Reflecting on Life and Legacy

Howdy, Howdy Hoe and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson. And I'm Steven, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Missborn. But here's the catch. Stehven here has not read Missborn before. That's right, Hey, Hey. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Stephven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong. News Flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find fantasy fan feellllows wherever you get your podcasts. ACS powers the world's best podcasts Here's a show that we recommend I'm Monica Reingel, nutritionist, author, and host of the Nutrition Diva podcast We dig into the questions that you are actually asking, if it's okay to drink coffee on an empty stomach, whether it's possible to retrain your sweet tooth, which ultra processed foods you might actually want to include in your diet? we take a closer look at diet trends Fact check sketchy claims and track down the science so that you can feel more confident about what's on your plate. New episodes are released every Wednesday Find Nutrition diva on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and be sure to follow or subscribe so you don't miss a single episode odcast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere Acast. com John Lloyd the producer said to me, How's it going to feel for you when you're famous? And I said, You're taking a mute. And he said, I'm not. He said, you're playing Rowan Atkinson's servant. I said, Where have you been? and you went, Oh, I've in Australia. and then you went, ye, Sal, I filled the Sydney Opera house. My name is Sotff Baldrick. Why are you called Sotoff Bdrick? Because when I'm walking down the street, everyone says Sot off Bdrick. Today's guest is a much loved actor, presenter, author and broadcaster. B known for his unforgettable role as Baldrich, who's he going be in the classic sitcom Vada. He has enjoyed a remarkable career across television and the arts. He's also become one of Britain's most respected history presenters You did aQ, didn't you? Yeah. Front in the hugely popular archeological series time Tam for over twenty years. I love time fromom comedy to drama to bring in history to life for millions of viewers He has remained a familiar and influential figure in British culture. Please welcome My darling friend Tony Robinson. Hello darling. very well indeed. So obviously, we know each other very well because you are in the Madel M Mystriies. each other each So we are dear friends now.. So you're one of those people that when I met you many years ago, it' about seven years ago now, seven eight years ago It was like one of those people that is a friend I didn't know I needed It was like one of those lovely shocks in life, you go That's brillant and it's Ty Robington. I don't know about you. I don't get so many new mates as I. when you get older, you don't take on. But we did. and I love you. Right. So this starts off. It's like a quick fire sort of getting to know you think hilariously. But so just for our lovely viewers and listeners, so quick fire questions answer straight away. Okay. F funniest person you've ever worked with on set? It is the great Roan Atkson, even though he's not funny offs setet No that's madn't it? Yeah. I've heard that serious. Yeah yeah ye. Serious you've binge more than any other Game of Thones without any doubt. Love it. Oh you'd love to share a trailer with? Oh Oh what's the name? Jane Fndnder Who would be cranky? I know, but I just think she's had such an interesting laugh. Oh, she's fascinating, isn't she? Yeah. Fascinating. If you could play one character from your past forever, who would it be? Oh, I've played someomeone called Uncle Patrick in in is it called? What was it Adam Blanc Mysteries? Yes, that's it. yeah. one starring that lady who used to be in Coron. Nation Street. Yeahah, that one, the blond one. Not Sarah Lancashire, the other one. Yeah. yeah, yeah. the other blond one. Yeah. It was your very first TV crush My very first same answer. I G, it was your first? My very first? Oh without any doubt Millie Molly Mandy on children's television. Oh yes. Any of those tiny little puppets and dresses from when I was about five or six. You just loved them. Yeah. Yeah. I love you like and that's a lovely answer Now Obviously, we are in Madamelanc together and you played Uncle Patrick. You played brilliantly. So your Steve Edge's character is Dom Hayes and your' Patrick Hayes his uncle. And when we first met, we were at an undisclosed, we won't tell which party it was, but we were at a party on a very famous at the side of a very famous building We had a good time with that. We had a blood rightide laugh. We were so unfessional, it was brilliant. So that was it.' mates for life then. And then I said to you you well do you still do do a fancy being and, you know? And you went, I am an actor, that's what I do. And I went Well, I've got this idea and you thought it would go away and I hounded you Yeah, it was really Wouldn't know mean everything's true about what you've just said except the last phrase. You didn't ham me, You just said, yeah, well, I'll do it then. and I just thought it was the load of old rubbish people always talk about parties. And then about five months later, the offer came completely out of the blue. And it was like I had to rethink my whole feeling about peopleeople's integrity on television. she said something and she actually meant it. Oh know. I do like to book the system like that. Now, can you tell me your earliest TV member said something about Milly Moy Mandy then. So what would be your earliest te memory? It was it was There was muff in the mule Yeah with Annette Mills who was John Mills' sister And Muffin she used to sit at a piano and this string puppet used to dance up and down on the piano. and we' got piano at home, so it just like felt like a thing. And Bill and Ben the flower pot course. And we, I mean, I said Milly Molly Mandy, but honestly, if I was wanted a really heavy day, I would have gone for a weed. Oh I don't sorry. let me rephrase first Shocking news v But but all of those kids programs, got we've got our te you vote Very early Yeah. for the coronation. Yeah yeah. was it fif fifty two, like so many people did. Yeah. And it, you know my mum and dad didn't have much money buuying a telly, my dad would never rent. He would never Really. He would never have credit. He was really Terrified of credit. It was like a moral thing to. that's a very working class thing. Well your gndad was like that. Yeah. He would always have to buy it outright. And he didn't even he got one of the very first mortgages And he was he didn't sit very well with him at all because he had to pay off kind of thing. Exactly the same with my dad. Yeah. Yeahah. N mad? Whatought a semi detached house for nine hundred and ninety nine pounds. Everyone said you're mad. It will never go up in value Wow. In South Woodford in London. Oh nine hundred and ninety nine quid. Oh! That is m. It's rubbed off for me too. I don't like going into debt. Even until very recently, if I had a new car, I always bought it, which is actually economically mad. Yeah you can lease it three years and get another one, but I just didn't want to do that. So your family working class And nobody was in the show business industry, so Wh did it all come from? Oh My both my parents actually loved acting and loved music. they. My dad When he was in the forces in the Second World War, he learned to be a boogie pianist with the Canadian forces up in Scotland because were loads of Canadiian in Scotland at the time So he spent the war really touring around Scotland. he was a fitter, a corporal fitter, but in the evenings he would just be touring around playing boogy. and my mum loved amateur dramatics and she did loads of amateur dramatics in the war. I've got all those old phhotos ye of my mum She was she never had big parts. She was like the maid and stuff And when the war was over, they went back to South Woodford and my because they just bought that semi before the war They could have gone over to Canada become My dad could have become a professional pianist with those same bunch of guys who are going back to do that. But he didn't want to because they just house but they still their love, their passion for music and acting stayed with them. So it was in the house then was There was nothing much else in the house really. dads My dad had a baby grand piano and it was just a tiny sevy tch. so occupied The H front road And they did I had dram and watch the Ty. So I mean Very regressive really? Well, I suppose I don't think they even thought of it They just loved it. Yeah So so how did you so obviously that was your influence So you startied very, very young. Yeah, well, it it's part of the same story really. My mum saw an article in the Daily Express saying that they needed some kids to be in a new show that was going to open in London and I went for it along with about a thousand other kids who were reduced in number as the day went on until there were just about fourteen of us left. And the producer came down and said, We are going to do this brand new musical based on Charles Dickens Novel, Oliver Twist. we're going to call it Oliver I've never heard of it. And we would like you to be in it. So I was in the very, very, very first cast of Oliver Just as one of the boys in the workhouse. That is mad. Yeah. And how old were we? Oh I was twelve in aant time. I think it was probably just thirteen when I I started in it. and because it was so successful Every other producer wanted to have these cheeky cockney kids in their shows. Yeah. So I continued to be offered work. I was never a child star but I could continue to be offered work. And so I spent this bizarre three or four years half the time being a mixed grammar school on the borders of London. Yeah. And the going into town, doing bits in films and tellelly and other shows. What a training round for you. Yeah. I mean, you were earning Like adult wages weren't you? I was weren' earning a tenner a week Which was which wast this is in nineteen sixty. So it was it was a lot of money spent it all on sweets and fags But what it meant was that I have always just felt absolutely at home. on stage or in front of the camera. It's not It's not clever or talented to be like that, it's just experience. I'm eighty in August. I started when I was twelve, so I've got what was that sixty eight years of just doing what we're doing now really. How did you get your first TV gig then? becausecause obviously we' in the six. like you said, Telly was very new How did you get the first go from Oliver to get in your first TV kit. Oh Predictably it was typecasting. It was that they were doing play on television about Charles Dickens wandering through the moors, coming across this really dodgy school where all the kids were beaten and it inspired him to write great expectations and Oliver twist. And that was what the drama was about. It was called The Man from the Moors It was about child sicking, and I was the I think I was I think I was the sort of Art for Dodger type character, I was the character who did the bullying even though he was the smallest. Yeah. And so they gave me that part. And then once having done one telly, it's like beinging a grown up. You were the gohost to. I was the gohost to, yeah. It's amazing We're going to go to the break now But before we do, I'm going to ask a question for our listeners and viewers. Who wrote the iconic theme music The Black Ader? I know Welcome back to a nighting with Sally Lindseay. Don't forget you can listen wherever you get your podcast and watch on YouTube every Wednesday. Don't forget to like and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Right. now before the break, we asked you who wrote the iconic theme music for Black Eadder. And I think Mr. Tony Robinson knows the answer to this. Goodall. Howard Goodall? Wh was a friend of Rows and Richard Curtis at University. So it wasn't like he came in as a pro musician from outside, he was very much part of the team Well we're on that, let's talk about Blackada How did that role come about Pure luck Isn't it Mad part? It is thirty eight by that time I amne You're a working actor though you Oh, yeah.'ve never not worked, haveave you? I say yeah. Well, yeah, but like never not worked is ironic, isn't it? I was working like a working actor I was working six months a year. That's pretty bloming good to be honest, figure out any acting even now working six months a year you're doinging aren't you? Yeah and doing other jobs or signing you rest of the time. And I just got a script through the post saying they wanted someone to play Ronan Atkinson's servant in this new pilot programme And I got it on the Thursday before the rehearsals were going to start the following Monday. so I knew I wasn't the first choice. Yeah. Absolutely. coffee sort of rings on the script. Yeah Pencil mark rubbish. Yeah, yeah not doing this. Yeah And it wasn't a great part and it wasn't, to be honest, a great script. but I had always loved that what I thought of as Oxbridge comedy, that really clever comedy from That was the week that was to John Clee Yes. And then Rowan in not the nine o'clock News. brilliant. I was never going get anything like that. because I'd left school at sixteen with fourO levels I was no You know, no chance So u U I took it, I grabbed it with both hands. It it was an offer. It was an offer. was I didn't do it. It's funny isn't you saying it like that? Nobody ever offered me job without ree interviews and two auditions. Yeah, yeah. prior to that. That's how desperate they were to get someere. But what was it like meeting Rowan? because I know famously you Dear friends, and you just It was just like a merch made in heaven It was. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was It was professional love at first sight. reallyally remarkably surprised, I'm not pregnant with this child. We felt so So intimate. you know. it was and it was it was about rhythm more than anything else. It wasn't about the words. it was just I just liked working with you really. It was like, you know he would go badada and In't just know to go badadah And he would know that that was the right rhythm to answer. I we were amazing together as a double act. it was it was just fantastic. The chemistry was just amazing. And we'd never even met until the first day of rehearsal it's so special that as an actor into it, when you get that sort of ion and it's not given No, not given And for that to happen by look, they just rang you up and there wasn't a million chemistry reads and like they do nowadays in a million this Did you pour over the script? Did you have loads of rehearsals? How does it work? Virtually no rehearsals at all. What if you, if you think about all those people who are in it Virtually all of them being to Oxford or Cambridge and certainly to, you know, some very nice school They all understood the written word, they all loved the written word. They all knew how to critique the written word. get it right. So what we used to do virtually all the time was just to sit around a table and read it through and amend it and check it and rethink it Occasionally an actor would come in who was not of that tradition and they would be really freaked out They say, you know when are we going to stand up? When are we going move Yeah? When am I going to discover more about my character That just didn't happen. It was about the actual writing. Yeah. It was very much more, I think, like being in the writers' room in an American comedy. You know, when there's like maybe seven or you've got your lead writers, but you've got about seven or eight of them around tossing in gags, tossing in ideas. The whole thing gets thicker and thicker and thicker, like a do. script develop Re So it developed in those rooms. It did. It wasn't the finished product when you went in. No, no, no, no. There was often tension, I have to say, between on one hand Fabulous Richard Curtis and Ben Elton And on the other hand, the rest of us chipping in because understandably, they wanted what they had maybe to be reflected. first put Baldrich's costume on and you were next to Rowan and you're thinking, obviously, because we know what happened I'm always interested to know what were the thoughts then Did you think beyond It would turn into like one of the most classic British sitcoms of all time. I had no idea, absolutely no idea at all because it did start it wasn't that good when it started. The boys knew it wasn't. rubishing. No no because they it wasn't that it was like they had this idea in their heads and to fulfill it. it meant you had to Go right over there and you won't going get all the way I was there the past time. It's just why Pilots are so important, isn't? It's why the first series of something is so important and why we all tear our hair out when television executives chuck something away after the first series? Because at the end of the first series We all think, No, we've got it now. now to do it. Yeah. But when it started, I remember on the train up to AnNk to shoot the very first scene John Lloyd, the producer said to me, what How's it going feel for you when you're famous And I said, You're taking a mix And he said, I'm not. He said, you're playing Rowan Atkinson's servant. And I said about all And then we'll get a second series And I dismissed it And Tim Mcinoni, who played Percy was there too. and he reminded me about that about three series in when our whole lives have been transformed by how successful it would. Television success is not a given It's not there right at the beginning. ing work for it. You really do. and What's it like then in those days when you've You realized I am famous, you know, this That was a flad flowers. Yeah, comealm up I took my daughter, Laura, who was about eleven, I think it was half term ten or eleven. The time H And we suddenly got mobbed by all these kids. Word had got round that there was a famous person in Alton Towers. these kids wanted to touch their he of my garment like leopers around Jesus. And I'm not saying that like John they. I mean it they had no idea who I was. They had just heard that I was famous. and that thing of being famous, they wanted to get close to and so Laura and I had to go home because there was a health and safety risk, literally a health and safety risk. and it was at that moment driving back to Bristol where I lived from the Midlands I suddenly thought, if people are going to be like this, My life is absolutely changed. This is different. Yeah. Are you are still friends with people in the cast? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah and Row and definitely aren't you?. It's probably the same with I guess it's the same with you and Cory Yeah that there are people who you are very close to who you won't see for about five years, but when you do see them, it's just like you pick up on the relationship as though None of that intervening time had passed by. Definitely. mean, I've been very lucky in myy Obviously, San is still one of my best friends and But I know there's three members of the cast. that if I literally walked into that pub, we would have the best time of our life. You know, I'd just pick up. and have done when I've seen them in events. So you're absolutely right, in it. How about the other thirty seven Not so much N so much Do you still get Co Balriconst stet? Oh yeah Yeah, but It's quite good, don't you still look the same. It also means people recognise you so you're going to be working. Yeah. peopleeople always say something the same two or three things like Do you want to turnip or have you got a canning plan? My other favorite thing, Well, I love you and everything you do. een Yeah Me and my husband used to watch T Team religiously, and we absolutely loved it and we loved it before I knew you. And we loved it because it looked like you were all having such a great time and you got on so well. And bet I said, I bet they're the pub at the end of the day, having a hfal lager and just having a lovely turn or half a mead or something ancient. You know I said I bet they are, and is that true Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It was one of those one of the few series, Madame B is the same, but it's one of the few series. where Everybody really got aw. everybody saw each other O outside in the intervening months H And But the weird thing about Timeteam is it ran for twenty years, right? And then Channel four Ait, fair enough, a run of twenty years in our industry is bonkers.ental. So we let all let it go But then during COVID Loads of people were binge watching television And this great love of T team reappeared. And people started saying, weren't there anymore. We want more time Tam. And it wasn't going to happen again on terrestrial television ourur producer then went to Patreon, you know? Yeah yeah, Patreon. Yeah. and said, is there a way that we could rekindle it. to be seen online And they said they said, yeah, make it a subscription channel And so that's what we so it came back to life again And in the last four or five years, it's become this big hit online D you heard it's absolutely massive again. It is. We're nastering now, right Next month I fly up to the Orkneys and the Shetlands to do two new fresh digs for Tim Team Resurrected. We never ever thought that would happen. Isn't it But it's like, obviously this is going out on YouTube now. This is like, you know, seen on so many different platforms. Yeah And you can choose it's just changed, doesnn't it? O way you can access your television? Completely, yes. Where does his passion for history come from? My dad Yeah, because he both my parents had such a good time in the war. I mean sense sounds a slightly offensive thing to say, but they weren't in action. They were young working class people who suddenly had this Massive mobility and met people and had adventures, little tiny adventures that they wouldn't have had elsewhere So I was born in nineteen forty six. so they were kind of offloading all these stories to me in March child I didn't realize that was history. It was just what my mum and dad were telling me.. It was I I think I was Before I went to secondary school teachers were telling me what subjects there would be at secondary school. because like at primary school we didn't really think about subjects, it was just what the teacher was saying. Yes, of course. And I remember clearly him saying there will be this subject called history, which is about things that happened in the past before you would live. Yeahah, yeah. And I thought Well, flip me, I didn't even know that was I didn't know it had a name Yeah. Just my Dad Aline st. Exactly. And I thought so sweet. And I thought Well Why would you have to do lessons in that? Everybody would love to do that? It never occurred to me that history wasn't the coolest thing in the world. What would you say the most extxtraordinary diggers been It's very hard. Iagine there's so many. Can I the final two, just because they're so opposite? Yes, please. One was O where everything we found was rigged What? It was either put in by sort of dotty academics in the nineteenth century who wanted to make the land look strange and they'd put in standing stones. Yeah. And one of our archaeologists pushed the standing stone and it wobbled a bit. and he excavated it's true. He excavated underneath it and found a flat pack of players' weights and underneath it been used to the packing. U But some of it some of it had been done very, very recently was mused that it could have been done by the people who owned the land at the time we sh it shot it, whether or not that was true. I had no idea. But basically it was a setup. It was a setup. And our producers were said Don't panic because we were really freaking we thought It was wasted chewed They said What you can demonstrate is the methodology of what you do It's like CSI. You go through all these things in order to find out what is really true. And if what is really true is that the thing is phony, well, that's a truth. Well, this is it, and you've discovered it by your methods. Yeah, yeah yeah And what was the other one? Well the other one was so we're on this Roman site, potentially Roman site And this archaeologist said, he gave me the triowel and said, Peel under here because I think there's a Roman mosaic under here. And I started grape away And like one mosaic came up and then another one next to it, and then a colored one It was well no you can't see the whole of the studio, but it's quite a small studio. It was It was the size of a small tellle studio. It was really You don't get I it' down was Industician I knew where there wasnt. I was the first Yeahah, I was the first person C down on it. and mayaybe sixteen hundred years How shit is that Yeah So we're going to a break now Now, the question before the break is, when Tim Team launched, how many days did the team of archaeologists have to investigate a site and uncover its history? If you're enjoying a nighting with Sally Lindseay, please do follow the show on social media. We're on Instagram, Facebook, and of course, YouTube, Answer after the break. Howdy, Howdy Ho, and welome to Fantasy fan Fellas. I'm Hayen, producer of the Fantasy Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson. And I'm Stehven, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Missborn. But here's the catch. Stehven here has not read Missborn before. That's right, hey, hey. So each week, you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter. And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Stehven will even try to guess what's next poiler alert, he'll be wrong. News Flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find fantasy fan feellllowas wherever you get your podcasts So the question I asked before the break was when Tim Team launched, how many days did the team of archeologists have to investigate? And the answer was injust Three days. Th days Days And we didn't break there. No Not only are you an amazing actor Not only are you an amazing presenter absolutely ammazing historian, you're also fantastic multiple author. Now, you've written over thirty books. and traveled the world Promoting them. Now I've got something that you told me when we were just filming M Bog five And you said to me I said, Where have you been? And he went, Oh, I've been to Australia. and I went, Oh, was that was nice. He went And then you went, yeah, so I filled The Sydney Opera House. We were all out Steve Edge was paralyysed at the be withith our dreams after work What? Please tell us about that. Well tell us the book you werere promoting and what It's called The House of Wolf.. It's a novel. It's a novel, but it's about King Alfred. And it's about how come he's the only king that we call great? and I try to Answer that play with the idea. it's Yes, it's about history, but There it's exciting. There's a lot of inappropriate behaviour that goes on Game of Thrones. It is ye, it is when it's so influenced by Game of Thrones. Yeah. And you know as well as as the history books say, it's got a very truthful core to it. Yeah, that's what I've tried to go for every time. So I was out in Australia, there is a great desire For British performers particularly, I'm pleased to say, people like you and I who were very successful in the agies and nineties. And so and more and more, I think people generally are having this yearning for something live, something that they think of is authentic. really It's a new market. I mean it's a very new market. J Do doing what we're doing now raabbiting away now I think people would have found it very sort of rough and undisciplined in previous times. It is just you and me. Yeah, just weve being our authentic selves as a kids say. Yeah. And so I went out to Australia and the hunger for British history and for Two people talking on a stage and talking about some of the things that you and I have been talking about todayate was just vast. I was playing, you know All months before I went out to Australia I went on a train to Birmingham to publicize my book and couldn't fill a hundred seats in the local library. I went in it. Yeah. I went out to Australia and every night it's in four figs. everyvery night they're queueing Every night, I'm signing book after book after. I mean, it was great for my ego, I have to say because it's never read that. I've never been that kind of performer, you know I've had my success, but not playling. Yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. and look at my age It's such a buzz. But I don't think it goes to my head all that much except I did brag about it to you on S. Listen, if you hadn't told me that, I would haveve been really annoyed. I was so unbelievably proud of you. I was like, o my God, our Tony's on stage. It was just mad. you know and that you was that popular, but when you think about it, your career is so It's been so long and so fulfilling that you, you know and two major. So not only one thing, you've did two major classic T People have won in a lifetime and you did two pieces of classic television for a long time. In a way very unusual. I was veryuck I was very lucky U in that there was a third one which happened to me, which was that I wrote and starred in a children's series M Mar. Maid Marian and H Marry Men. Absolute. Lving the child Yeah. And now the generation of kids who watched it are in their Late thirties, forties, early fifties. And so that has become much more you know, I do the occasional comic on for you. And did you write that Tony? I did, Yeah. wrote all of it? Yeahah. my God, I didn't know you wrote it Yeah. It's about twenty five episodes, yeah Why don't I know that? Well, becausecause you do in those days, you're a kid. You don't even think that it's been written. It's just on, It's just on, isn't it Fascinate by that it was so good that it was so funny God, I'm well impressed, even more impressed You've been Obviously, you've had a family and when you were the family were young, Was it quite hard traveling away a lot because you're obviously you on tour with Time Team and how did that manifest? The advantage of Time Team was that unlike most television, it was just three days. Yes. And so They took Because it's such a complex show, it took quite a long time to turn aroundound. So even in the height of summer, we never did more than one a fortnite. Brilliant So I be h answering that and And also I hered about My family So much I think probably because I've been an only child. Yeah. that It was Being a t was almost like a religion. Yeah, to me And so I've really I just crafted enough time to make sure that I was home an awful lot of time. That is what encouraged me to do more writing because I could do that at home. and they, you know do Yeah you can do the school run So I just wanted to talk about an if you don't mind, you're raising awareness of Prostate cancer. You told me about being diagnosed a few years ago and I was like And so can you talk us through that? because it's quite important to you? been living with prostate cancer for bout thirteen or fourteen years now And it's always been fine, but I do have these checks. And the problem has always been Blokes are threatened with prostate cancer, they're going to have to have the doctor's finger up their bum And that kind of used to be true, but it's not a very good check because if you think about it The prostate is like like a little apricot or something like that. So if you've got the doctor feeling about, he's only going to feel half of it you know whether it's become distorted or not. So it's a real rough and ready check. And I only knew about a year ago That just don't U that check anymore. And so and I thought, well, I've always been campaigning for more awareness for prostate cancer. If I don't know that and so many men are so disturbed by that idea, I want to get out there. So I phoneed the prorostate Society and I said, C you put me on local radio for a day? And I will go from I will speak to all these local radio stations, spreading the word to the men who are listening. And so I had a whole day when I said to the men of Britain, you don't have to have the finger up the bum anymore. Andelt I felt so good about doing it. Lberate ye It's a different check now? Yeah, yes, it is yeah. M people will have like An MRI every you know, every b Yeahes. How did you? Sometimes, sometimes they will do the finger business but it's not it's voluntary anyway. And When you find out, how did you find out? Was it just sort of were you feeling a bit ill or No, like we do in our industry, I had to have a health check before I did a show We're dead lucky aren't? we are Every job, we have a medical. Yeah If anything comes up It's Madin said. Yeah more than anybody normally would have. because But those checks are brilliant are Yeah, they're brilliant. they box ticks, they box tick virtually anything that you could robably have. Yeah. So and that's how he found it, is it Well, that's brilliant.' gl that you' raising awareness because because to be fair, I didn't know that either. It is such a vile disease if it really gets going. Really the idea of just being a bit kind of O I don't want anything anybody messing around with my back passage. Yeah. It's I'm foolish. It's not it's not being grown up and manly. I don't think it is I think. I think men I've got to say ' much better at that now. ike in my granddad's time, it was all like shut up and put up with it and you don't go to the doctors. I've never been to the doctor. mean it's like a sense of pride for some stupid reason. But now I think men are Definitely the many in my family al like really ite own it Steve definitely is. He loves to cheack up Because the other thing about it is it's dead selfish because if you get a terrible cancer, then the glorious full weight of the National Health Service will come to bear and they'll have to spend an enormous amount of money on it. when you could have just st your taking away from other people Absolutely. died of Alzmer', which is why I'm ambassador and do as much as I can from. But you've done endlessome amount of work for the Alzheim' Society. Again, I'm an onlyone child Both my parents Alzheimer's. So although yeah, so I had very much the emotional responsibility of trying to work out What would be best for my parents when their minds were no longer capable of working it out for themselves and and I realized through that One of the awful things about Alzheimer's is that it doesn't just affect the person who's struck down by it The carers as well and it became a bit of a mission for me to try and No Courage the nation generally to be more aware of Alzheimer's and not so scared of it to take more responsibility for it. Be I thought and I think I was right in thinking this, that it was only when people really started kicking off about it that the money would go in to research research for it and that is more or less what's happened. And I even made a film with my mum called me and my mum in the last few months of her life. That's quite it. Be you know you that's quite a private thing to do, isn't it? And but you felt that strongly that I need to talk about this. Yeah. I'd also morally it was quite difficult because I had to make sure my mum approved of the idea and wanted to share the idea. But she was pretty dul Lly by that that time.. And so was the final stag she was in there? She was pretty much It was st to know. It was hard to know because like most people, it wasn't actually she died of al No. Myine was pneumonia Yeah. y so was mine. and So u I can't asking her and she would say, oh yes, but then she would forget about it But I always asked her when the nurse was there, the same nurse who had become a friend And so I'd asked her and again, and she said yes. And then we went into lunch And I was feeding us Sherry trifle from Sainbury because I did' always love. And she pushed it away irritably like they do. And she said to me When is it going happen then And I said, what? And she said You know Nice thing And it was at that moment that I knew that she actually sh it in there. Yeah, yeah. That nice. nice. Because she's always been doing this amateur acting and she'd never got the big part. And suddenly I was saying to her, do you want to star in your own show in the winter of your life? Oh, and actually, that's quite a beautiful thing. It is, yeah yeah She actually died during the last day's filming Now we didn't shoot that didn't shoot that but I was actually I had just done an interview with the Minister of Health in the House of Commons. We were just going round Parliament Square in the taxi And with the crew and they phoned to tell me that She was dying. it By that time, It wasn't like I was confronted by the death of someone I didn't know was going to die. I felt almost kind of fatalistic about it was like, OK, it was that more than the tears camell into my eyes We We went to the place and the care home And they stayed outside and we just I just talked about it camera and I just talked about those last few hours and then they went home and in fact she died in the night, so they weren't around then But I think it They were very good about it. Television is usually so determined to squeeze every last It is being out of here that so exploitative but they weren't at all. they were very respectable. respectable, respectful. And And so we made, I think, what was a respectful ending to her life That's amazing, Tony. I didn't know that Thanks for sharing that mate. I think I think it's on YouTube. when you finished it, it's called me and my mum. I'm watching that one again. If it is You've said, quoted, and this is very you because I know you very well I've always wanted to end my days having tried to make things better and And I sort of think you have U Is there anything else you You want to change change pretty much the world in a lot of ways. I want to help change the way thoseose of us interested in changing the world I feel as though what I think of has The right wing in England found a way of talking about things really radically I feel that people who share the kind of vision that you and I share haven't We still likeike a party political broadcast from the nineteen fifties Yeah We're not relating to the people We're not relating to the people. and I think we I know, I absolutely know that we need to do so. and I would love to be part of that Nice way to find a way to keep experimenting And to have the courage to do that, not to think, oh, the only way I'm being right on is by saying the same things that I've been saying for the last sixty or seventy years. that way we osify, we freeze, we lose the argument. And also it is the epitome of Madness in here that if we do the same thing over and over again expect a different result I know exactly what you mean. I feel exactly the same, Tony.. I really do and So you're turning eighty this year. when's the pie? U We're having a party. you and I Yeahah, yeah you and I have a few mates having a party. I don't want a big deal. I'm not a big. I'm not good at that. I'm not good at that. I used to be Ohso now I'm like, ' some going eay? Yes true. Oh my God. are't we just? Yeah. We too part in a crypt last week. I was so unhappy. Now I'd loved the people that I was with, but I couldn't hear anything music is going and you're like, what? I'd just like a nice dinner. Let's have a nice dinner. Let's do that. Let's do that. For the mutton Jeff. For the mutton Jeff for us So. I'm going to have a quick break now Th Question before the break, Tony was born in nineteen forty six. what TV channel resumed broadcasting that year after a seven year blackout during World War two, answer after the break Welcome back before the break. I asked the question, Tony was born in nineteen forty six, for what TV chnel routine broadcasting that year after a seven year blackout during World War two? answer was Netflix. Well, no more channel. Netflix World Broadcasting Association. Yeah, It was obviously the BBC And broadcast rest started at three PM with a rerun of Mickey's Gala preremiere Yeah, so that's mud interest. I wonder who Mickey was? Mickey Mouse? Oh, it was. Yeah. So the samealt Disney cartoon that a just before the network went off air in nineteen thirty nine. so they just put it back on and started again. Well, that's ironic that the BBC actually had the rights to show Disney in those days. God, things have changed. They just Now Just always ask this, what would you say your guilty pleasure TV?act I always think guuilty pleasure is a bit of a tight thing because Guilty pleasure Telly's telly in it, if you's scd's bad's whatever, but what would you say your like your secret one that you like to watch? Oh Be such a learned historian. Yeah . I love anything where People come round to dinner at someone else's house and then say it was absolute it that one. You like that program? that program. And we should do that, shouldn't we should we? I also In my house it's a guilty pleasure watching the football. My wife hates the football. If she just hears the noise of television football coming from another room, it really grates on her. But that the football has always been central to my life So I do sometimes watch it the sound on. yeah with the earphones in. Yeah. Just for l I love it. Okay, now this is what's called your life on screen quiz Bically I ask you questions about your life on screen. Now some people get everyone completely wrong, which is always hilarious and some people are brilliant at it. So let's see how you do with your life on screen, It' Tony Robinson How many historical eras did Black adda cover Can you name them Well, the four series were a kind of made up medieval Elizabethan Georgian And the First World War. Banger But what? We also did the Victorian in Black Adder's Christmas Carol It's my favorite thing. We watch that every year at Christmas That's one of my favorite because he' Explain honestly. Okay, well it's like the Christmas c. funny except that way r. y it's the other way round. Black Ader is really, really sweet as Scrooge And Balrick is the other way round. Yes. But in it, so Cla, there was Miriam Margles ass Queen Victoria and Jim Broadbent as Prince Albert. What a comedy do you owe those to. Honestly, it's one of those classic. so we watch certain things mean Christivo Christmas. We watch Chas and Dave Christmas spepecial at the BBC. ITV, obviously, not the BBC. ITV And we watch the Blackadder Christmas special every year. It's just and we watched Carry on Christm. So we watch it's just part of our Christmas. It's just absolutely love it Absolutely brillant. So that's interesting because we didn't know that What was Baldrich's full name