Sir Tony Robinson

Sir Anthony Robinson, known professionally as Tony Robinson, is an English actor, comedian, amateur historian, TV presenter and political activist. He is known for playing Baldrick in the BBC television series Blackadder and for hosting Channel 4 programmes such as Time Team and The Worst Jobs in History. Robinson is a member of the Labour Party and has served on its National Executive Committee. He has also written sixteen children's books.

In 1999, Robinson returned to star in a one-off Blackadder short film to celebrate the new millennium, entitled Blackadder: Back & Forth. This short film was shown in the Millennium Dome throughout 2000 and was later aired on BBC One in 2002.

Robinson also contributed the voiceover for the TV series Airline in its set of new series from 1999 focusing on the daily routine of EasyJet staff at a selection of airports. The show was made for ITV and is often repeated today on Sky Real Lives, Sky 1, Sky 2, Sky 3 (now Pick TV) & ITV2. He worked as the narrator for six of the remaining nine series until 2006 when the series ended. Tony Robinson's Cunning Night Out, a largely improvised stage show, followed in early 2005 and included a mix of the many themes from his career for which Robinson is famous. He also edited and presented The Real Da Vinci Code, a documentary for Channel 4's Weird World series which countered the claims made by Dan Brown in his novel The Da Vinci Code.

In addition to telling his own stories, Robinson narrated the abridged audiobook versions of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Nigel Planer, Celia Imrie and Stephen Briggs narrated the unabridged versions. He also provided the voicing for several characters in the videogame Discworld. He followed on this Discworld work by playing a role in the live action television dramatisation of Hogfather, broadcast on Sky over the Christmas season in 2006.

Robinson also presented Classic FM's Friendly Guide to Classical Music which aired on a Sunday at 4 pm. The whole 16-episode series was repeated on 26 December 2006. He revealed on the BBC Radio 2 feature "Tracks of My Years" that his favourite songs are: "I Can Help" by Billy Swan, "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis, "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol, "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera, "Unfinished Sympathy" by Massive Attack, "Tangled Up In Blue" by Bob Dylan, "Shoulda Woulda Coulda" by Beverley Knight, "This Woman's Work" by Maxwell, "He's So Fine" by the Chiffons and "Falling Slowly" by the Frames.

In 2007, Robinson narrated television advertisements for Honda, in the humorous style of Tales From Fat Tulip's Garden. The advertisements feature plastic cars with expressive faces (similar to Thomas the Tank Engine). He has also done voiceovers for laundry product Vanish as of 2007. In the spring of 2007 Robinson visited thirty towns in Britain and Ireland with his one-man show, A Cunning Night Out. The show was released on DVD.

With Channel 4 Robinson presented Tony Robinson's Crime and Punishment and Catastrophe and Man on Earth focusing on humanity's struggle with climate change in the past 200,000 years. Tony Robinson and the Paranormal was first broadcast on Channel 4 in December 2008. In this series, Robinson investigates paranormal phenomena combining the fields of archaeology, parapsychology, history and spiritualism to investigate paranormal evidence.

In July 2009, he appeared in the light-hearted BBC1 series Hotel Babylon as sly hit-man named Arthur Barnes. The character is knocked unconscious by a flying bottle expertly lobbed by the hotel manageress during a showdown in the lobby.

In February 2010 Robinson, described as the 'stunt Pratchett', read the main part of Terry Pratchett's BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture.

From 1 September 2010, Robinson hosted a new series on National Geographic Channel called Birth of Britain which was repeated on Channel 4 beginning in January 2011. Tony Robinson Explores Australia was first broadcast in the first half of 2012. Filmed in High Definition, the series roughly follows a chronology from the earliest sightings of Terra Australis Incognita through to the present with each era defined by a theme rather than equal blocks of time.

From 10 September 2012, Robinson hosted a new series on History Channel Australia called Tony Robinson's Time Walks. The series uncovers stories that shaped the character of various cities and suburbs around Australia, including Fremantle, Melbourne, Hobart, Woolloomooloo, Bendigo, Newcastle, Carlton, Brisbane, St Kilda, Adelaide, Canberra, Kalgoorlie, Townsville and Launceston. He also went to Christchurch, New Zealand.

During October 2012, it was announced that Time Team would be cancelled after nearly 20 years on television. Tara Conlan from the Guardian called the show "television history". When talking about the successful run of the show, Tony Robinson said "Not many performers are given the privilege of featuring in two iconic TV series—but I've been lucky." The show's ratings were falling, causing Channel 4 to pursue an alternative "innovative" approach to historical documentary programming.

Between 2012 and 2014, Tony Robinson presented a series of programmes for Channel 4 called "Walking Through History". It featured Robinson hiking through iconic British landscapes, including the Cairngorms, the Jurassic Coast and Stonehenge. At least 16 hour-long episodes were aired, in four series.

In September 2013 Sir Jonathan Miller directed the Gala Performance of William Shakespeare's King Lear at the Old Vic in London. Robinson played the Fool.

In 2014 Robinson played the eponymous title role in a touring production of "The Hypochondriac", Richard Bean's new translation of Molière's "Le malade imaginaire", directed by Lindsay Posner. That year he also made series of programmes on World War I using original 3D photographs to portray life at the time.

In 2015 Robinson presented an hour-long programme for Discovery TV, "Tony Robinson's Wild West", in which he attempted to uncover the reality of America's Wild West in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Featuring such key figures as Wyatt Earp, Geronimo and Buffalo Bill, it included artefacts and stereographic images.