Smith’s Crisps ad – 1967

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

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

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

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

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 always 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

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

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

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

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

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