Matt Eley talks to actor and presenter Tony Robinson about Baldrick, Blackadder and his bohemian past HE is still probably best known for playing loveable idiot Baldrick in the four Blackadder series, but it doesn t bother Tony Robinson one little bit.

Matt Eley talks to actor and presenter Tony Robinson about Baldrick, Blackadder and his bohemian past

HE is still probably best known for playing loveable idiot Baldrick in the four Blackadder series, but it doesn't bother Tony Robinson one little bit.

The actor and presenter is about to embark on a nationwide one man tour where he will answer questions on a career that has taken him from the massively successful historical comedy to archaeological TV show Time Team.

On May 3 he will bring Tony Robinson's Cunning Night Out to artsdepot in Finchley and he won't shy away from talking about the peasant that helped him make his name.

He told the Ham&High: "I think Blackadder and Baldrick gave me the kind of life I could only have ever dreamed about.

"It has enabled me to do so many things in my life and the last 15 years have been so interesting. I have been to so many places and done so many things so I am just incredibly grateful to it.

"I always get slightly puzzled when I hear people complaining about being known for one thing when that was the thing that made them."

The evening will not all be about cunning plans and being hit over the head with various objects by Rowan Atkinson.

After a scripted first part of the show the audience is invited to ask Robinson about anything they want.

He continued: "In the first half I'll talk about Blackadder and Time Team and who had the worst jobs in history and things from my own past and in the second half it's over to the audience.

"So if people are wondering about coming and what I'll be talking about come along and ask a question. Everyone is welcome, apart from the Daily Mail," he added, in reference to recent stories about his 25-year-old girlfriend.

And his own personal history could well include stories about his experiences studying at the Central School of Speech and Drama in Swiss Cottage.

"I shared a bed-sit in those days with Keira Knightley's dad in Frognal for £3 a week each and I also lived in Kilburn and Finchley Road. It was great. Swiss Cottage was a really Bohemian place. North-west London is still my spiritual home and I often come back here."

He has been doing the one man show on and off for a couple of years now and this time he is cramming 30 dates into an eight-week period.

"I do really love doing it but it isn't something I would want to do all the time so I am happy doing it eight weeks a year," he said.

"People think of me as someone off the telly but prior to that I had 30 years experience on the stage so this gives me a chance to strut my stuff, as they say."

Tony Robinson's Cunning Night Out is at artsdepot, Tally Ho Corner, north Finchley on Thursday May 3. For tickets at £15 or £12.50 concessions call the box office on 020-8369 5454 or visit www.artsdepot.co.uk.