Happy 62nd birthday, Robin Askwith!

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

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

Caroline Ellis

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

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

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



Little did I know that very year she was filming stuff like:

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

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

I see she also did another kids show called “Freewheelers” in 1972, that I’d not heard of:

I couldn’t find any photos of her as she looks today. All Wikipedia could offer was: “Ellis no longer acts. She is divorced and the mother of a daughter, Sasha. Today, Ellis is an estate agent and lives in Spain with her daughter.”

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

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

:)

Phoebe “Vanessa” Shaw

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

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

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

2005 interview part 5

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

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

2005 interview part 4

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

2005 interview part 3

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

2005 interview part 2

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

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

2005 interview part 1

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

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



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

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

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

RobinAskwith.com !

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

First review of "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy"

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

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