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Ted Robbins – Comedy Season

Born into the world of entertainment with his comedian father Mike, one of the absolute stalwarts of TV Light Entertainment Ted Robbins has been making Britain laugh for over half a century. Born in Liverpool in the mid 1950’s, he was in prime position to witness the cultural revolution which was about to unfold. Being related to the McCartney family naturally gave the young Ted a front row seat to arguably the biggest explosion Pop culture has ever seen and like so many young people in the Liverpool area, fame now seemed possible. Suddenly northern England was at the centre of the world and for a young Ted Robbins this promptly lay the foundation for a lifetime in entertainment.

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Following in his father’s footsteps, after graduating from the University of Liverpool with a degree in Literature and Drama, Ted became a Redcoat at Butlins and helped to further tread the familiar path to television. This was the era directly after the sad death of theatrical Variety and the holiday camp circuit provided the most obvious rite of passage for any budding performer. Such experience enabled Robbins to further hone his skills as an all round entertainer which would prove vital in the years to come. For many entertainers of this generation, the holiday camp circuit was seen as a vital apprenticeship for a lifetime on the stage and Ted Robbins has managed to do just that. Everyone from Michael Barrymore to Shane Ritchie emerged out of this specific entertainment route. Yet it was Ted and his generation who were able to carve this out as a conceivable path into showbiz.

 

This period also coincided with the rise of working men’s club entertainment and Ted was the perfect performer to benefit from such a lower middle class phenomenon. Clubs like Batley Variety Club and Bernard Manning’s Embassy were now modern equivalents to the London Palladium. TV Light Entertainment was suddenly slightly changing and Ted was once again in prime position to observe it. Meeting the late great Victoria Wood around this time would highlight such a subtle shift in entertainment and once again he was on the cusp of yet another northern revolution. Unbeknown to him, in Victoria, Ted had met a very significant figure within the direction of his career.

 

His association with Victoria Wood resulted in one of his first bookings as a warm up man on Granada’s Wood and Waters in 1981. Britain boasts a rich legacy of TV warmup performers such as Barry Cryer, Felix Bowness, Bobby Bragg and Jeff Stevenson but now Ted would join this illustrious list. It was here that he obtained a window into the magic of Victoria Wood and became the start of a blossoming friendship which would continue until her untimely death in 2016. Both Ted and his sister Kate both became longtime collaborators of Victoria’s, even appearing on her BBC1 Christmas show. Therefore her death at the somewhat tender age of 62 came as a personal tragedy for Ted and the dozens of comedy performers whom she helped to shine. It’s clear that for Ted and many other TV performers, Wood may be gone but never forgotten.

 

Ted’s steady dominance within the art of TV warmup artists was slowly turning him into one of the most in demand performers in Britain. In 1985 he secured the role of warmup man on the second series of LWT’s newest dating show Blind Date alongside the legendary Cilla Black. This was the start of yet another enduring relationship with a TV icon which would last decades and resulted in him becoming writer and programme consultant on Blind Date. With a mutual passion for the city of Liverpool, it didn’t take long for Ted to tap into Cilla’s verbal cadence and find a rhythm on which to write. It was here that he would have a unique window on what it took to be one of the most successful, famous and hardworking women in entertainment and the relationship between Cilla and her husband Bobby Willis was the key to this.

 

So much was their chemistry that in time, Robbins would become one of Cilla’s lead writers and among her favourites to collaborate with. During the eighties and nineties when she was arguably one of the most prominent stars on British television, Ted was never far away. Joining the writing team on the Saturday night juggernaut Blind Date Ted would aid the contestants in shaping their answers to the picker’s questions in a way that would be suitable for broadcast on an early evening family show. This offered Ted a raw insight into the minds of young, single men in the nineties and their confident attitude toward the opposite sex. This brashness was a contributing factor to Blind Date’s success over many years and Cilla was always the perfect ringleader to oversee the range of eccentric characters on show.

 

Yet Ted isn’t the only Robbins family member to enjoy an association with the legendary Cilla Black. His sister; the writer and entertainer Kate Robbins also provided material for the queen of Saturday night during the eighties and nineties predominately on the star studded extravaganza Surprise Surprise. This, combined with her contribution to ITV’s satirical juggernaut Spitting Image made Kate Robbins into one of the most prolific writers and performers of the time. In 1987 ITV had the idea of uniting the comic talents of brother and sister for Kate and Ted’s Show in which they star in sketches and skits alongside the writer and comedian Michael Fenton-Stevens. Ted still insists that Kate was far more qualified to hold this show together than he who was purely a jobbing stand up comedian. Despite penning a handful of sketches, Ted always maintains that it helped his sister’s career much more than his and after merely one series, time was promptly called on Kate and Ted’s Show.

 

Game shows are notoriously difficult to perfect and in 1995 Ted had the opportunity to put his stamp on the format when he presented ITV’s Chain Letters. Throughout history, game shows have always been the perfect vessel in which comics can sandwich their comic material and Ted was no exception. Comedians are always perfectly suited to the genre as a result of the ability to find the funny in every aspect of the game. Employing a comedian to host a game show always introduces another dimension to proceedings and always puts the contestants at ease. Chain Letters was a long running format for ITV and Ted was just one of the long line of entertainers to inherit the series. The only problem with a show surrounding letters is that producers can’t always guarantee what words will be created and on occasion they had to cut sequences that unexpectedly contained overly suggestive or rude words which appealed to Ted’s sharp sense of humour. This, together with his talents as a presenter, made Ted’s tenure on Chain Letters an enjoyable one.

 

His association with the phenomenon of the 1970’s working men’s circuit would unknowingly provide the basis of the next chapter of Ted’s career as in 2003 Peter Kay paid homage to this enigmatic world in the award winning sitcom Phoenix Nights. Having been a big fan of Peter, it was a real honour for Ted to play the part of rival nightclub owner Den Perry. For this, Ted took inspiration from the impresario aspect of the late Bernard Manning who beyond his antiquated ideology was an impeccable joke teller. It was this aspect of his personality which Ted wanted to convey and knowing Peter’s passion for the golden years of Variety, he knew that this would go down well. The bitter rivalry between Kay’s Brian Potter and Den Perry became another important aspect of the show and introduced Ted to another generation.

 

Such a renaissance put Ted on the radar of many TV producers and in 2015 he joined the cast of Coronation Street as the narcissistic lothario Brendan Finch. Joining a soap was never on his career radar but on reading the part, he felt there was something about the role that he could conquer. Finding himself alongside the legendary William Roache was a surreal experience for the born television fan and offered him an insight to the inner workings of long running drama. Despite Finch coming to an untimely end and was found dead at the bottom of a cliff in the Lake District, Ted enjoyed his time on the cobbles and should another role in a serial drama arise, he may struggle to decline.

 

In 2015, due to overwhelming popular demand, Peter Kay reunited the cast of Phoenix Nights for a live show at the Manchester Arena in aid of Comic Relief. However, tragedy was to strike in January of that year as Ted suffered a cardiac arrest on stage. Thanks to the proactive action of a doctor in the audience, he was given prompt medical treatment which ultimately saved his life. Having a pre-existing heart condition was at the root of the attack and if it hadn’t been for the rapid attempt of those individuals, Ted might not be here to tell his tale.

Looking at his career as a whole, Ted has concluded that Light Entertainment is cyclical and hugely popular formats like Britain’s Got Talent and Strictly Come Dancing are merely regurgitated incarnations of what entertainers were doing in holiday camps more than half a century ago. It’s only hearing these insights that you realise just how important Ted Robbins is to the story and development of Light Entertainment in the UK. I struggle to think of any other performer who either has been present at or has contributed to almost every entertainment landmark of the past five decades. His unique insight together with his connections to just about every major figure in the history of British entertainment makes him the perfect subject for any interview. It was one of my greatest achievements to welcome him to Beyond The Title and for any budding comedians looking for a performer to emulate, look no further than the legendary Ted Robbins.