Robin Mark Askwith (born 12 October 1950)[1] is an English actor and singer who has appeared in a number of film, television and stage productions.
Askwith has appeared on television as Fred Pickering in Beryl's Lot (1973–1975), Dave Deacon in Bottle Boys (1984–1985) and Ritchie de Vries in Coronation Street (2013–2014).
In 1975, at Drury Lane's New London Theatre, Askwith was voted "Most Promising Newcomer – Male" at the Evening Standard British Film Awards.
[3] As a young child, he swam in a pool contaminated with insects; later that day Askwith's mother found him fully submerged underwater in the bath.
Taken to hospital in an ambulance, Askwith was found to have contracted polio and had to spend nine months in an isolation ward at Southport Infirmary and had to learn how to walk again.
[3] Shortly after this, the family moved from Southport to Eastcote, London where Askwith was educated at Orley Farm in nearby Harrow.
[4] The next-door neighbour of a friend was Carry On actor Kenneth Connor, and so Askwith began attending a local amateur dramatics group.
He would then have roles in television series including Dixon of Dock Green, Public Eye, The Main Chance and Bless This House, and in a deleted scene from the film Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972).
Other members of the cast included comedy stalwarts Peter Butterworth, Terry Scott, June Whitfield and Wendy Richard.
Plans to shoot a further made-for-video Confessions film in the 1980s also came to nothing, although by this time he was appearing in the poorly received ITV sitcom Bottle Boys (1984–1985).
He has also had roles in the soap operas EastEnders, Doctors, Hollyoaks and Coronation Street where he played a holiday tour guide named Aidan.
[8] His role as con-man Marcus Hornby in the TV comedy drama Benidorm was broadcast in January 2016, and his episode of Casualty aired later that year.
[14] Askwith lives on Gozo, a Mediterranean island near Malta, having moved there in 1991, where his hobbies include swimming, underwater diving and yachting, however he regularly returns to the UK for tours, events and filming.