Anne Robinson

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Anne Robinson : biography

26 September 1944 –

Anne Josephine Robinson (born 26 September 1944) is an English television presenter and journalist, known for her assertive views and acerbic style of presenting. She was one of the presenters on the long-running British series Watchdog from 1993 to 2001, before returning in 2009. She gained notoriety as the hostess of the BBC game show The Weakest Link from 2000 to 2012,[‘Anne Robinson quits Weakest Link’] Digital Spy 22 April 2011 which earned her the nickname "Queen of Mean".

Early life

Born in Crosby, Lancashire, Robinson is of Irish descent. – 11 November 2001 Her father was a school teacher. Her mother, Anne Josephine (née Wilson), who was an alcoholic,Mark Lawson Talks To, BBC Four, 28 February 2011 was an agricultural businesswoman from Ireland, where she was the manager of a market stall. When she came to England, she married into her husband’s family of wholesale chicken dealers, and sold rationed rabbit after World War II. Raised initially at the family home in Crosby, Robinson attended a private Roman Catholic convent Boarding School in Hampshire, Farnborough Hill School. She was hired as a chicken gutter and saleswoman during the holidays in the family business, before taking office jobs at a law firm. The family spent their summers on holiday in France, often at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes."You Can’t Fire Me, I’m Famous" – BBC1, in interview with Piers Morgan – 7 August 2007

Personal life

In 1973, Robinson lost a custody battle for her only child, Emma, then aged two. Charles Wilson was granted sole custody, care and control of Emma, who subsequently lived with her father until she left home at 16 for boarding school. 17 October 2001, The Independent An admitted alcoholic, 22 October 2006, The Independent she stopped drinking on 12 December 1978 after picking her daughter up from school and driving to a petrol station to buy a bottle of vodka.

Robinson married journalist John Penrose in 1980. On 30 September 2007, the couple announced that they were planning to divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences". In 2001, she published her autobiography, Memoirs of an Unfit Mother, in which she describes her former drinking problem. In 2001, Robinson was diagnosed with skin cancer and had surgery to treat it. Robinson has two grandchildren.

Controversy

Robinson caused a stir when she appeared on the comedy show Room 101 on 5 March 2001. Robinson’s comments about Welsh people, such as "What are they for?", "I never did like them", and even suggesting that Prince Philip also disliked them, were perceived as derogatory. This caused an outcry and accusations of racism. After four senior officers from North Wales Police spent 96 hours investigating the issue, she apologised for the comments and agreed to do promotional work for the Wales Tourist Board to encourage people to visit the country. In addition to this, BBC2 show Robot Wars also saw a protest against these remarks by Welsh robot Mega Morg, who placed a picture of Robinson on the front of the robot in the hope it would get destroyed.

In the same show, she put comedian Ben Elton into Room 101 in protest at his hosting the Royal Variety Performance. She argued that he should be sent to the room "for being a total and utter hypocrite and going back on everything he stood for in the ’80s and ’90s". In April 2002, Robinson was then placed into the Room 101 bin by Jessica Hynes who said she couldn’t stand Robinson’s bare-faced cheek for insulting people on her show; she then went on to say that Robinson reminded her of a "certain German dictator" who also hated his own people, as well as the black leather outfit, short hair, and moustache. Hynes then had another swipe at Robinson for using Botox, stating that "she’s not exactly an oil painting" and that "she looks rather tired".

Ever since that show, host Paul Merton explained that he always took his guests out for lunch to discuss the items in order to ensure they were okay for the show. The one guest that didn’t go was Robinson, and as a result, Merton had no idea she wanted to put the Welsh into Room 101. The BBC received 16 complaints after Robinson asked wine connoisseur Olly Smith, who was competing on the celebrity version of The Weakest Link, to feel her breasts, after he described her as a "full-bodied, expensive red". The programme was broadcast Saturday 5 April 2008 on BBC One. Robinson caused controversy on The Weakest Link when she made Blue Peter legend John Noakes cry after asking "What happened to Shep?" Shep had been Noakes’s pet both on and off Blue Peter.