Richard Robinson (born 1953 in Halifax,

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

, England) is an actor, writer and puppeteer. He is also the Director of the Brighton Science Festival.

Puppetry

As a

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object called a puppet to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the ...

, Robinson is best known for building and voicing puppets for the television series ''

Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ...

'', '' The Riddlers'', ''Dizzy Heights'', and ''

Puddle Lane ''Puddle Lane'' (or ''Tales from Puddle Lane'') is a 1980s English pre-school children's television programme written by Rick Vanes with animated stories written by Sheila K. McCullagh, author of ''Tim and the Hidden People''. A long series o ...

''. In ''The Riddlers'', he built the puppets Mossop, Middler, Glossop, Eesup, and Tiddler (Tiddlup), also voicing Mossop and Middler. On ''Dizzy Heights'' he played Victor Gristle, and on ''Puddle Lane'' he played Toby the Dragon and other puppets. He also played Bungle in the 1994-1995 revival of the children's series ''

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

''. Before his puppeteering career, Richard was a busker. In the mid-1990s, after years taking his children to the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, Industry (manufacturing), industry and Outline of industrial ...

and related educational events he found a new outlet as a science busker, visiting schools and festivals with science cabaret acts.

Author

He has written nearly twenty books on science. The SCIENCE MAGIC books (OUP) were shortlisted for the Royal Society's science book prize 2000. WHY THE TOAST ALWAYS LANDS BUTTER-SIDE DOWN (Constable Robinson 2005) has been translated into 14 languages.

Brighton Science Festival

In 2005 he founded the Brighton Science Festival, now one of the biggest in the UK.

References

Living people British puppeteers British male television actors 1953 births Festival directors British voice actors {{UK-writer-stub