Kenneth John Robinson (26 April 1925 – 26 March 1994) was an English pianist, architect, journalist and broadcaster from Ealing best known for his acerbity.
[2] During the Second World War, he was a pianist in ENSA concert parties, though realised he was not good enough to make a career of it and so after the war, he wrote for The Croydon Advertiser,[2] where he wrote caustic, Tynan-like reviews; his dismissal, according to his obituary in The Independent, was for refusing to learn shorthand and typing,[1] though he said in a 1976 interview that he was fired for saying that And Then There Were None was "a play in which members of the cast are strangled and poisoned one by one - it is a pity more plays of this kind are not available to the amateur".
[4] He had a stint as a presenter of religious programmes, but the producer found his tone too ironic for the subject matter.
[1] In 1971 he became a guest panellist and occasional host[5] of BBC Radio 4's Start the Week[6] and hosted its children's spin-off, If It's Wednesday It Must Be....[7] He was notorious for acerbity,[8] once telling the editor of H&E naturist between a report from a nudist colony and an anthropologist's explanation of nudity attitudes among Amazonian primitive tribes that "I loathe and despise everything you stand for".
[9] Robinson was particularly acerbic towards women;[6] he rowed with Anna Raeburn and Esther Rantzen,[1] brought Angela Rippon to tears after dismantling her book about horses, and disgusted Pamela Stephenson enough for her to empty a jug of water down his neck.