “big name” star (this was right after Horror Hospital!”) to play a character that was unrecognizable unless you’re specifically watching for him? I might be able to see the humor of “The Confessions Star” doing a cameo in a “No Sex” movie….BUT this came out a year before the first Confessions movie! So…very odd.

So....for any hardcore Robin fan who doesn't want to waste energy tracking this one down, here is his only scene:

Beryl’s Lot “Diamond Cut Diamond” (Season 1, episode 6) – 1973

2011-02-25T13:39:00.001-08:00

The last episode I have of this series. Robin’s in 8 more episodes.

His “Fred” character didn’t have too much to do in this one. A lot of glaring whenever Rosie’s boyfriend was mentioned. The subject of the show was morality. After a discussion in her college class, Beryl starts thinking about different kinds of morality in different situations. And from there, all the other characters start dealing with their own ideas on morality, from working in a betting shop to shoplifting to adultery.

Not a bad show, really. Why hasn’t it been officially released?

Beryl’s Lot “Definitely Very Chilly” (Season 1, episode 5) – 1973

2011-02-20T14:57:00.001-08:00

Haven’t watched this show in awhile because I only have 6 episodes and want to make them last! :) Lots going on in this one. Beryl’s taking a French class in night school and decides to invite a group of fellow students over for a French discussion group. But, as luck would have it, she comes home to find her husband tearing apart and trying to remodel the living room! She also gets into an argument with her employer (the owner of a small inn) and is fired.

Robin’s story: Fred invites Beryl’s daughter Rosie to a classical music concert. She is still in denial about liking such a nerdy fellow and tells him she has other plans. So, instead he takes Millie (I think that was the name?), a rather uncouth gal who works with Rosie at the beauty parlor. Rosie is annoyed and makes disparaging remarks all through tea. Fred is confused, since after all, he HAD invited her first!

The date goes badly. Millie isn’t into classical music. So cute when a surprised Fred says to her, “It's not POP music!” hehe. Mr. Pop Performer himself. She tries to talk him into making out afterward, but again he is confused and leaves without even kissing her goodnight. More to laugh about…a good “confused and naïve Timmy Lea” foreshadowing here…although the girls in his case are just a BIT more aggressive, aren’t they??

In the end, the living room gets done in the nick of time, with Fred’s help, and Rosie winds up daring Fred to giver HER a big kiss. Only to dash off angrily, making him MORE confused. Poor Fred.

Here's the best scene:

Robin doodles for charity!

2011-02-18T11:20:00.001-08:00

Hey, look what I just found! Up on Ebay right now are a bunch of auctions for "doodles" done by celebrities to benefit charity. You can see a larger version of Robin's here and then follow the link from there to bid on it if you want! As of this writing, 2 more days left on it and only 1 bid! OK, so he's no artist but it's cute in a childlike way and wouldn't you love to have something Robin drew???

Feb 20 update: Saw that it was finally won for £20! Congratulations to whoever got it!

The Canterbury Tales (I racconti di Canterbury) – 1971

2011-02-11T11:42:00.001-08:00

Sortof a challenge finding this one, as it’s not available over here. I did find someone in Greece selling authorized copies of it. You could choose your format: Italian audio with English subtitles, English audio with Greek subtitles, a few others as well. I chose the English audio with the Greek subtitles. Which were nonremovable, so just a little bit annoying seeing all that Greek on there but you get used to it after awhile. Only came in PAL format, so again I must thank the DVD hacking code website.

This is of course based on the classic book by Chaucer written way back in the 1300s. According to Wikipedia, It is “a collection of stories written in Middle-English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales (mostly in verse, although some are in prose) are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.”

I did not read the original collection, but I’m assuming this movie “sexed up” the tales quite a bit? I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many naked guys running around before in a film! Even Dr. Who’s Tom Baker is shown in all his glory! Actually, that was kinda disturbing to see. Now….who do you think showed the LEAST amount of full-frontal nudity? Yep, our Robin, of course. Yah, he was naked, but discetely kept a few things out of sight. So much for being a “soft-core porn star!”

I was pretty disappointed with the length of his role. There were SO many good looking young guys that he could have played…that had meaningful dialog and a lot to do. Why he wasn’t put into a role like that mystifies me.

We meet his character “Rufus” near the end of the film, in a medievel whorehouse/tavern type establishment. The bedrooms are upstairs off a balcony that overlooks the tavern below. Each room was being “used” and he was one of the guys on top of a bored-looking girl, banging away. He finishes, puts some coins in her mouth, then gets dressed and goes out onto the balcony calling for some food. His request is denied, and he gets annoyed and berates the customers below, then starts peeing on them. I guess they were none too pleased, because in the next scene we see him being carried, dead, down the road outside. And that’s it for him. Not sure what purpose this character even served.

As his part came very near the end of the movie, we (yes, I talked my husband into watching this one with me) had kept our eyes open for him the whole time. I didn’t know how long his hair was going to be, so I almost thought a shorter-haired blond guy was him earlier in the movie until I saw a closeup. In fact, even then I was confused…..because his voice sounded JUST like Robin’s! Was the guy not English and they needed Robin to do his voice? Weird. And weird part two: ROBIN’s voice sounds like it was dubbed in with ANOTHER guy’s voice! Why did they need to do THAT? Puzzling. I hate that. Robin isn’t fully himself without his real voice. Bah. What a disappointment. Tell me what you think. Is it his own voice or not? He did have his “Horror Hospital” style hair though. I’ve added a short clip from it below. I know, bad quality. All I know how to do is the old “digital camera up to the TV” kind of filming.

Anyway, for the funniest account ever of Robin’s “behind the scenes” experience on this movie, reading his autobiography is a must!

UPDATE June 2011: OK, since seeing this I now notice it is available through Netflix on their "Play Instantly" feature! If only I had waited! Aahhhhh!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE 1/6/12:

New photos added below!

I did a bunch of screenshots from this movie during the Netflix showing of it. So much better quality than the ones I posted above, eh? Click on each one for a larger view. "Google Images" is just going to be flooded with Robin photos now, isn't it? :)

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) – Season 1, Episode 5: “That’s how they murder snowballs” – 1969

2011-02-04T13:25:00.000-08:00

This is the series I was able to get thrown in with my order of “Please Sir!”. It’s a cute show and I found it fun to watch. Haven’t seen all the episodes yet, but Robin’s is only 5 episodes in. The show is about two guys, Randall and Hopkirk, who are partners (and good friends) in their own detective agency. In the first episode Hopkirk is murdered and comes back as a ghost to help out Randall with all the future cases. I read where it once aired on American TV under the name of “My Partner the Ghost”…I guess to appeal to dumb Americans who need everything spelled right out for us ;)

In Robin’s episode Randall is attending a variety show type performance at a theater. During the mind-reading performance, the performer is shot dead. Randall applies for the job of mind-reader in order to go under cover to figure out who the murderer was. He gets the job, thanks to Hopkirk’s help. Robin has a minor part as an “Act Pageboy” – the guy that runs around backstage at the theater and tells performers when they need to go on. He has a few lines pertaining to that subject, but nothing substantial to the plot. He also has a few scenes of standing around backstage looking puzzled at the goings-on. I kept hoping when police / reporters / detectives were asking questions they’d take him aside to see what he knew and he’d have some brilliant insight into the case. No such luck. He makes the most of the few scenes he was given, though, and acts very enthusiastic.

I liked the two actors who played the title characters. They have very distinct personalities. Kenneth Cope is Hopkirk, the ghost, and was a very youthful looking age 38-39 (born 1931) He’s still alive, and has done quite a bit of acting. But, from looking at more recent photos of him, looks very very old now at age near-80. Mike Pratt, born the same year, seemed much older at the time, had that aging-smoker look. And, unfortunately, died of lung cancer in 1976. Interesting piece of trivia I saw on Wikipedia: his son Guy Pratt was in Pink Floyd for awhile.

Arctic Patrol - 1972

2011-01-28T13:52:00.000-08:00

Impossible to find ANY reference to this movie online. Go ahead, I dare you! For this entry I’m going to have to rely on the paragraph Robin writes about it in his book. Before filming “Carry On Girls” he spent a month in Lapland doing this documentary about Arctic survival with fellow actor Jeremy Bulloch. They joined the 42 Commando Unit stationed in Bardufoss in the Arctic Circle, north of Norway. He had a lot of fun and enjoyed it very much. Now…how do you SEE this thing????? And where was it originally shown??

2/3/11 update: Well, as it's impossible to contact Robin over the internet, I attempted to contact the other actor in this film, Jeremy Bulloch, who runs his own website. And he responded! His words:
"The only film that I can remember with a name similar to
Arctic Patrol was a documentary I filmed in Norway.
I wish I had a copy of it as it was the coldest weather I
have ever known. I have no photos of this
apart from a still which I used in my book.
Sadly I can't find it.I remember it was one of a number of armed forces documentaries I did in the seventies. I think all copies would have been lost"

So cool he actually responded, wasn't it!?!

Otley – 1968

2011-01-21T13:09:00.000-08:00

This is one of those times where Robin’s role is so small I almost wish I hadn’t bothered with tracking this appearance down! He’s not on screen for more than 10 seconds and has one short sentence to say.

But oh well. It’s a pretty hard film to find, so it’s nice to know that I actually have a copy. Bootlegged of course, from someone I found on the internet. I paid about $10.

It’s about a young guy, Otley, unemployed and evicted from his apartment. He couch-surfs at the homes of various acquaintances until one of the guys he stays with is murdered as he snoozes on the couch. Only he has no idea, since the murderer also knocks HIM out and leaves him to wake up a day later in the middle of an airfield. He then finds himself entangled in a world of espionage! Not to mention also being pursued by the police, who think he’s the murderer!

Robin I think did this film right after “If….” So in my opinion, should’ve really been given a more substantial role. In his book, he mentions he plays a “drug addict”. Which is a bit of a stretch. In reality, he is one of a group of mod-dressed boys being questioned by the police about what is probably pot they have found on them. In the credits he is listed as “The Kid” and his friends listed as “Kid #2” and “Kid #3”. During this time, Otley is trying to get the police’s attention to tell them about a bomb that just blew up down in the subway.

Some humorous parts…the part where Otley takes his driving test was a bit “Confessions of a Driving Instructor”! And the best part of the film was that you get to see a LOT of London! Cool old architecture, Portobello Road: I saw the very stretch of buildings that I took a picture of when I went there in 1990!

Hollyoaks - Jan 5, 2011

2011-01-14T12:48:00.001-08:00

STOP THE PRESSES! I actually have a CURRENT Robin appearance to blog about! Hehe. Occasionally I will check into the Twitter website and punch in his name to see if anyone in the world is talking about him. WELL, last time I did that, someone was on saying “Is that Robin Askwith on Hollyoaks?” WTH is Hollyoaks?? I thought, and got to work on searching. Some current UK soap opera revolving around the lives of high schoolers. Hmm! Dashed over to their official website. Typical, they don’t let people outside the UK watch the episodes there. Next stop, YouTube. And some ANGEL of a person actually posts each episode there!

So, quick as that, I got to see the episode with Robin in it! I was never one for soap operas, too overacted and wallowing in heavy drama for my liking. This one seems as dumb as any. But, the kids do wear really cool, super-British school uniforms! Can’t get more British than maroon blazers, gray sweater vests and cute little striped ties. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help me tolerate the modern-day teenaged angst though. Please, I’ll take the Bless This House kids back! Now we have to deal with transgender storylines? OK, back on track: One of the teen girls, Texas, has a mom that had promised to hook up one of her friends (who has some sort of band) with her “old agent friend, Earl”. Bingo, Robin! He comes in, leather jacket and shades clad, all smiles and hair. Lookin’ good! (I dragged my husband over to see and asked, “What do you think?” to which he replied, “Can’t tell, with him hiding behind all that hair!” hehe)

So he meets up with the characters at a pub and after the young guy talks about his band, we find out that the mom and “Earl” had a fling in Texas back around the time the daughter, Texas, was conceived. Daughter gets worried, thinking this may be her…dad? “Earl” makes a joke about it, telling her he can really see himself in her. Which is obviously ridiculous…she has very dark hair and features. Actually, she resembles “Carol” in “Cool it Carol”! At the end of the episode, he comes to their apartment to suggest the mom make her comeback as a singer, then they fall into each others’ arms, much to the girl’s dismay.

I watched the episode after this one and no reappearance of Robin yet. It feels like his part should be back, though. As of this writing, no new episodes have been posted. I will keep checking back there and edit this entry if needed!

GREAT to see something current from him!!!!

1/21/11 Update: Just watched the Jan 7 episode. No more Robin yet. The "Texas" character is busy with her friend's wedding, and her mom wasn't there.

Asylum – 2000

2011-01-07T12:08:00.001-08:00

Some force out there did not want me to see this film! It is one of those rare Robin movies available on Netflix – so I ordered it. It arrived cracked. Which almost never happens. Maybe 4 previous discs arrived damaged in the 8+ years we’ve been subscribers. So I login to the site and tried to report it damaged, but they had this quirk in their system where, as it arrived at my house before it was actually DUE to arrive, they didn’t allow me to report it yet…thus slowing down their delivery of a replacement disc. Sneaky. I sent it back and reported it a couple days later. Finally my replacement arrives. ALSO cracked! What the …? Repeat process. 3rd disc arrives. Before I open it I joke to my husband that if this one is also cracked there is something weird going on here trying to prevent me from seeing this movie. Guess what? Yep. I sighed and gave up. I sent it back, but did not report it, worrying Netflix would start suspecting ME of something! I did not re-order it, deciding to lay low a few months and hope my luck will turn next time.

What was it with this movie? Put out on cheaply made discs? I looked through the member reviews and one other person had put down a complaint about how this was the 2nd time they received this disc cracked. Hmmm. Maybe it’s not just me. I wonder if at least a little bit of good will come out of it and Robin will make a few extra cents from each new disc Netlfix has to buy!

But wait….now Netflix has stopped carrying the physical disc altogether. Figures. But they do have it on their “Play it Now” feature! Which is definitely a handy thing for me!

The story: A young couple visit the abandoned mental hospital where the woman’s father used to work as a psychiatrist. Her family had lived in a house on the premises. Now she’s having nightmares of her time there and must go back to investigate. Lots of long scenes of them wandering around the halls, etc. Shades of Horror Hospital! But alas, the young guy is not Robin and thus the first half is pretty dull. Robin makes a mysterious appearance 18 minutes in to the film, but it is not explained who his character exactly is.
He’s a junkie who wakes up, realizes something, and goes out to do something.
Where exactly is he? On the grounds of the Asylum? It was very confusing. Anyway, once the young couple arrive, the murder starts. The old caretaker is killed, then the young man. We don’t see Robin again until an hour and 5 minutes into the film,
then he happily gets quite a bit of screentime.
Turns out 3 former hospital inmates (of whom he is one) have all been inexplicably drawn back there this night as well. They have been having the same nightmares as the daughter their whole lives, nightmares in which they have killed the daughter’s mom so long ago. Only we find out that these memories have been planted…by the girl’s father…the doctor! Who shows up himself at this point to explain…but goes on to say that he is NOT the killer either, and doesn’t know who is. Until….one more person shows up…could they be the killer? Hmmm…

Nice psychological thriller. Like I said, the first part is slow-going, but the end really has you thinking and re-thinking after you think you have it figured out. Robin does well in the role of a haggard mental patient-turned-heroin addict.
The other characters were pretty dull but he was fun to watch, brought a little bit of humor to his otherwise dark role.

"Mission Improbable: Confessions of an Astronaut" - 2001

2010-12-31T15:39:00.000-08:00

Did a little internet search and came up with this description of this game show, on which Robin was once a contestant:
http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Mission_Improbable
Mission Improbable...challenges two teams of celebs you've heard of somewhere before to make movie magic (or something) on a budget of £750 given 48 hours, a title, a few production-y type people and three bizarre and random things to try and include in the film for extra bonus points...The films are judged out of 50 by the B-list celebrity judge.
Go look at the page...there's a couple more pix of Robin on it. Short-haired this year, must've been just after filming "U-571". Sounds like a lot of fun, I'd love to see how his film turned out!

Alladin, 2010

2010-12-21T14:45:00.000-08:00

All you lucky fans in the U.K. have a chance to see Robin this holiday season in a play! http://www.lincolntheatreroyal.com/

ID Pantomimes Limited presents
In association with Lincoln Theatre Royal
Aladdin
Back by popular demand CANNON & BALL as

Wednesday 15 December 2010 to Sunday 16 January 2011

The story of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp is one of the most popular tales of all time.
Cannon and Ball will be returning to Lincoln Theatre Royal with their wonderful brand of anarchic banter and knock-about humour to play the Chinese Policemen. Joining them is Robin Askwith (Gary in Benidorm), one of the best ‘baddies’ ever to appear in pantomime. Also starring is Michelle Hardwick (Lizzie Hopkirk in The Royal) and Lincoln’s very own Steve Barclay as Widow Twankey.

I feel like just ordering tickets for one of the shows and be content in the fact that there's an empty seat for me there, watching the show for me. Sniff sniff.

He does seem to be in a lot of these type of plays, though, so maybe one day I'll get lucky. These are called "Pantomime" shows, which aren't what we in America think of pantomime. From what I've gathered, they're family friendly shows featuring a well-known story, usually performed around the holidays. Audiences can participate in some parts, like booing the bad guy. Sounds like fun. Actually, we have one that is sort of like that here in my town of Astoria, Oregon called "Shanghaied in Astoria". It really fits the mold of an English Pantomime show, with the comedy and singing and flamboyant characters and a big bad guy to hiss at. Robin would be just perfect in it, hint hint ;)

Stagg’s Night – 1983

2010-12-17T13:50:00.000-08:00

Another film I can’t find! I also barely can even find any info about it!

Here’s the summary the British Film Institute website had on it:

“Slapstick comedy based on the stag night of a chef.”

And Robin does get top billing, from the list of castmembers:

Cast Member ASKWITH, Robin
Cast Member AUKER, David
Cast Member SAVAGE, Mike
Cast Member ANDREWS, Joanna

So hmmm! Anyone out there see it? Want to give us a little review of it?? Was it a theater release? A made-for-TV movie? Why is this one so elusive??

Robin's a Tintin fan!

2010-12-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

Found another page from someone who attended that "Memoribilia Show" I mentioned a couple weeks back - and here's a short interview he did with Robin, as well as another pic! http://www.worldofsuperheroes.com/blog/interviews/confessions-of-robin-askwith/ My fave part is that Robin mentions his fave superhero is Tintin! Wow! Mine too! Ever since I was in 3rd grade and discovered the Tintin books at our local library. Only me and one other kid in class really loved him. Most American kids then just had no clue. Tintin "stuff" was very hard to find here, especially in those pre-internet days. So imagine my happiness when I got over to London at age 19 and found all kinds of cool Tintin collectibles to buy! Ah, Robin, we again think alike!

The Fenn Street Gang – 1971

2010-12-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

This is the spin-off of the Please, Sir! series reviewed last time. It focuses on the lives of the 5C class who graduated from Fenn Street school at the end of the 3rd season and their jobs in the real world. The 4th season of Please Sir! was on the air at the same time as the 1st season of Fenn Street Gang, so stories sometimes entertwined. Like when Sir decides to quit Fenn Street school and no longer appears on that show…a few of the episodes of FSG will show what he’s up to.

So that brings us to Robin’s episode. It aired a week before his episode of Please Sir! Aired, and he plays the same character. In this, he is sitting in the unemployment office chatting with one of the former 5C class members when Sir walks in, also in need of a job. He looks amazing. I think 1971 was his best “hair” year. His part is not that big though, they really could’ve had anyone in that role. Later on in the episode he gets a job as an in-store demonstration salesman for a juicer named “The Wizard”. Funny, as we were just in Costco a few weeks back watching a similar demonstration, minus the hot ‘70s guy. While he is making his presentation, unfortunately the camera is focused on the Sir character yakking to other people, while you barely see Robin in the background. Until near the end when Sir comes over and asks him something. Hilariously, Robin tries to turn off the juicer and it explodes and the power goes out. So anyway, yeah, this is loosely the same character of “Eddie” that he plays in Please Sir. And this one aired first, so when in Please Sir he is hanging out in the pool hall boasting that he’s a man of the world because he “had a job”, this is probably what he is referring to.

Happily, the guy I found who was selling this series was happy to negotiate and let me purchase only season 1 (containing the Robin episode) for a reduced price. I’m willing to accept that there were no surprise Robin appearances in any later episodes (there were 2 more seasons), but feel free to let me know otherwise if you know differently! I did get through all the episodes of this season but don’t feel any need to learn what happens further to these characters.

Birmingham Winter Memorabilia Show 2010

2010-11-23T19:30:00.000-08:00

Robin made an appearance at this on Nov 20-21. Sadly, no, I didn't attend. I guess it looks like some sort of film memorabilia convention type thing. Not that interesting to me otherwise, but I would have loved to go meet Robin :( Sadness and woe, being half a world away! Anyhow, next best thing, another fan out there DID get to go and posted a bunch of nice photos of Robin on his flickr account at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stfphotoagency/5196226128/ so check them out! Robin looks good for his age, glad to see he still has his long hair. Can you believe how shiny it is???

Please, Sir! - 1971

2010-11-19T13:36:00.000-08:00

This was a popular sitcom in Britain in the late 60s/early 70s. Robin is listed as only having appeared in one episode from 1971. I found someone on an online marketplace selling bootleg copies of the entire series PLUS a spinoff movie. Did I really want to puchase all that for one small glimpse of Robin playing some minor character? No. So I politely asked the guy if he’d be willing to sell me JUST that episode, plus a couple other Robin episodes from other series he was selling. Um, sorry, no can do. Really? You’re already bootlegging stuff and can’t push a button and re-copy 3 shows onto one disc for me? Sigh. But I held my tongue, who knows, this guy might be my only source. So I made an offer for the whole series PLUS another whole series that had just one Robin episode. Offer accepted.

Well, as I paid for the whole 4-season series plus its spin-off movie (where the class goes to camp), I might as well get my money’s worth and watch it. Actually, it’s not too bad. Kinda funny. Enjoyable. First season is filmed in black and white and is a cross between the movie “To Sir With Love” and “Welcome Back Kotter” A new teacher in a high school located in a working class section of London is given the school’s most unruly class of seniors: 5C. In England, at least at that time, not sure of now, grades were known as “Forms”. The 5 in 5C means 5th Form, roughly equal to our Senior class in High school. But if you want to go on to university it seems that there is a 6th form as well, but these kids certainly won’t be doing that. The C may stand for the not as smart group? “A” may be the smart group? I’m assuming that part.

So….of course the kids give the new teacher a hard time at first but also of course he quickly wins them over even though all their previous teachers have quit in disgust. And the viewers find out that these kids, underneath their smart mouths, have hearts of gold.

Robin originally tried out for the role of “Duffy” but lost it to the worst looking “teenager” imaginable. When the series starts in 1968 Peter Cleall, who plays him, is 24 years old! But looks much, much, older, despite his long shaggy blond hair. An 18 year old Robin would have been a lot more believable as a high school student. Funny enough, he is also the guy who played the aging Gary Glitter-esque rocker in “Confessions of a Pop Performer”!

Most of the other main characters also probably are not played by teenagers. There’s the “sexy” one, Sharon, who looks like a voluptuious woman in her mid-20s. I am amazed by her beautiful thick hair though! There’s the dowdy religious girl, Maureen, who has a schoolgirl crush on Sir. There’s the learning-disabled one who is abused at home. The streetwise one who boasts about how tough he is but has an overprotective Mum at home (played by the same actress who plays the nosy neighbor in “Beryl’s Lot”). And the one I like, the sharply dressed blond guy, who looks the youngest of the lot.

Despite Robin officially being in only one episode, in his autobiography he mentions he appeared in a few episodes in 1971 as a character named “Eric”. After wading through the first 3 seasons I finally come to season 4’s episode 6 titled “A.W.O.L.” He is playing a character named “Eddie”, not “Eric”. Faulty memory on the part of Robin? He is also not in ANY other episodes. Hmphs.

By the 4th season, the original class has graduated and it’s a big changeover at Fenn Street School. The show no longer focuses on just one class or teacher. Nor does it focus on a just few main students. But the kids are all really kids now, and definitely look like it. Each episode brings in different kids for the stories to revolve around. New teachers are introduced as well.

In “A.W.O.L” two boys in their late teens have been ditching class and hanging out at the local billiard hall. Robin plays an apathetic young man, none too smart, who also hangs out there. They are involved in mischievous petty theivery. A popular new teacher comes down to have words with him and to talk the kids into coming back.

It isn’t the best display of acting talent I’ve seen, but Robin sure looks hot with his long fluffy hair and groovy jacket!

On a side note, the actor that plays the energetic and dynamic young new teacher is Richard Warwick, who was in a few of Robin’s other works, including “If….” And went on to become good friends with him in real life, according to his book. He’s fun to watch in “Please Sir”, very flamboyant and cheerful. I looked him up on the web to see what he’s been doing lately and unfortunately, he died of AIDS in 1997. Too bad.

Season 4 was the last season of the show, and I can see why. Characters come and go which leaves the viewer confused. Richard Warwick’s character, who comes to the school with much fanfare, disappears all of a sudden without explanation. There’s so many different kids you can’t keep track of who’s who. The last few episodes focus on the core staff of elderly teachers who’ve been there since the beginning and get on your nerves after awhile. Why the show just couldn’t have continued to follow the original characters instead of spinning them off into a new show “The Fenn Street Gang” is puzzling.

Stand Up Virgin Soldiers – 1977

2010-11-12T11:57:00.000-08:00

Like in 1978’s “Let’s Get Laid”, Robin plays a short-haired soldier. His character is a lot more appealing in this one though, for some reason. He acts more like himself. And even with the short hair, he’s really hot! Maybe it’s because he made this one straight after “Queen Kong” and his glowing tan hasn’t faded yet.

The setting is 1950, Malaya, Singapore. The British army are there fighting some war – Korean, maybe? Robin is a likeable young soldier who pals around with a fellow soldier. They visit the local brothel, put on a talent show, play tennis, date nurses, get invited to a fancy dinner given by the officers…. Um, is this a war they’re in, or are they on vacation? There’s a tiny bit of a toned-down Timmy Lea in him, in a couple incidents where he either is bumping into a wheelchair-bound patient in the hospital or knocking something over at fancy luncheons or dinner. But it’s so much more subtle and nicely done in this than in the Confessions films.

This more serious-than-usual role again demonstrates the range he’s capable of . To go from a wacky hippie in Queen Kong to a believable 1950s era soldier is quite a shift!

I think anyone would find this film enjoyable. Although some of the dangers of war are touched upon, it is basically a lighthearted look at the fun and comradarie of life as a soldier. It was filmed in England, yet still you still get a realistic feel of them being in a hot, humid jungle environment. Everyone must have had to be continuously spray-bottled for them to have that “always perspiring” look!

Menace – “Trespasser” - Nov 17, 1970, season 1, episode 8

2010-11-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

This week I’m treating you to yet another appearance that I cannot find to watch. There were two seasons of 23 episodes put out in the years 1970 and 1973. Wikipedia says that 21 of these are “lost”, but who knows. The originals may be stored somewhere.

It was a BBC drama described as “series of thrillers designed to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.” In his episode, Robin plays a character named “Robbie Clay”. Man, it sounds like an interesting show!

Found a nice write up about the series in general on an informative website called “Action TV”. Here’s what they have to say:

“Jordan Lawrence was the creative force behind Menace, a series of twenty-three plays running to seventy-five-minutes which found their basis in the aspects, perceptions and representations of menace in various settings in and around the villages, townships and cities of the United Kingdom. The stories, whilst thematically linked, approached the essential premise from a wide variety of different directions, some subtle and some far less opaque. The nature of menace could either be reflected through a particular act, the body language of a particular character, the environment in which an episode was set, or a set of circumstances under which a character or characters was placed. The success of the series was firmly rooted in the changing nature of menace from episode to episode, and this became a potent allure for audiences ensuring healthy ratings figures and commanding attention from the popular press. The programme drew from the creative well of a fine combination of writers (amongst whom the most notable were Alun Richards, Roy Clarke, Hugh Whitemore, Fay Weldon and James MacTaggart) who were able to inject menace into darkly comic situations, and heighten darkly menacing situations to make a viewing pleasure transform itself into an uncomfortable time for the audience. The first series proved more popular than the second, probably because of the novelty value of the programme and, perhaps, by virtue of the fact that it was originally transmitted on BBC 2, the risk-taking arm of the corporation. When the programme shifted its home to BBC 1 for the second, shorter season, audiences were more accustomed as to what to expect from the series. Also, in part, the emphasis shifted more towards action rather than menace and thus, the original premise became somewhat watered down so its popularity somewhat waned…Menace was never commercially exploited, but with the announcement that Thriller is soon to be released on DVD in the United Kingdom, perhaps a raid on the BBC archives may now be warranted.”
-Text © Matthew Lee, 2004

I also found a cast listing at “Action TV” where they have summaries of a lot of the episodes but not this one!

Cast : Moira Redmond (Laurie), Gordon Jackson (Lander), Thorley Walters (Thatcher), Geraldine Newman (Pauline), Robin Askwith (Robbie Clay), Gerald Rowland (John Clay), Roberta Tovey (Annie Clay), Barbara Lott (Mrs Clay), Nick Brimble (The Locksmith) and David Quilter (The Doctor)

Well, I’ll keep track of it and see if it is indeed ever released!

Confessions of a Driving Instructor – 1976

2010-10-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

The third in the “Confessions” series of movies Like, the “Window Cleaner” one, I’d previously just seen an edited version of it on the TNT channel. Now, thanks to my DVD player hacker code, I have finally seen the original, PAL format British release! Robin is still Timmy Lea, who again follows his brother -in-law Sid into business…this time buying an out-of-business driving school to run. The usual hanky-panky ensues. Robin’s love interest this time around is a somewhat mannish woman who is the daughter of the rival driving school’s owner. Not sure why she was chosen, as she looked way too old to play a “daughter” type role and didn’t blend in well with Robin. Unsure why they couldn’t’ve found him a nice, pretty, petite girl like in “Window Cleaner” and “Horror Hospital”!

After the “Pop Performer” fiasco this one goes back and more fits the mold of “Window Cleaner”. The story is a little more interesting, the jokes a little more clever, and the pointless sex seems to be turned down. I think Timmy only shags something like 5 women? Robin looks a little better in this one too, but still not quite his best. What is it during this time period? Maybe the hairstyle. Still looks like it has a weird cut growing out. OH. I think I know too…sideburns. I loved the sideburns in Horror Hospital and other appearances around that time. He’s too clean shaven in this! Ha ha. But at least you can definitely tell he’s gotten some sun recently – his tan lines are VERY evident in quite a few scenes, if you know what I mean!

Confessions of a Pop Performer – 1975

2010-10-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

I’d been dying to see this one for years due to my love for anything concerning the early ‘70s British pop scene! Unfortunately, it turns out the band in this film attended the “Gary Glitter School of Pop” and are butt-ugly! They couldn’t somehow scrape up some hot looking guys in the vein of Sweet or T.Rex?? I’ll admit that the songs were catchy though, very glam-inspired. But wasn’t glam on its way out by 1975?

The movie itself was a disaster. With “Window Cleaner” you got a decent story and characters with some depth and feeling. This one is a charactature of it. Robin’s character Timmy has been made way too one-dimensional and doesn’t seem to have a thought in his head. They amped up the sex and thus this one does fall more into the “softcore” realm. The writers don’t bother with much of a clever story for each woman like in Window Cleaner, nope, it’s pretty much New Woman Meets Timmy and Starts Attacking Him. Without any rhyme or reason. And Timmy is stupider and clumsier than ever! I know it’s all for laughs but jeez. The joke gets a little old when EVERY single time a woman comes onto him Timmy acts like he has NO idea what she wants from him until his clothes are off. Um, he hasn’t figured it out by the 50th time this happens to him?

Plus, Robin just doesn’t look his best in this one. His hair isn’t as shiny and full and blond as it sometimes is, and is cut in somewhat of a bad shag. His skin pallor is sorta pasty, like it’s been a long winter in England that year!

The story: lamely put together. Timmy and brother in law Sid, still window cleaning, decide at the spur of the moment to manage a pop group they’ve barely heard. After that, they spend the rest of the time trying to get them booked in clubs and a record made and played. Their drummer suffers a hand injury so Timmy steps in. Robin’s drumming is the highlight of the whole film. He looks adorable in those scenes! And it’s a chance for him to show off his drumming skills, as he did used to play them in a band he was a part of in high school. If you don’t want to see the movie, at least you can watch those clips on You Tube!

Sigh. This one could’ve had so much potential!

Happy 60th Birthday, Robin Askwith!

2010-10-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

Wow! Can you believe, 60 years? Hope he's having a fun celebration, wherever in the world he is at the moment. Coincidentally enough, today is also my son's HALF birthday! He is now 7...and a HALF! hehe.

But anyway, here's to another 60 years of good health and great movies, Robin! Thanks for all the fun you've given to us fans!

The Journey – 1982

2010-10-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

Going through Robin’s film listings, I found this one that really doesn’t “fit in” with the rest of his body of work. Its synopsis: “Christmas story told through animation and 16th century Flemish drawings, with carols and extracts from the Bible.” And Robin is credited with doing the “music”. Interesting. I was not aware he dabbled in music composition. It is just 30 minutes long and was shown on Dec 24, 1982 in Britain. Would be interesting to hear how he got involved with something like this, but it is not mentioned in his book. Wonder if it’s trotted out every year over there or is instead stuck on a back shelf somewhere and long forgotten. Nevertheless, I’ll file this one away under “Will never get to see”.

Confessions of a Window Cleaner – 1974

2010-10-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, I know I did this one already. But…guess what? Remember, before I only had access to the heavily edited version I’d copied off cable TV years ago. I recently threw all caution to the wind and bought a PAL-format boxed set of all four “Confessions” movies! If I could figure out how to make my DVD player region free, perfect! If not, at least I’d have a cool collectible boxed set. But, using codes from a handy DVD hacking website I successfully changed all 3 of my DVD players into region free ones! Wow! It was super easy, too. This is one of those rare times I’m glad I’m living in the modern age where you can literally make anything work for you! The world of British DVDs is now open to me and no one can stand in my way!!!!

It was nice to watch a clean, sharp version of this! My old one on VHS had that deteriorating tape quality to it, plus all the cut aways to commercials. And now I see what a bad editing job they did as well. Many scenes were just cut off so short that the following dialog didn’t even make sense! Now as I watched this one I was thinking to myself, “Ah….so that’s what he meant when he mentions fetishes!” hehe

And right from the beginning you see how much had been taken out! Lots of scenes of Robin looking in windows and seeing naked women. Lots of Robin running around in bedrooms stark naked. With all that, though, I still can’t classify it as soft porn or anything though. You pretty much see all this in any R rated film of today. Absolutely no full-frontal guy action. He’s pretty discrete in keeping a leg or knee in front of what us female fans are curious about seeing! Even the infamous “soapsuds on the kitchen floor” scene I kept reading about being so shocking wasn’t really that shocking, as soapsuds covered every part of their bodies! It was also filmed in a madcap, fast motion way to make it silly rather than sexy!

Nothing really to review that I’ve not said in the previous review. A few extra thoughts: So many of these British movies/TV shows seem to center around families where adult children are still living at home, and when they get married, the new husband/wife just moves on in the family home! Does this reflect reality? Does it reflect reality in the ‘70s? Are taxes just too high over there to make a living where you can afford your own home?

Beryl’s Lot – “Dancing Lessons” – Season 1, episode 4 - 1973

2010-09-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

Back to this series. I’m trying to make them last, as I only have 6 episodes of them! This 4th episode, though, is getting to be somewhat tedious and formulaic. Again the story is about aging housewife Beryl, now fully enrolled in night school classes at the local college. Her husband again feeling pushed aside in their relationship. Robin’s character Fred again bickering with their teenaged daughter Rosie. Nice part of this episode is you get to see Robin’s nicely shaped, somewhat tanned shoulders as he lounges around the kitchen in a tight wifebeater style undershirt! Main theme of this one is that the college is giving a dance and she wants to go. Husband does not…she does anyway….followed by Rosie, some nosy neighbors, and Robin’s Fred so as to keep an eye on her!

The Last Bus – 10 Oct 1968

2010-09-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

Robin says this is his very first speaking part, which places it before “If….” Amazingly, I found it on YouTube! I knew beforehand it was something about “bus violence put out by the BBC for the schools" so I was assuming it was something about bullying on a schoolbus with Robin playing a character similar to what he played in “The Double Deckers”. But no. This interesting little half hour black and white dramatization takes a look at a late night double decker London bus with a few passengers on it, on their way home. On comes a group of 4 longhaired troublemaking youths, the leader of whom is Robin, playing “Robbo”. Another of them I noticed at the end was named Arthur Wild – could that be the brother of my beloved H.R. Pufnstuf’s Jack Wild???

The bus conductor comes around to take their fare. Funny how this is done! You don’t have to pay when you get on? The conductor walks around and asks where you’re going and lets you know the price! Seems like a big confusing hassle if there are a lot of people! Robin and his gang start giving him a hard time and don’t want to pay the full fare. Lighthearted arguing soon turn into angry accusations and racial insults (the conductor is Irish, the driver is black). The boys angrily leave the bus. But at the last moment grab the conductor and beat him up. The people on the bus sit in shocked silence, no one daring to go help out. The scene ends there and we are shown a man who talks to us a bit about what we have just seen. Then he starts to “interview” some of the characters from the film – ask them why they did nothing to help the bus conductor. Fascinating to hear their explanations and rationalizations. One older lady brings up a lot of issues you hear about today in America! And probably in Britain too. How she doesn’t know why, with all society does for underprivileged kids like these (free schooling, public housing, job training, etc) they still run around getting into trouble. I felt the interviewer’s comments back to her were a bit harsh, as she did have a point! What else is society to do about problem youths? Sheesh. The other people talked about fear for their own safety and worry for their families if something happened to them. They had a point too, and I’m sure most people could relate. How could the interviewer really expect these riders to go up against 4 strong violent young men? I suppose the 3 men on the bus could’ve gone out as a group but honestly, the older lady and the young girl would’ve been helpless (because, as you know from a lot of Robin's movies, all girls are good for is standing around and screaming a lot! ;-) )

I see the point the show was trying to make – how we should be involved and help each other but it would’ve made more sense to have put a few more people – stronger people! – on there.

Also, the “gang of toughs” looked more like a clean-cut mod pop group that a gang of serious street thugs that would act this way. It was hard to watch Robin be so mean and violent, he just doesn’t look like he SHOULD be! Was bus violence really a big problem back in 1967 London? I have to laugh just a little bit about this premise, me, who had to endure riding packed L.A. city buses full of gang members cursing, spitting, throwing things, carving graffiti into the seats and blasting rap music on my way to and from my private high school as a teen – as it went by the public high school on its way there. “Public school” has a WHOLE OTHER MEANING here in the US than it does in Britain! Give me a busload of troublemaking young Robin Askwiths any day!

As a sequel to this there was:

Sentence of the Court – 17 Oct 1968

But I can’t find it, so I’ll just give you this:

From the BFI website: “A sequel to 'LAST BUS', this semi-dramatised documentary looks at what the subsequent history might have been of the boys in the gang that attacked the conductor in Last Bus, what might have caused the boys to behave in the way they did, and what the nature of their punishment will be.”
Anyone have it? Could you YouTube it for me? Please?

2011 UPDATE:

Cool page I found which tells all about these shows: www.broadcastforschools.co.uk
And here's the YouTube of "Last Bus" - I meant to come back and put it on then just forgot about it, sorry!

Cool it, Carol! – 1970 Aka The Dirtiest Girl I Ever Met

2010-09-03T13:43:00.000-07:00

Joe (Robin) and Carol are small-town kids working in dead-end jobs. Joe is a butcher’s assistant, Carol pumps gas. Carol reminds me of a British version of the girl who plays “Jackie” on “That 70s Show”! To impress her, Joe tells her of connections he has in London, how he’ll be going there on business and did she want to come along? She, with dreams of a modeling career, agrees. On the train, she shows her adventurous nature by disrobing and trying to seduce him, but he nervously can’t keep up with her.

Upon getting to London they check into a hotel and hit the nightlife. Joe gambles away most of their savings and Carol makes out with some guys they’d just met. Joe tries to keep up his charade of having an important job to report to, but little by little she realizes he has been all talk. They wander around, hungry, trying to figure out something when she suddenly she decides to try her hand (just for fun) at playing prostitute. Eventually they find a sleazy older guy (who also played a sleazy sort in “Four Dimensions of Greta!”) who agrees to take them over to his place. As he has his way with her in the bedroom, Joe nervously stands by in the living room. When through, they agree to come back another time….but when they do, they find he has invited a whole group of guys waiting to get a piece of Carol’s action! What can they do but go along with it? Joe frets again in the living room, but in the end at least now they have some money to live on. Carol is upset over the whole thing, and Joe assures her she won’t have to do that again. They do instead find themselves talked into making a pornographic film together. This is when we get to see young Robin naked! But, alas, the shifty camera barely gives us a glimpse of his backside now and then and mainly focuses on the leering men surrounding the bed watching!

Eventually she breaks into modeling, and her career takes off. Joe comes along for the ride, as her manager. She gets a little huffy now and then about this, but mostly enjoys their new lavish lifestyle as they check into a luxury hotel and throw decadent parties.

They soon come to realize they are not happy after all and wind up back on the train to their old town and their old lives.

I must say, Robin really out-Brian Joneses Brian Jones in this one! His hair is perfect. He wears flamboyant late 60s/early 70s fashions and flowing scarves around his neck. He is young and vibrant and glowing! Whew. And he plays this “serious” role very nicely, very believably.

One of the easier films to find – even Netflix has it!

Tuf Boots Advertisement – 1971

2010-08-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

Super quick review for this one, but when I say I want to review everything Robin ever filmed, you have to now give me points for being thorough! I found this on YouTube. He doesn’t speak, and is only in the ad for a few seconds. A bunch of men are modeling boots. He comes out in his pair in classic Robin style, making the most of his few seconds, giving a skip and a twirl, long hair bouncing all over the place. Mmmmm.

AUGUST 18, 2011 UPDATE

I'd previously seen this in a compilation of adverts. Now I've just come across another copy of it - better quality, even - and it's all alone! It says 1974 on it, but elsewhere I'd read it's from 1971, so who knows. But...here you go!

The Flesh and Blood Show – 1972

2010-08-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

A horror movie from the same producer as “Four Dimensions of Greta”, Pete Walker, who made quite a few other low-budget creepy British horror flicks that I’ve enjoyed down through the years. 1972 seems to be the year he was fascinated by 3-D for, like in Greta, he gives us that swirly swirl announcing that a 3-D scene was coming up! Unfortunately, this DVD did not contain the 3-D effect and was just shown in black and white. Robin was not in this scene.

Atmospheric and suspenseful, although for the most part, nothing really interesting goes on. A group of actors from London is summoned down to a foggy seaside town to rehearse a play in an abandoned old theater. None of them think that’s weird at all. Robin is one of the actors, and although his character has no real action, he is in most scenes making comments and small talk. The actresses have no qualms about spontaneously whipping off their clothes in front of the other actors who they’ve apparently just met, and parading around topless in the cold, drafty old theater….to the point where they’re not to be bothered putting anything on before they go investigate a weird noise! Poor Robin gets none of the girl-action in this movie, though. He keeps his clothes on the whole way through. He does wear a couple of cute tank-tops!

One of the other actors is our old friend from ‘Greta’ – the guy who played the German lead, Hans. In this one he’s an Australian named Tony! Funny, cuz he’s probably really Australian in real life, but every time he opened his mouth I was expecting the German accent! I’ve noticed in most of Robin’s films the same actors get recycled a LOT. Must be a small pool of actors for what’s being produced over there!

OK, so the actors are down at the theater, and one of them happens upon a room full of wax heads….only to notice that one of the heads is not wax at all but belongs to one of the actresses in the group! The police are brought in, but the head has disappeared and they think it has been a sick joke. The actors then suspect it’s a prank by one of the actor guys who is known for pulling grotesque pranks like this in the past. Only he’s disappeared now too. Another of the actresses’ body is found thrown in the ocean. The prankster actor shows up dead. Another actress is found with a knife in her back while the rest of them are onstage rehearsing a scene. I’m not sure what the play is supposed to be, but the two scenes they show them rehearsing involve some kind of performance-art type dance sequences.

An elderly former actor gentleman they had previously met in a local café shows up, and predictably turns out to be the killer. Turns out (we are shown in the 3D scene) back during the ‘40s while he was in a Shakespearean play he discovered his wife making out with another actor (a hot guy with curiously long ‘70s hair in the 1940s!) Note to the ladies out there: the guy is shown completely naked! I mean completely! So…..the husband drags them both to the basement, ties them together and locks the door. Their skeletal remains are now finally discovered.

In case a viewer might not be able to comprehend the whole thing, Robin’s character sums up what we’ve just watched to the other characters, as Shaggy might do in an episode of “Scooby Doo”. I was waiting for the old guy to come out with, “…and I might have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling kids!” hehe

Good to have Robin make it through to the end without getting killed off in this pre-slasher era slasher. He does a lot of what he does best when he isn’t actually the star: standing around looking perplexed, rubbing his nose in confusion, and mischievously slapping any giggling girl butt that happens to run across his path!

LOST! The Borderers – 1970 – Season 2, episode 7: “The Quacksalver”

2010-08-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well, another show I’ll never be able to see.

According to the Lost UK TV shows website at: http://www.lostshows.com/default.aspx?programme=a5f0b7f0-51eb-48fe-aaf0-d99c7c00e917 this is one of the missing episodes of this show. Too bad. But, I’m going to assume Robin’s role of “Hewie Heriot” was not a very big one? Who knows. Sheesh, I wish the British would keep better hold of their old TV shows! There is a little summary of it at: http://www.tv.com/the-borderers/show/25382/summary.html and Wikipedia has a great description page of it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Borderers Their basic summary of the show is:

“A historical drama series, The Borderers was set during the 16th century and chronicled the lives of the Ker family, who lived in the Scottish Middle March on the frontier between England and Scotland.”

And their summary of Robin’s episode is:

“The Quacksalvers trick their way into Slitrig, and Gavin has to decide whether they should be pitied or are rogues.”

Oh well. Perhaps one day someone will “find” the lost episodes of it!

Four Dimensions of Greta - 1972

2010-07-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

Pretty hard to find any official copy of this, but I eventually found someone selling a bootleg copy of it on an online marketplace.

Rated X when it came out, the few reviews I could find about it all made it seem like it was quite scandalous. So, of course I was curious and didn’t know what to expect. Soft porn? Finally would I see Robin completely naked? He sorta makes it seem that way when he writes about this movie in his book.

As my birthday treat I talked my husband into watching this one with me. Couples porn, I said. Lots of girls for you in it, Robin for me. He agreed.

The story: German guy (no, not played by Robin) is planning a trip to England to do some research for a story he’s writing for a magazine. An older couple he meets wonders if he could do them a favor while he’s over there? Their 18 year old daughter Greta had gone to London to work as an au pair and has disappeared. Could he go talk to her last employer? He agrees.

He arrives and meets up with an old girlfriend. She’s engaged to be married, as is he, but wind up naked in each others’ arms anyway. Nudity, but nothing what I’d call porn. Perhaps in its day. My husband yawns. No guy nudity, but I’m not watching this to see the German guy anyway.

German guy goes round to visit Greta’s employer who informs him she’d only worked there a week because she was a horrible worker and has no idea where she’s gone. Dead end there. He then scours the swingin’ music clubs of London, showing her photo to various club-goers. When he happens upon one that is a favorite amongst German immigrant girls, one girl said yes, she could give him some info, but he’d have to come visit her tomorrow for it. He does, to find an apartment full of naked hippies, who give him a story about Greta being cruel and manipulative and they asked her to leave. Last they heard, she was now a stripper.

While they are telling that story, we are treated to the first of four “3-D” flashback scenes. I’m sure it was pretty impressive to see on a big screen in the still-technologically primitive early ‘70s, but sadly these scenes did not transfer well to the small screen. Yes, we had a couple pairs of old 3-D glasses too!

When Hans (German guy) talks to someone from the strip club, she gives a whole different picture of Greta (via 2nd 3-D flashback). Greta was a sweet, naïve thing, who got herself talked into stripping and didn’t last there very long. But, perhaps Hans could try talking to her boyfriend, Roger?

Roger turns out to be Robin Askwith. In the 3rd 3-D sequence, he says he met her while working at a massage parlor which happened to be owned by the same guy who owned the strip club. He is an athlete and had to go to the place to help soothe a pulled muscle, and he could tell she was very new to the job. However, they clicked and moved in together. He talks fondly of the times they had together, and it’s a really cute scene where they’re giggling and she’s throwing him grapes. They wind up naked in bed, but it’s hardly anything X-rated. You barely see Robin at all with her laying on top of him.

Either Robin’s memories of this film have faded, or he actually filmed something more explicit than what was in the final cut. But I sure wouldn’t call this much of a “sex scene”.

Back to the story: he doesn’t know where she is now. But perhaps he should talk to the guy who owns the strip club and massage parlor? He gives him the address of gambling hall he also owns.

Once there, Hans is given a story (in the 4th 3-D scene) of an aggressive Greta who came on to him at his massage parlor. In the throes of passion, Roger had walked in and gotten into a fight with the guy, who broke his arm. But….when Hans reports back to Roger with that story, he is told what had happened instead. Roger had actually walked in on the guy raping Greta, threatened him, and took Greta away. Afterward, the owner sent some people round to kidnap Greta and break Roger’s arm in revenge.

Hans’ girlfriend is then sent in to try to sexily cajole Greta’s whereabouts out of the owner. She gets the info, but doesn’t escape a gang-raping. Don’t worry, nothing explicit is shown of that. The bad guys drive out to a houseboat where they are keeping Greta, but are followed by Hans and Roger, who climb aboard and bring everyone to justice with a good fight scene. And in the end, sweet Greta is shipped back to Germany, with a wistful Robin Askwith left behind at the airport.

Anyway, we both thought it wasn’t a bad little film. My husband was not that impressed by the selection of naked girls – he said they looked too old for the ages they were supposed to be playing, and their boobs were too big and saggy. All he really liked was when Hans’ girlfriend wore these hotpants with thigh-high stockings: “I don’t remember any girls I knew wearing those in the early ‘70s!” he said ruefully. Um, sorry, Jim, but as you were spending those years in Hacienda Heights rather than Swingin’ London, that’s what you get.

As for me, I wasn’t disappointed at all. Robin was in his prime here, and his hair was just perfect. Fluffy, clean, long enough to have a beautiful natural wave to it….mmmm. And, oh yeah, nice acting job too. ;)

LOST!!! Z-Cars – 1968

2010-07-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, Wikipedia lists the entire 1968 year of this show as lost. Here’s their explanation:

“The original series was one of the last British television dramas screened live regularly — already rare by the time the programme began in 1962. It was felt that this helped immediacy and pace, and episodes were live as late as 1965, despite cameras appearing in shot. Most were videotaped for repeat, but the BBC regularly wiped tapes after programmes exceeded their usefulness, agreements with unions meaning they could only be shown a limited number of times. The space needed to store large videotapes, as well as the expense when they could be re-used, were factors.”

Anyway, here’s what they say the premise of the show was:
“Z-Cars (pronounced "Zed Cars", sometimes written as Z Cars) is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Lancashire. Produced by the BBC and screened on BBC Television (renamed BBC1 in 1964), it debuted in January 1962 and ran for 16 years until September 1978.”

That’s about all I know! So, unless there’s a Robin fan from way back who happened to somehow film a copy of this show and send it to me (yeah, right!) or Robin himself is secretly reading this and has a copy of his own he could let me borrow (a double “yeah, right!”) I’m going to give up on ever trying to find a copy of it. But you know, we can comfort ourselves with the probability that it was a really small part, being so early in his career and all – he doesn’t even mention it in his book!

If…. – 1968

2010-07-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

I saw this almost 20 years ago so I had to rent it via Netflix to refresh my memory. It was considered shocking in its day with its portrayal of a school shooting massacre that has sadly become a commonplace occurrence in modern-day times. Malcolm McDowall stars as Mick Travers, one of the older boys in a upper class boarding school in England. He has a rebellious streak and little by little gets more and more fed up with the structure of the school until he reaches his breaking point.

This is 18 year old Robin’s first role in a major film. He is not one of the main schoolboy characters, but is one of the senior boys who does get to be in the background of many of the scenes. He plays “Keating”, a mischievous type who enjoys giving the younger boys a hard time. He is seen doing things like making fun of the fat kid and dunking a younger kid’s head in the toilet. There’s also a nice shot of him walking naked across the shower room.

A very absorbing, interesting film. Although I don’t think it went far enough if it was trying to portray the horrors of an English boarding school. Aside from some injustices and cruelty here and there I didn’t see how being a student there was really horrendously miserable. Perhaps because I’m looking at it from the point of view of someone who has herself gone to a private school with strict discipline (no beatings though, thank goodness!) and expectations, I dunno. I just really didn’t feel the abuse Mick took was enough to push someone (and convince his friends as well) into carrying out a massacre. From what I’ve read, the kind of kids that do this are tormented and bullied, isolating themselves and then finally lashing out in revenge. The character of Mick has friends, he’s respected enough by his peers. But, I suppose it’s pointless to try and psychoanalyze a character in a movie!

In Robin’s autobiography he mentions that part of this movie was filmed in Cheltenham, Brian Jones’ hometown. He was a fan and was able to find his house and stare at it in awe. Hey – me too! When I was in England in 1989 I took a trip up to Cheltenham and got a picture of myself standing in front of Brian Jones’ old home. I also got to visit his grave, which wasn’t yet there in 1968, but soon would be.

Why the fascination with Brian Jones? What’s the tie in for me to Robin Askwith? Who knows. For some reason I’ve been mesmerized by Brian Jones since I first saw a photo of him in a book when I was around 9. Like I’ve said before, Robin looks just like him but with a dash of Mick Jagger thrown in to give him a harder, sexier edge than Brian Jones had. Brian Jones is pure angelic. In looks anyway. Robin is him, but with a dash of devilness added!

Children’s Film Foundation films: Scramble 1970, Hide and Seek 1972, The Hostages 1975

2010-07-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

From the Children’s Film Foundation website: “The Children's Film & Television Foundation, then the Children's Film Foundation, was set up with the support of Lord Rank in 1951. Its remit was to make films specifically for children to be screened at Saturday morning matinees and used in schools.”

There were a ton of these movies made in England. But now it seems as though they’re impossible to get! Not sure why, as from my research many adults over there have fond memories of watching them. There were only 8 put out some years back on DVD, in 4 volumes, and ONE of the ones Robin was in (Hide and Seek) was on volume 2. STILL it’s hard to find! The set was put out under the name of “Saturday Morning Pictures” and guess what, the guy who’d sold me the entire series of “Please Sir!” had that listed on his leaflet he sent out with my purchase. He listed it as: “Saturday Morning Pictures, 6 Films.” Whoo-eee, I thought, jackpot! I emailed him asking exactly which 6 films they were. As helpful as ever, he emailed back and said he didn’t have title info. Sigh. But, it was cheap, £1.95, so I purchased it anyway. Worst comes to worst, at least I still have 6 children’s films to show my son.

And guess what? “Hide and Seek” was NOT on it. Typical. What was (for anyone collecting these things): “Adventures of Hal 5” from 1957 and “Egghead’s Robot” from 1970 (both on vol 1 of “Saturday Morning Pictures”). “Go Kart Go” from 1963 and “A Hitch in Time” from ? (both from vol 3) and two others that were unlisted "extras" on the “Saturday Morning Pictures” DVD series: “The Magnificent 6 ½: Ghosts and Ghoulies” and “The Magnificent 6 ½: A Good Deed in Time”.

I noticed that a FEW of the CFF films can be seen on YouTube, but so far I don’t see the ones with Robin there. Will a kindly person out there please upload them there, if you have them? Thanks. Until then, all I can give you is the CFF’s website’s synopsis of them:

SCRAMBLE:

Jimmy Riley, who has been in trouble with the Police, is befriended by members of a schoolboys' scramble club and given a job in a garage run by the club organiser. Unfortunately, his previous associates interfere with his efforts to start a new life. Robin plays “Lennie”

Ooooh just found a better review of Scramble at: http://www.tvcream.co.uk/?p=9252 :
“Jimmy Riley, who has been in trouble with the police, makes friends with Colin and Brian Buxton, both keen scramblers at a schoolboys’ scramble club. The club’s organiser gives Jimmy a job in his garage, where Jimmy builds his own bike, Lennie and Cliff, old friends of Jimmy’s, steal wealthy Mr Hepplewhite’s car. Mr Hepplewhite buys his son, Oscar, a bike, which he has no idea how to control. Next week when the scramblers are away, Jimmy – left behind – finds the crooks with the car but will not join in with them. Oscar’s bike, again out of control, crashes into the barn. Lennie and Cliff escape in the car, but are caught by Jimmy and Colin on their bikes. Cue lots of freeze-framing of bikes in mid air, to a pumping rock – or more likely high octane skiffle – soundtrack.”

Apparently, “Scramble” was shown in the States on the CBS Children’s Film Festival with Kukla, Fran and Ollie (puppets) hosting. I vaguely remember watching some of those as a kid, but don’t know if I saw them all. http://kukla.tv/cbs.html

HIDE AND SEEK:

Keith absconds from an Approved School in the hope that his father will take him to Canada. But Keith's father seems more interested in robbing a bank. Robin plays a “fake police constable”.

AUGUST 5, 2011 UPDATE! I have now seen "Hide and Seek" and have reviewed it here!

THE HOSTAGES:

Children on lonely farm outwit escaped Dartmoor prisoners. Robin plays prisoner “Terry Sladden”

AUGUST 12, 2011 UPDATE! I have now seen "The Hostages" and have reviewed it here!

(all photos “borrowed” from the CFF website!)

Bless This House – 1973

2010-07-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

A fun, fluffy, family-friendly comedy. This movie is based on an early ‘70s British sitcom of the same name. Robin had originally tried out for the part of Mike, the teenaged son, but had lost it to another actor because the producers had wanted a darker-haired guy to resemble the actress who would be playing his sister. Robin eventually got a part as Mike’s friend Sam in ONE of the episodes in the 2nd season. But by 1973 when they were putting together the movie they somehow felt their Mike (Robin Stewart) was too unreliable and wound up casting Robin Askwith in the part.

I loved it! It’s about a middle-class family: parents, art college son Mike and teenaged daughter Sally. New neighbors move in next door and because of a few hilarious problems, an instant feud arises between the families. Except for their lovely daughter Kate, and Mike, who naturally fall madly in love with each other. They do make a striking couple. Inexplicably, Robin has a real-life affair with the actress who plays his sister, who is nowhere near as beautiful, and is honestly, a horribly annoying actress. But I digress. The ending seems to be tied up rather too neatly as all characters make up and celebrate the marriage of Mike and Kate. Boy does he look nice in a tophat!

This is the same year Robin makes “Horror Hospital” so he looks exactly like that in this movie, same hairstyle, same sideburns. He goes through quite a few wardrobe changes and wears some of the grooviest, early 70s fashion I’ve ever seen him in!

I highly recommend this one - this is definitely a Robin movie you can watch with the kids! Funny though, because this has SO many of the same actors and actresses in the naughty “Carry On, Girls!”

Beryl’s Lot (season 1, episode 3, “Box and Cox”) – 1973

2010-06-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

In this episode Beryl takes her first night class – only to show up and find its been cancelled. She and another middle-aged woman decide to drown their disappointment at the local pub. Meanwhile, her husband takes advantage of his freedom at home by holding a card party with his buddies. Beryl’s friend passes out at the pub and Beryl has her brought home to sleep it off. Robin has a lot of scenes in this one, milling about, making comments, etc. Lots of nice close-ups, too…you can practically count his eyelashes. Mmm. When Beryl worriedly tells him that daughter Rosie has left word that she will be sleeping over her boyfriend’s place that night, Robin’s “Fred” quickly leaves, saying there’s something he must do. Next day. The point is blatantly made that Fred is very tired by lots of yawning and stretching. At the end Rose arrives home to be questioned by her mum, only to protest that she was NOT with her boyfriend at all, just at his PLACE with his SISTER while he was out of town, and, goodness, did not even get a WINK of sleep what with the phone mysteriously ringing all night, the police and fire brigade showing up at all hours….etc. Much confusion on her part while Beryl and Fred start to giggle.

Had no idea what the title “Box and Cox” even meant, so…internet search to the rescue: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/73300.html says:

Meaning - To take turns.
Origin - The term comes from the comic play 'Box and Cox - A Romance of Real Life in One Act', by John Maddison Morton. This was first produced at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, London, in November 1847. Box and Cox were two lodgers who shared their rooms - one occupying them by day and the other by night.

Still not sure how that describes this episode, but oh well.

Bartelby - 1970

2010-06-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

This is actually the movie that got me on my current Robin fascination…the one that got me started on wanting to see ALL his movies. Purely by chance, I had rented this from Netlflix, and was taken aback when I saw his familiar face in it! I then sent it back, but when I decided to do this blog a few months later I refreshed myself re-watching it using Netflix’s “Play it now” feature, which allowed it to come through surprisingly smoothly. I’d never tried streaming their stuff before! But it’s not available for everything.

It’s a weird but interesting movie. About an introverted sort of guy that gets hired in an office but starts telling his boss that he “prefers not” to do the work. The boss is dumbfounded and doesn’t know what to do. He knows he needs to save face by getting rid of the guy, but also is intrigued by him and wonders about his background and why he acts like this. Robin has a small part as an office worker. I just love that suit-and-tie-but-with-long-hair look on a guy. He has a few good scenes of being sarcastic with the guy, and cheeky with the secretary.

So…the boss, instead of forcing the guy out, he decides to avoid conflict altogether and moves his whole office to another building. Bartleby then keeps coming back to the abandoned office, which gets the other workers in the building upset. The original boss finally comes back and makes arrangements for him to be carted off to a mental institution.

Check out the super creepy anorexic girl near the end of the movie, one of the patients at the institution. Now, I’ve always been super-skinny myself, so I hate it when skinny people get accused of being anorexic. But the true anorexic look is scarier than anything you’ll see in a horror movie, and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone this skinny before outside a concentration camp documentary! Who is this girl? Did she die soon after? She has a small speaking part and seems like she’s in a daze. So sad!

Beryl’s Lot (season 1, episode 2), “Quite a Reception” – 1973

2010-06-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

Beryl isn’t as angsty as she is in episode #1, but she does decide to sign up for night classes and read the philosophy book Robin’s character Fred had suggested to her. But all that is pretty much the “B” storyline. “A” storyline focuses on her arranging a friend’s daughter’s wedding reception at the hotel where Beryl works as a housekeeper. Bring on the snooty hotel owner that turns the whole thing into a mess….and drives out the entire wedding party to the local pub instead. In this fun scene, Robin lets his hair down (literally, as it’s usually neatly parted and brushed for this character) as he joins in on the drinking and dancing and singing. He even winds up dancing with 17 year old Rosie, who has been ditched by her latest boyfriend. With all the arguments between them and the previous adamant protests from her that “Fred just isn’t my type!” we can now see where this will be going…

Beryl’s Lot (season 1, episode 1, “Getting Up”) – 1973

2010-06-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

I was happy to find someone online selling a few episodes from this early ‘70s British TV show. It is not a sitcom, but more of a serious, slice of life hour-long drama. With just a little bit of humor tossed in. The show centers around a woman named Beryl, who upon turning 40 starts to go through somewhat of a midlife crisis. She is married to a nice enough guy, has one grown out-of-the-house married daughter and one 17 year old daughter “Rosie” who is living at home. But she is dissatisfied. In this episode it is revealed that she “had” to get married at age 17 when she became pregnant, and now feels as if her whole life since then was nothing but cooking, cleaning and kids. Her husband doesn’t understand, he’s content with his lot in life.

Robin plays their boarder, Fred Pickering. Somewhat a change from his other 1973 roles, his character is rather conservative and rule-abiding. His hair is short-ish, but long enough to give him a wonderful Brian Jones-circa-1964 look. No backstory for him is given in this episode, but he seems to look to Beryl as a mother figure and tries to look out for the family’s best interests by doing a lot of nose-poking into their affairs. For example, when 17 year old Rosie starts dating a guy who is bad news, Fred makes it a point to tattle on her to her parents in typical big-brother style. Rosie is played by an actress named Verna Harvey and dated Robin briefly during this time. According to his book, it seems as though he pretty much dated every pretty actress he ever co-starred with!

I also loved his sarcastic attitude when kindly Beryl allows a friend to temporarily stay with them after she gets thrown out of her hotel room for nonpayment. Ah, that familiar pissed-off scowl, so reminiscent of Horror Hospital….

It’s a good show. I only have 6 episodes of it, I hope I can find more.

Gozo Adventures – 2008?

2010-05-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

OK, not a movie, but something you can watch at: http://hancockltd.com/portfoliogadvd.html for free! Robin narrates a little promotional travel video for his beloved adopted country of Gozo, an island near Malta in the Mediterranean. At first it didn’t quite sound like him, but what do you expect? His voice has deepened and matured. It has the quality of a distinguished English gentleman now. The more I listened, the more I found the familiar inflections of his old self, though! He helps paint an impressive picture of Gozo (well, the video helps too!) as a historical, adventurous but relaxing escape. Looks beautiful there, I would love to visit. We’ve long been talking about a family cruise vacation in the Mediterranean, and I saw where Disney cruises offer a shore excursion to Gozo, so who knows? Maybe we’ll make it there one day. I see myself hopping off the boat, seeing Robin lazily lying on the beach….in skimpy 1970s swim trunks of course….mmmmm…. ;) OK, not to worry, Robin, my husband and son definitely won’t be letting me out unchaperoned!

Oh! Something else Gozo/Robin related I found recently:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-1263711/Confessions-Gozo-Robin-Askwith-selling-flat-Maltas-peaceful-rural-neighbour.html?ITO=1490

Nice photo! Nice peek inside his home! His decorating style is too modern for my liking though.

Carry On Girls - 1973

2010-05-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

Not too hard to find, I found an old VHS copy on Amazon for cheap. They also carry it on DVD for American systems for around $11. It was watchable, and gave me a few laughs. Kind of a cross between “Benny Hill” (which I loathe) and “Fawlty Towers” (which I love). Apparently there’s a whole slew of these Carry On movies in England, but thank goodness Robin is only in this one so I need not see any more.

The story is about a gloomy English seaside tourist town (which I could relate to, as I currently live in gloomy coastal Oregon) whose mayor decides to drum up business by holding a beauty contest. Needless to say, a women’s lib group organizes protests and sabotages. Lots of busty women running around in bikinis and dirty old men leering at them. (See what I mean about Benny Hill?) Robin is adorable as the photographer Larry Prodworthy who is hired to take publicity photos. He also inexplicably happens to be the son of the leader of the women’s group protesting the event. It’s not a huge role, but still gets a lot of screen time…always seems to be there flashing away with his camera. His character is pretty benign, unfortunately doesn’t get naked or have any love scenes. There is one scene where he must take photos of one of the contestants who is riding a donkey into a hotel lobby (don’t ask!) and he gets that “Oh my god, I’m in love!” look on his face when he sees her. I thought that may lead to something good between him and her later on, but nope, sorry, that bit of foreshadowing is forgotten.

Robin needs a Twitter account

2010-05-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

Wouldn’t it be great? Him sending out messages letting us know he’ll be appearing in a play in London…starting to film a new movie….

I actually don’t “follow’ anyone on Twitter right now…but I probably would if he was on. I’m guessing he’s not much of a technology person, though, with no official website, or Facebook account either. Please, get it together, Robin! (for the 1% chance he even googles himself and is reading this, fingers crossed!) Rutger Hauer (my other fave) is way older than you and keeps all his web stuff nicely updated.

Benidorm - 2009

2010-05-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

There’s a TV series in England right now that will be soon going into its 4th season. When I heard that Robin made an appearance in season 3 I knew I had to get ahold of it. If you go to their website, they meanly do not let anyone outside of the U.K. view its clips, interviews, or anything. So, what’s an American to do? Go underground, of course. I found someone online who converts current British shows to DVRs for Americans to watch. Pretty cool. I bought the entire season 3 for $20. Even though Robin is only in episode 4, I didn’t mind watching the complete season. It wasn’t hard to get into, even if you haven’t seen the prior seasons. It’s about a group of English vacationers who for some reason travel to a Benidorm, Spain resort area every summer. It is absolutely hilarious! The characters are a scream. And oh, so horrible looking! Overweight, tackily dressed, brash personalities, makes me feel a little bit better about being an American – ha ha, those Brits aren’t as dignified as everyone thinks! They’re just as boorish on vacation to foreign lands as we are! Hmmm. Could that be the reason they don’t make it easy for us to view this show? ;)

So…Robin’s role. He plays Gary, a conman who appears at the resort and fast-talks people out of their money. And plays the role so well! He talks so quickly and convincingly you have a hard time figuring out what hit you until he’s gone. All the while still with the same mannerisms he had in his 20s, so cool to watch.

Although…I must admit, he’s looking rather weathered in this. I’m not quite sure I understand that –remember how young he looked in the “Evil Calls” interview from just 3 years ago. Did he really age that fast in such a short time? Or did the Benidorm people try to make him look older for the role? He does have a makeout scene worthy of his ‘70s self, though! In the elevator with one of the main characters who had been in cahoots with him from the start.

Fun show, and I do hope he'll be back on next season!

Evil Calls: The Raven – 2007

2010-05-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

Wonderful, just wonderful (said sarcastically). I find that Robin is back to making horror movies in modern times and am thrilled that finally there’ll be something that’ll be easy to just rent off of Netflix, rather than hunting down and purchasing in the back alleys of the internet. Wrong. When it comes to Robin Askwith, apparently nothing is just that simple. Despite coming out 3 years ago, Netflix doesn’t carry it. Neither does Amazon. Someone online mentions you have to buy the DVD through the production company’s website, http://www.houseoffear.co.uk/films/evilcalls/index.htm So I head over, prepared to shell out some money, but am unable to find where it is I’m supposed to buy it. I email someone on the site about it, but they never get back to me. Does anyone WANT this movie to be seen?? Unfortunately, as they’ve been this wildly successful with this one, they’re doing a sequel, this year, 2010, titled “Back2Hell”. Goodness, what exactly do I need to do to SEE these things?

On a “I’ll take what I can get” note: On the website I mentioned above, there are clips from the film, which looks like it could be pretty interesting. AND! An interview with Robin! Who looks absolutely amazing for his 57 (at that point) years. Still his sparkling blond hair, charming wit and dazzling grin. Sigh.

Hopefully coming some day…an update of this “review”.

April 22, 2011 UPDATE!!! Finally saw it! See the review here!

LOOKING FOR…ITV Saturday Night Theatre “The Full Cheddar” – 1969? 1971? (Season 2, Episode 12)

2010-05-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I’ll post some movie or TV show I’m having a tough time finding! From my research it seems that the “ITV Saturday Night Theater” was a kind of “movie of the week” type thing. I don’t know if these even exist anymore, or were just played once and erased? One discrepancy is that the IMBD lists this episode as broadcast in 1969, yet Robin, in his autobiography, had it scheduled in his 1971 diary: he has it down to be filmed from May 30 – June 14 of that year! Odd.

The few details IMBD lists: the plot:

“A teacher's concentration frequently wanders as he fantasizes about living a different life.”

And the character Robin plays: “Bassett”. An actor named Daniel Massey plays the teacher character of Fred Instance.

Sorry, that’s it! Can someone help me track this one down?

Hans Brinker - 1969

2010-04-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

I guess you could call this Robin’s first real “starring” role. He landed this fresh out of high school and plays the title role. Hans Brinker is a teenaged boy in mid-1800s small town Holland whose father is a brain-damaged invalid as a result of a work accident 10 years prior. The family struggles along until hope comes in the form of a brain surgeon, whom Hans skates all the way to Amsterdam to beg to heal his father. This is a heartwarming, family-friendly musical which showcases Robin’s talent as a serious actor. His more lighthearted comedic roles are great, but I think they caused people to overlook the reality that he is a natural actor and really could have gone on to star in some more substantial leading man type roles.

Reading his autobiography is a must if you want to learn some funny and interesting “behind-the-scenes” tales from when he was making this! Especially amusing was that he and some of the other boys lied when auditioning for their roles, saying that they were advanced ice skaters, while in reality none of them knew how at all. Resulting in some quick “on the job” training in it at the last minute. I did notice that during all the fancy skating scenes, Robin is not given much screen time, even though he IS the star! Ha ha

Here Come The Double Deckers: “The Go-Karters” – 1970

2010-04-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

You would think that this British TV series would be one of the harder appearances to find, but no! You can view this whole episode on YouTube! Amazing. And I for one am very glad to have not paid for it. It’s a really bad children’s show about a group of kids who make their clubhouse/hangout in some garage that houses a double decker London bus. The kids all have a distinct stereotyped persona: (the smart one, the fat one, the black one, the American one, the girl, the little pre-school aged one…) and you wonder how they got to be friends in the first place. They’re all a little bit annoying as well, they all overact. Loudly. This particular episode revolves around a go-kart they are making to put in a race. Not a lot of dialog, but lots of boring scenes of go-karts speeding around the track and speeding OFF the track. Just hilarious, I suppose, if you’re 5. Now for the reallllllly ridiculous part. Robin plays a “Hell’s Angel” biker guy dressed in a leather jacket who for some reason wants to compete in a children’s go-kart race and tries to sabotage the kids’ cart. Why on earth would a grown up (He’s 20 years old at this point in his life!) tough biker dude care about something like this is beyond me.

All Coppers Are… - 1971

2010-04-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

An obscure one that isn’t readily available, but I happened to find mine on Ebay from someone who I guess takes British films and puts them onto DVD-Rs compatible with US systems. Probably not legal, but I’m glad he was able to get past Ebay’s strict guidelines about this sort of stuff -- because collectors need this kind of service!

Robin plays a small part as a young thief who gets caught by the main character, a young policeman. He appears only at the beginning and ending: thieving, being chased by the copper, getting thrown in jail…then at the end, bumping into the cop again as he rides around on his bicycle delivering newspapers. I’ve noticed that in a lot of his movies he’s either running for his life or riding a bicycle!

Not disappointed, though. It was really an enjoyable movie aside from having Robin in it. The story’s about the conservative young policeman who is married with a baby. He meets a longhaired guy about his age at a wedding reception – who is played by Nicky Henson. Nicky Henson is also an old favorite of mine from the “Elvira” movies, so I was very happy to see that he and Robin actually made a film together! Next to “Horror Hospital” my favorite Elvira movie was “Psychomania” where he plays a member of a motorcycle gang who find the way to come back from the dead after killing themselves. Apart from an episode of “Fawlty Towers” I have not seen him in anything else, so this was a nice surprise.

Getting back to the story…at the reception they also meet a young girl who Barry (Nicky) falls for but she more has eyes for the married copper, who, in a moment of weakness, winds up having a brief fling with her. When she finds out he’s married, she resorts to moving in with Barry, who is on the “other side of the law”. He’s planning to hijack a truck for some mobsters. Once he’s paid, they hope to flee London together. That is, if they’re not found out by…their old pal the copper!

Good story, good acting. Interesting glimpse of working class London and the people that populate the housing projects in an absolutely dismal looking part of the city. One protest-turned-riot scene was shocking to watch, as the small police force was sent out – with no weapons - to be a barricade against the mob of hundreds of angry young people. I guess it’s really like that over there, police officers not carrying guns, but it seemed almost like suicide to me.

Nicholas and Alexandra – 1971

2010-04-10T12:29:00.000-07:00

Early in his career Robin played a very small part in this sweeping epic about the famous Russian ruler. He only has two appearances where he couldn’t be more different. First, he is shown with his family, dressed all in white, happily running through a field of sunflowers to meet an arriving train. Next we see him as a Russian soldier, miserable, dirty and starving, skinning and devouring a rabbit while in combat. He shoots another soldier who has come to admonish him. In his autobiography he mentions that he really was made to skin and eat a real raw rabbit! And how disturbed he was afterward that he did. After having seen that scene, I think that was horrible. It would’ve been very easy to disguise anything else as raw rabbit meat. Shows what a true actor is willing to do for his art.

U-571 – 2000

2010-04-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

Anxious to see Robin in a more recent role, I rented this one via Netflix. I innocently popped it in the player one Saturday night to watch with my husband. “I think I saw this already,” he commented. “Why did you pick THIS?” knowing full well it is not my preferred genre of movie. “Ummmm….I dunno….” I said with an impish smile. “Oh no.” He realized all too fast. “HE isn’t in this, is he???” I looked guilty. “What role could he possibly play in here?” he demanded. “I don’t know anything about it,” I confessed. “All I know is it said he plays a ‘British Seaman’”. So we settled in to scrutinize every scene to see if we could find him. “That’s him,” Jim says knowingly at an early dinner scene. “That young soldier there. I’d know him anywhere.” I roll my eyes. “In 2000, Robin Askwith is 50 years old. That is NOT him.” “Hmmm. Maybe he aged well?” he suggested. “It’s NOT him.” I was firm about it. Try as we might, we never did find him. Oh well. Weeks later, after doing some research, I learned from someone on the web that he was in a lifeboat of guys shot by the Germans. I did vaguely remember that scene, and reported back to my husband. “Why did he even take such a small part?” he wondered. Um, yes, WHY??? Well, actually, rumor is he did have a much longer scene, but it got cut! Humphs!

All in all, not a bad movie, but if you’re just looking for Robin, no need to bother looking for him here.

Update: just before I published this review, my husband found a VHS copy of this for me at a thrift shop. I dare anyone to find a more loyal husband, willing to hunt through thrift shops to make sure his wife accumulates every last movie made by her favorite movie star. Hehe. So, I went back and found that scene and YES now that I knew it was him saw that it WAS recognizably him. The picture I’ve included here is the ONLY time you will see him, so if you’re not interested in this type of movie, just look at this picture and you can say you’ve seen it. He’s the one standing up on the left of the boat. You hear him a little longer than you see him. He’s calling out, pleading to be rescued by a German ship, but they instead shoot the whole boat. Ugh to those bad, bad, Nazis, preventing Robin from popping up again later in the film!

10/5/10 UPDATE:

This'll be my first attempt to upload a scene to YouTube and embed it here. So fans don't have to wade through this whole movie to see his very very small part. Now, if you are unable to watch this clip, it may be because they took it off for copyright reasons or whatever, not sure how much of a film people are allowed to upload there. So far, it's still up and playable. So here goes: