Tony Robinson has lost all of his work due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The ‘Blackadder’ legend – who played the hapless Baldrick in the beloved BBC sitcom – has seen shooting cancelled on two television projects and a pitch for a third scrapped but Tony accepts that everyone in the entertainment industry is dealing with the same issues because of the spread of the deadly respiratory illness, also known as COVID-19.
The only thing that has angered Tony is that some people questioned whether at the age of 73 he would be back to complete his jobs, something he has branded "ageism".
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, he said: "All my performance work went in one day. Had that happened at another time I would have been so p***ed off you can’t imagine. But when it’s happening to everybody, you just think, ‘Oh, this is the way life is now.’"
Revealing that he had been questioned about his ability to come back to work after the pandemic due to his age, he added: "That was distressing. It’s just old-fashioned ageism."
Tony will still be on screens on Channel 5 series ‘Around the World by Train’, in which he travels across southern Europe, South America, takes a train through Mexico and California and also explores Canada, Russia and Scandinavia.
The comic star hopes that in these "gloomy" times that it can bring some joy and fun into viewers’ homes.
He said: "It’s a celebration of life, a celebration of other people, a celebration of the world and of adventure. Everything is so gloomy at the moment, but I was doing the final voiceover at a time when we could just explode with fun and laughter and my idiocy in the face of adversity, and we need to hold on to that. There’s a limited amount of time during which we can mourn what’s going to happen."
Tony Robinson has lost all his work to the coronavirus crisis
