[2][3] A head teacher got him transferred to Finchden Manor, a therapeutic community, in Kent, for teenagers with emotional difficulties,[3] where he spent his following six years.

[2] At the community, Robinson was inspired by John Peel's The Perfumed Garden on pirate Radio London, and by a visit from Alexis Korner.

Davies retaliated with a mocking Kinks song "Prince of the Punks" (released as a B Side of "Father Christmas",) about Robinson.

Robinson, in turn, wrote "Don't Take No For An Answer" about Davies' hindering his career, later released on the Rising Free EP.

[2] In 1979, Robinson co-wrote several songs with Elton John, including his minor hit "Sartorial Eloquence (Don't Ya Wanna Play This Game No More?

[2] Desolate, in debt, and sorrowing from a breakup with a beau, Robinson fled to Hamburg, Germany, much like his idol David Bowie had escaped to Berlin at a low point in his life.

[6] In 1982, Robinson penned the song "War Baby" about divisions between East and West Germany,[2] and recorded his first solo album North by Northwest with producer Richard Mazda.

[2] In 1997, he won a Sony Academy Award for You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, a radio documentary about gay music, produced by Benjamin Mepsted,[3] and later hosted the Home Truths tribute to John Peel a year after his death in 2004.

Currently, Robinson rarely performs live, apart from two annual free concerts, known as the Castaway Parties, for members of his mailing list.

The Castaway Parties invariably feature a wide variety of established and unknown artists and groups who have included Show of Hands, Philip Jeays, Jan Allain, Jakko Jakszyk, Stoney, Roddy Frame, Martyn Joseph, The Bewley Brothers and Paleday alongside personal friends such as Lee Griffiths and T. V. Smith.

[10] Robinson played "2-4-6-8 Motorway" and "Glad to Be Gay" at the BBC introducing stage on the Friday afternoon of the 2011 Glastonbury Festival, after announcing that The Coral would not be showing as they were 'stuck in the mud'.

In July 2013, at the Tabernacle on Powis Square in Notting Hill, a new line-up of TRB performed the entire Power in the Darkness album to launch its release on CD.

In 2014, he was one of the performers at the opening ceremonies of WorldPride in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, alongside Melissa Etheridge, Deborah Cox and Steve Grand.

In an interview, he stated that he used the term "gay" because, "as far as Joe Public is concerned, if you’re interested in other guys you’re a queer… to call ourselves bi-sexual is a cop-out.

"[16][17] A longtime supporter and former volunteer of London's Gay Switchboard help-line, it was at a 1982 benefit party for the organisation that Robinson met Sue Brearley,[18] the woman with whom he would eventually live and have two children, and later marry.

[2] In the mid-1990s, when Robinson became a father, the tabloids ran stories about what they deemed as a sexual orientation change, running headlines such as "Britain's Number One Gay in Love with Girl Biker!"

[2] Robinson continued to identify as a gay man, telling an interviewer for The Guardian: "I have much more sympathy with bisexuals now, but I am absolutely not one.

"[2] In a 1994 interview for The Boston Globe newspaper, Robinson said: "We've been fighting for tolerance for the last 20 years, and I've campaigned for people to be able to love whoever the hell they want.

The character is later incarcerated with other protestors by the time-travelling protagonist, Detective Inspector Alex Drake (played by Keeley Hawes) and dismisses her claims that he will one day marry a woman.

The scene supposedly takes place on 9 October 1981, precisely fourteen months before the real Tom Robinson met his future bride.

The character then leads other protestors in singing a round of "Glad to Be Gay" in the confinement facility, much to Sergeant Viv James' annoyance.

"2-4-6-8 Motorway" is also used in the soundtrack[22] during the protest after Detective Sergeant Ray Carling sings a few bars to Alex, who then proceeds to drive a pink tank over a parked Ford Escort, which she believes would otherwise have later been used in a car bombing.