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Tony, who is perhaps best known and loved for his role as the malodorous, dim-witted Baldrick in the Blackadder TV series, entertained a packed-to-capacity crowd at the Salon Bellevue in Monaco's Café de Paris. Yet the distinctive whiney nasal voice of Baldrick appeared just once in a hilarious speech that verged on the surreal and swept the audience along on a voyage through this remarkable entertainer's life.
This is a man who would “pop into school for lunch and a game of football”, yet has more honorary MAs (five) than O'levels; a man who can't stand heights yet abseiled down a cliff while recreating A Day in the Life of a Viking; and whose worst job was being dropped in the proverbial brown stuff by John Wayne.
These lunches offer an ideal venue for business men and women in the region to network and to entertain clients. As Craig Clifford, Vice President and Administration Manager of the Global Private Client Group of Merrill Lynch, confirms: “These are good opportunities to be with clients in an informal setting.”
Merrill Lynch is a sponsor of the Celebrity Lunches alongside Lawrence Graham, Moore Stephens, Club 328 and Brookshire and Company Ltd. Also present was Jean-Pierre Fonteneau and Dany Rubrecht, Director General and Communications respectively, of the Chambre de Développement Économique de Monaco (CDE).
Interview with Tony Robinson
For a man who left school at 16, Tony Robinson has achieved an extraordinary amount above and beyond his iconic role in the Blackadder TV series. Not only has he been host of Channel 4's highly praised archaeology series Time Team since 1993, but he has also made numerous historical documentaries, including The Worst Jobs in History , and written 17 children's books. A glance at his “CV” confirms his status as a major figure of popular history in Britain , yet his role in Blackadder remains one part of his life that he is most proud of professionally: “The thing about Blackadder is that it ceased to be simply a comedy series somewhere about the end of the 2nd beginning of the 3rd. It became something more iconic and in a way it was an extraordinary privilege,” he says.
Was there improvisation? “Not on the night. We'd get the script on the Monday. Then we'd sit round a table and just hammer the text, thrash the text. Virtually everyone, with the exception of myself, were graduates from our finest universities and had the ability to scrutinise the texts. We did very little rehearsal. Virtually all of it was trying to get the script perfect. It's actually very layered which is perhaps why it has stood the test of time.”
Who w as your favourite of the group? ”It's a good question - it was like being with a bunch of mates, like being at school. I suppose the one who influenced me most was Richard Curtis. He taught me how to write, just by being close to him. After a number of years I could always hear his voice - it's still the case today. I don't need him to come round and criticise me! But he's still there in my head.”
Would you have had your current success if it hadn't been for Blackadder ? “Absolutely not. During Blackadder , Richard Curtis and producer John Lloyd got involved with the creation of Comic Relief so we all did too. Richard invited me to go to Africa with him to make some films on poverty. After I'd made two, I decided I wanted to make films about why people are poor in the first place. Richard let me make a 15-minute documentary called “Why are the poor so goddam poor?” and it was a huge liberation for me. I'd been an actor since 13 and by this time was 38-39 and had always been at the behest of other people.”
Why archaeology? “I ‘ve always been interested in history, and archaeology has been for me a very vivid way to bring history to life. I'm not interested in the various stratifications, I want to know what people were doing. Most of archaeology is about the lives of ordinary people. You can see how capable they were, how strong, how practical, and how they bodged things! I find that very heartwarming!”
Is there a definitive worst job? “We all have different sensibilities. I was up to my neck in poo and wee - take leather tanning, whose lovely smell is almost entirely derived from faeces. They would be the worst jobs for most people. For me it's anything to do with heights, like being a steeple jack.”
Have you been to this region before? “I probably had my most miserable birthday in my life in Nice - it was my 50th, time to celebrate looking forward to the next 50 years. I got my very first attack of gout - all my friends and loved ones were striding ahead along the Promenade with me hobbling along behind with a stick feeling like I was the oldest man in the world.”
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