Richard Robinson (born 1953 in Halifax,

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, England) is an actor, writer and puppeteer. He is also the Director of the

Brighton Science Festival Brighton Science Festival is a yearly science festival held in Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. A ...

Puppetry

As a

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, called a puppet, to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from ...

, Robinson is best known for building and voicing puppets for the television series ''

Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ov ...

'', ''

The Riddlers ''The Riddlers'' is a British children's programme produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV between 2 November 1989 and 27 August 1998. Synopsis The series centred on Marjorie Dawe and the two Riddlers (small humanoid creatures, portrayed b ...

'', ''Dizzy Heights'', and ''

Puddle Lane ''Puddle Lane'' (or ''Tales from Puddle Lane'') is a 1980s English pre-school children's television programme written by Rick Vanes with animated stories written by Sheila K. McCullagh, author of '' Tim and the Hidden People''. A long series ...

''. In ''The Riddlers'', he built the puppets Mossop, Middler, Glossop, Eesup, and Tiddler (Tiddlup), also voicing Mossop and Middler. On ''Dizzy Heights'' he played Victor Gristle, and on ''Puddle Lane'' he played Toby the Dragon and other puppets. He also played Bungle in the 1994-1995 revival of the children's series ''

Rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

''. Before his puppeteering career, Richard was a busker. In the mid-1990s, after years taking his children to the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

and related educational events he found a new outlet as a science busker, visiting schools and festivals with science cabaret acts.

Author

He has written nearly twenty books on science. The SCIENCE MAGIC books (OUP) were shortlisted for the Royal Society's science book prize 2000. WHY THE TOAST ALWAYS LANDS BUTTER-SIDE DOWN (Constable Robinson 2005) has been translated into 14 languages.

Brighton Science Festival

In 2005 he founded the

, now one of the biggest in the UK.

References

Living people British puppeteers British male television actors 1953 births Festival directors {{UK-actor-stub