Tony 'Baldrick' Robinson has launched a new podcast, Tony Robinson's Cunningcast, in which he talks about everything from topical stories to Blackadder and Baldrick. In the first episode he talks to fellow Blackadder veteran Miriam Margolyes, who recalls their earliest meeting and work together in the following exchange.
TONY ROBINSON: Do you remember our sexual encounter at Leicester when we first met?
MIRIAM MARGOLYES: We had a sexual encounter?
TONY: Yes.
MIRIAM: I don’t remember that.
TONY: I was in the wings, waiting to go on. And suddenly you put your hand down my trousers and tickled my balls.
MIRIAM: I never did!
TONY: (laughs) Why would I lie about a thing like that? I remember how split down the middle I was because a part of me thought, oh, my God, this is fantastic. Nobody ever, just out of the blue does that to me. I must just squeeze every inch of pleasure out of this possible. The other part of me was thinking in about 9 seconds time, I have to go on stage.
MIRIAM: Was it during a show?
TONY: It was during the show. The acting was going on. I was standing behind the door waiting to go on. You were, I guess, going to be on next after me and it was so funny. I suppose nowadays people would say that to you sexually harassed me, but it wasn't like that at all as far as I was concerned. Looking in your eyes, it was the funniest joke possible.
MIRIAM: How very unprofessional of me, I am now apologising for that era, but I can't remember it. I'm so glad you remember it.
TONY: It was probably the high point of my sexual life.
MIRIAM MARGOYLES TALKS TO TONY ROBINSON ABOUT WORKING WITH HIM AND ROWAN ATKINSON ON BLACKADDER:
MIRIAM: I loved all of you. All of you boys. You weren’t a bit like the boys from Footlights... You saw me as a person. You spoke to me. You were kind and fun. And I could see that Rowan was very, very shy. In fact, he stammered at that time. But he was a darling. And everybody was. And I just felt, Oh, I'm part of this. This is lovely. And that's what you want to feel when you're working (…) Rowan made it very easy for me. He was very nice to work with. It was just interesting because when he made a mistake, he got so angry with himself, didn't get angry with anybody else. He wasn't difficult. And you were just as gorgeous as you have remained. You were just kind and funny and friendly.
MIRIAM MARGOYLES TALKS ABOUT HER TIME WORKING WITH JOHN CLEESE, TONY HENDRA AND GRAHAM CHAPMAN WHILST APPEARING IN PRODUCTIONS BY THE CAMBRIDGE FOOTLIGHTS:
MIRIAM: So, Cleese, Chapman. I can't remember if Bill Oddie was there. I think he was. Tony Hendra. You know, they were just horrible to me and made me cry. And finally, as I have recounted, they didn't ask me to the cast party, but there's always a cast party at the end of the review and I wasn't asked. So I went to the president who was called Chris Stewart Clark. They used his name for a television character that they wrote. And I said, “I haven't been asked to the party.” And he said, “oh, it's an oversight.” I said, “no it isn’t, it's utterly deliberate, but I want an invitation.” And I got one and I went to the party. So sod them.
MIRIAM MARGOLES TALKS ABOUT WRITING A NEW BOOK:
TONY ROBINSON: (…) I can see your magnificent rack.
MIRIAM MARGOYLES: Oh, I forgot that's what it was called…I'm just writing about a tour around my body, and it actually has a chapter in my new book.
TONY: The new book? What a brilliant idea for a chapter. Oh, fantastic.
MIRIAM: That's my editor's idea. Not mine…and one section of it is called Cunt and another section is called Breasts.
TONY: Are they all only the rude bits or do you do others like armpit?
MIRIAM: No, no, I do eyes and I'll do teeth and, you know, a whole schmear.
MIRIAM TALKS ABOUT NO LONGER THINKING ABOUT SEX:
MIRIAM: I don’t think about sex. However, if I'm on a tube which I’m not now very much because I frightened of Covid, but when I was on tubes, I always looked at men's trousers to see where their cocks were. So there’s still a, I don’t know a little fragment of sex left in me.
TONY: So although you became a committed lesbian quite early in life, you were still looking at where men's cocks were. But what do you think that is? Just curiosity?
MIRIAM: Yes, I think it's curiosity. And also a rather charming sense of wonder. It's so interesting to me that that you have cocks and balls. Something that hangs outside of your body. Extraordinary. So I think I'm still a bit amazed and rather thrilled. Something so different.
Tony Robinson’s Cunningcast is available to listen to on all podcast platforms. Listen and subscribe here.
