Robin Askwith is back! Yes the legendary actor and star of countless classic films and television shows is bringing his one man show to the Phoenix Artist Club in London's West End.
Expect the unexpected as Mr Askwith shares outrageous stories from his eventful and eclectic career on stage and screen. We all know him from the Confessions films, Bless This House and Carry On Girls, but Robin's got more strings to his bow than that! Prepare yourself for stories on the likes of Sid James, Ray Cooney, Frank Bruno, Pasolini and even Jimi Hendrix.
The Phoenix is a great, intimate venue for Robin's show so prepare to get up close and personal with this screen legend! After many years playing a whole range of characters, Robin is finally playing with himself, as it were.
You can read the first part of my interview with Robin here: Carry On Blogging Interview: Robin Askwith (Part 1)
And you can read my recent blog on Confessions of a Window Cleaner here: Carry On Blogging: Confessions Time
Misty Moon Presents Robin Askwith 69! is at the Phoenix Artists Club on Tuesday 19 March 2019, from 8pm. You can buy tickets here
You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram
It's not often I spend my Tuesday evenings hearing stories about such diverse figures as Peter O'Toole, Frank Bruno, Charlotte Rampling and Sid James. Who could possibly link these people? Who else but Mr Robin Askwith.
I joined an audience of friends and fans to take in the splendour of Robin in full flight last night at the gorgeous Phoenix Artist Club at the Phoenix Theatre in London's Charing Cross Road. As an aside, if you get the chance do check this little club out - it's one of London's hidden gems and well worth a visit whether there's a show on or not. The Misty Moon Events team have an ongoing relationship with the club and I've visited several times in the past to see Fenella Fielding's mesmerising memoir shows.
Anyway, back to the man of the moment. I interviewed Robin Askwith back in August and spent a very entertaining hour on the telephone with him as we talked about his lengthy career and his views on anything and everything. A colourful character in every sense of the word, Robin is charming, down to earth, intelligent and shrewd about the business he's been a part of for nearly fifty years. One of the joys of Robin and his career is just how diverse it has been. He's never followed the usual path to stardom and that makes his story all the more fascinating. Despite being the typical larger than life character, Robin is also not shy at owning up to those films and telly shows which have been less than successful for him. He's open, honest, naturally funny and a pleasure to listen to. Our conversation on the phone months before was replicated in the Phoenix, only with a much bigger audience and it still felt unique and personal.
I won't give too much of the content away as you really do need to take in the show for yourself however it started with Robin's birth in Southport in 1950 and, well, it didn't get much further than that in the chronological order of things. And the evening was all the better for it. Mr Askwith had brought a pad of paper with notes to the stage but never actually got around to reading them or sharing them with the crowd. The completely random nature of the show meant that Robin was constantly going off at tangents and while that meant we never actually heard what happened when he accompanied Cheryl Hall to that audition for Pier Paolo Pasolini (read my blog interview to find out more) it didn't really matter as what he ended up telling us was just as riotous, as funny and as big a joy.
We heard stories from the joys of playing panto; films such as Bless This House, If, Horror Hospital, Carry On Girls and something called Queen Kong (ahem); and friendships with the likes of Alan Lake, Peter O'Toole, Linda Hayden and Lindsay Anderson. Robin took many questions from the audience and was really down to earth, open and friendly with us all. He may have told me on the phone that he's naturally nervous when performing up there all on his own and that it's not his natural habitat, but he took it all in his stride and seemed to relish the backchat with the audience. And despite exposing certain parts of his anatomy on a recent trip to Oxford, he remained, I'm glad to say, respectfully attired throughout his 90 minute gig.
I'm so glad I could attend this show, the last of the year. However Robin told us that there were plans under way for a proper tour of one man shows next year as he celebrates fifty years as an actor. Watch out for more information on that.
If you're a fan of the Confessions films and that's what Robin Askwith means to you, then make sure you check out one of his shows next year. And if you're not a fan of the Confessions films and think you know Robin, go anyway, because he's full of surprises and you'll get much more than you bargained for.
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me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan on Facebook and on Instagram
After a successful mini Summer tour earlier this year that saw Robin
Askwith up and down the country thrilling audiences with his tales,
everyone's favourite window cleaner is BACK at The Phoenix Artist Club
for a one-off late night show.
This will be a showcase as we look forward to celebrating Robin's 50 year career next year. You
can't have a Robin Askwith gig without Darth Vader, Miriam Margolyes
and Alan Lake getting a mention but there will much, much more. As
always this isn't rehearsed and anything could happen! So come and
celebrate the half century of Robin Askwith...
And
after Robin's recent threat that if I didn't attend this gig, he'd
never speak to me again, I can confirm that I already have my ticket
booked and I can't wait to see him in the flesh (as it were).
I
had a terrific chat with Robin earlier this week when I asked him all
about his early film appearances, his time making the films Carry On
Girls and Bless This House and memories of co-stars such as Carol
Hawkins, Sid James, June Whitfield and Judy Matheson. You can read Part 1
of the interview here and Part 2 here
Come
and see Robin at The Phoenix Artist Club on Tuesday 10 October. Doors
open at 8.45pm with the gig starting at 9.15pm. Tickets cost £15 and you
can buy them here
I'll be there on the night and I'll be blogging a review of the show soon after so stay tuned for that!
After a successful mini Summer tour earlier this year that saw Robin
Askwith up and down the country thrilling audiences with his tales,
everyone's favourite window cleaner is BACK at The Phoenix Artist Club
for a one-off late night show.
This will be a showcase as we look forward to celebrating Robin's 50 year career next year. You
can't have a Robin Askwith gig without Darth Vader, Miriam Margolyes
and Alan Lake getting a mention but there will much, much more. As
always this isn't rehearsed and anything could happen! So come and
celebrate the half century of Robin Askwith...
And
after Robin's recent threat that if I didn't attend this gig, he'd
never speak to me again, I can confirm that I already have my ticket
booked and I can't wait to see him in the flesh (as it were).
I
had a terrific chat with Robin earlier this week when I asked him all
about his early film appearances, his time making the films Carry On
Girls and Bless This House and memories of co-stars such as Carol
Hawkins, Sid James, June Whitfield and Judy Matheson. You can read Part 1
of the interview here and Part 2 here
Come
and see Robin at The Phoenix Artist Club on Tuesday 10 October. Doors
open at 8.45pm with the gig starting at 9.15pm. Tickets cost £15 and you
can buy them here
After a successful mini Summer tour earlier this year that saw Robin
Askwith up and down the country thrilling audiences with his tales,
everyone's favourite window cleaner is BACK at The Phoenix Artist Club
for a one-off late night show.
This will be a showcase as we look forward to celebrating Robin's 50 year career next year. You
can't have a Robin Askwith gig without Darth Vader, Miriam Margolyes
and Alan Lake getting a mention but there will much, much more. As
always this isn't rehearsed and anything could happen! So come and
celebrate the half century of Robin Askwith...
And after Robin's recent threat that if I didn't attend this gig, he'd never speak to me again, I can confirm that I already have my ticket booked and I can't wait to see him in the flesh (as it were).
I had a terrific chat with Robin earlier this week when I asked him all about his early film appearances, his time making the films Carry On Girls and Bless This House and memories of co-stars such as Carol Hawkins, Sid James, June Whitfield and Judy Matheson. You can read Part 1 of the interview here and Part 2 here
Come and see Robin at The Phoenix Artist Club on Tuesday 10 October. Doors open at 8.45pm with the gig starting at 9.15pm. Tickets cost £15 and you can buy them here
Yesterday afternoon I had the great pleasure of attending the first in a new run of shows given by Fenella Fielding at the Phoenix Artist Club in London's West End. Fenella's decision to release an audio book of her memoirs has been a cause of much excitement amongst her many fans and this was my first opportunity to hear some of the content, read by the great lady herself.
The Phoenix Artist Club is the perfect venue for these shows. It's quirky, steeped in theatrical history and staffed by some lovely, friendly people. The show itself was intimate and well staged, all eyes of course on Fenella. We heard three different sections from her memoirs and this was followed by a short question and answer session hosted by Fenella's friend and collaborator Simon McKay.
Obviously I don't want to give too much away on what Fenella talked about during the show as I really think you have to experience it for yourselves. The chapters Fenella read to us covered her early life. She spoke about her upbringing, her parents and how she began the long journey to becoming a professional actress. In many ways it was exactly what I expected and uniquely Fenella. There is nobody else like her and nobody else with a voice quite like hers! However, the performance was also multi-layered and at times, surprising. The content was funny, occasionally outrageous, charming, tender and sometimes sad. It had the ability to stop you in your tracks and make you think again. It was beautifully delivered and extremely well written.
For me, one of the best decisions with this show has been to make the content of each appearance different. So each show will feature different chapters from the memoir giving every audience a different experience and an intriguing and enlightening journey with Fenella on her life both on stage and off. I will certainly be back for more!
On a personal level it was great to see Fenella again - I've met her several times over the past few years and she has always been warm, friendly and very down to earth for someone who has lived such a full and successful professional life. My thanks also to Simon McKay who has been a great help with the blog and arranged the afternoon brilliantly. And it was super to finally meet Stuart and Jen from Misty Moon - we have been in touch several times but meeting properly at last was a joy. As you can tell from my blogging, I'm a big fan of what they do.
There
will be a further seven shows, running regularly on Saturday afternoons
from now until early next year. You can find out further details and
book tickets for the shows on the Misty Moon Film Society website
So if you are in or around London in the lead up to Christmas, please do try and get along to one of these shows. I'd highly recommend them to you.
You
can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and
also Facebook
