Kenneth John Robinson (26 April 1925 – 26 March 1994) was an English pianist, architect, journalist and broadcaster from

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

best known for his acerbity. He presented

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

's '' Points of View'' between 1965 and 1969 and was a panellist and occasional host of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's ''

Start the Week ''Start the Week'' is a discussion programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. The current presenter is the former BBC political editor and the BBC's former political Sunday morning presenter Andrew Marr. The previous regular p ...

'' between 1971 and 1986.

Early life

Kenneth Robinson was born on 26 April 1925 in

, and was educated at Ealing Grammar School. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he was a pianist in

ENSA The Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) was an organisation established in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II. ENSA operated as part of the Navy, ...

concert parties, though realised he was not good enough to make a career of it and so after the war, he wrote for ''

The Croydon Advertiser ''The Croydon Advertiser'' (with locally branded editions) is a paid-for weekly newspaper with five editions covering the London Boroughs of Croydon, Sutton and two neighbouring towns and with a free up-to-the-minute maintained web presence. Ci ...

'', where he wrote caustic,

Tynan Tynan (PlaceNamesNI - Tynan
) is a

-like reviews; his dismissal, according to his obituary in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', was for refusing to learn shorthand and typing, though he said in a 1976 interview that he was fired for saying that ''

And Then There Were None ''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as ...

'' was "a play in which members of the cast are strangled and poisoned one by one - it is a pity more plays of this kind are not available to the amateur". He then wrote for '' Architect and Building News'' and then spent ten years with the

Architectural Press Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', '' Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...

, ending up as chief assistant editor for the ''

Architects' Journal ''Architects' Journal'' is an architectural magazine published in London by Metropolis International. History The first edition was produced in 1895. Originally named ''The Builder's Journal and Architectural Record'', from 1906 to 1910 it was kn ...

''. In the mid-1950s he joined The Design Centre, where he found that lecture-goers preferred the humorous content of his lectures to the architectural content; he reasoned that this was because the "official" language and tone of voice differed from his own.

Career

Robinson started his career by presenting solo pieces on the foibles of architecture and language. He presented

's '' Points of View'' between 1965 and 1969, from which he was fired due to the show's producer objecting to the frivolous way in which he referred to bananas; he was the second of four Robinsons to present the programme, immediately following and preceding a returning Robert Robinson, and before

Tony Robinson Sir Anthony Robinson (born 15 August 1946) is an English actor, author, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television series ''Blackadder'' and has presented several historical documentaries ...

and

Anne Robinson Anne Josephine Robinson (born 26 September 1944) is an English television presenter and journalist. She was the host of BBC game show ''The Weakest Link'' (2000–2017). She presented the Channel 4 game show ''Countdown'' from June 2021 to July ...

. He had a stint as a presenter of religious programmes, but the producer found his tone too ironic for the subject matter. In 1971 he became a guest panellist and occasional host of

's ''

'' and hosted its children's spin-off, ''If It's Wednesday It Must Be...''. He was notorious for acerbity, once telling the editor of

H&E naturist ''H&E naturist'' (originally ''Health and Efficiency'') is a 92-page monthly commercial magazine focusing on the naturist lifestyle, through articles on travel, health and culture, as well as various features on arts and books with a naked theme ...

between a report from a nudist colony and an anthropologist's explanation of nudity attitudes among Amazonian primitive tribes that "I loathe and despise everything you stand for". Robinson was particularly acerbic towards women; he rowed with

Anna Raeburn Anna Raeburn (born 3 April 1944) is a British broadcaster, author and journalist who is best known for her role as an "agony aunt", giving advice on relationships and more general life problems. As a broadcaster, she has worked for Capital Radi ...

and

Esther Rantzen Dame Esther Louise Rantzen (born 22 June 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter, who presented the BBC television series ''That's Life!'' for 21 years, from 1973 until 1994. She works with various charitable causes, and foun ...

, brought

Angela Rippon Angela May Rippon (born 12 October 1944)"Angela Rippon," ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Detroit: Gale, (2008) ''Gale Biography In Context'' is an English television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter. Rippon presented radio and tele ...

to tears after dismantling her book about horses, and disgusted

Pamela Stephenson Pamela Helen Stephenson, Lady Connolly (born 4 December 1949) is a New Zealand-born psychologist, writer, and performer who is now a resident in both the United Kingdom and the United States. She is best known for her work as an actress and co ...

enough for her to empty a jug of water down his neck. He was suspended for six weeks in 1984 for making a joke about disabled people's sex lives (that a disabled people's dating agency would mean "you could hear the wheelchairs banging all night in some parts of the country"), for which the BBC issued a grovelling apology, but which amused

Scope Scope or scopes may refer to: People with the surname * Jamie Scope (born 1986), English footballer * John T. Scopes (1900–1970), central figure in the Scopes Trial regarding the teaching of evolution Arts, media, and entertainment * Cinem ...

, who commissioned him to write a humorous book for the disabled; he was fired with three days notice in 1986, with his last programme airing on 16 June. In addition, he had a stage show, ''The Worst of Kenneth Robinson'', a compilation programme of which, ''The Best of the Worst of Kenneth Robinson'', aired on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

in January 1975. He was also an occasional player on '' Just a Minute'', and narrated

Les Shadoks ''Les Shadoks'' () is an animated television series created by French cartoonist Jacques Rouxel (26 February 1931 – 25 April 2004) which caused a sensation in France when it was first broadcast in 1968–1974. The Shadoks were bird-like in a ...

Personal life

Robinson was married to Mary Hargreaves from 1955 until his death. They had a son and a daughter. He died on 26 March 1994 from a short illness in

Kingston Hospital Kingston Hospital is an acute hospital in Kingston upon Thames, England. It is managed by the Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. It has an Accident & Emergency Unit, a popular midwife-led Maternity unit, and an sexually transmitted infecti ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Kenneth 1925 births 1994 deaths People from Ealing English radio personalities BBC television presenters