Latest news with #TonyRobinson
The Guardian
4 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Blackadder star Tony Robinson vents anger over ‘heightism'
As dating apps using height filters spark debate on 'heightism', the Blackadder star Tony Robinson has vented his anger at women who feel it is acceptable to comment on men's height. 'Nowadays, you don't pick on people's looks, do you? It's like kind of a new understanding over the last 10 or 15 years, you don't deride people for what they look like,' the 5ft 4in actor, 78, told Elizabeth Day's How to Fail podcast, admitting he had seen his shorter than average height as a problem in life. Studies over decades show heightism leads to bias, yet it appears even today to be more socially acceptable than other forms of physical prejudice. The term 'heightism' was first coined by the sociologist Saul Feldman in 1971. Dr Erin Pritchard, a senior lecturer in sociology and disability studies at Liverpool Hope University, believes much heightism is subconscious, but that it is ingrained. It has also not benefited from widespread acceptance movements. 'You had the fat acceptance movement, and while there's still issues, you would never go, 'well, how much do you weigh'? But it's perfectly acceptable for people to go, 'how tall are you'?' she said. It is reinforced through popular culture, 'Chicken and egg, I suppose. But you're seeing it in films and in TV shows, jokes about short man syndrome,' she said. 'Height is all about power, isn't it? It's quite a powerful thing.' And it is present in everyday language. We tell people to 'walk tall'; we 'look up to' people; those respected 'have stature'; those less so 'have shortcomings' or 'fall short'. The US state of Michigan, the US cities Santa Cruz, San Francisco and New York City, as well as Ontario, Canada and Victoria, Australia, are among the few to address height discrimination in civil rights law. An increase in men's height corresponds to increased income, according to a 2004 study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The term 'height premium' emerged from another 2004 study, which found an 1.8% increase in men's wages accompanies every additional inch [2.54 cm] of height, and that men's wages as adults could be linked to their height at age 16. Women prefer a larger height difference between themselves and male partners, according to a 2013 study at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and were most satisfied when their partner was 21cm taller. Men, however, preferred an 8cm difference over female partners. There was a lighthearted, body positive movement during the 2022 TikTok 'short king spring', in praise of short men. But then a 2023 study suggested 'short man syndrome', often referred to as the Napoleon complex, may lead short men to compensate with antagonistic behaviours. The study claims evidence of 'such a complex in those characterised by the Dark Triad traits of psychopathy (i.e, callousness, criminality), narcissism (i.e, inflated sense of self, grandiosity), and Machiavellianism (i.e, pragmatic cynicism, duplicity).' However, being too tall also attracts the unwelcome. The 6ft 7in comedian and actor, Stephen Merchant, has spoken of his weariness at relentless comments. Trying to be funny was a way of taking ownership of standing out. 'If people are going to look at you, they may as well look at you and think what you are doing is good or funny or entertaining rather than just pointing and laughing. I guess I was a nerd and I felt a bit awkward because I was 6ft 7in even from a young age,' he told Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. The actor Geena Davis knocked two inches off her 6ft height to get accepted by modelling agencies in her youth. Miranda Hart, the Call the Midwife star, has said she is fed up with being defined by her 6ft 1in height. Nicole Kidman, at 5ft 11in used to shave halfan inch off to get auditions. A study of taller than average female college students found it resulted in unintended intimidation. Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's labor secretary, a Rhodes Scholar, and one of Time magazine's 10 best cabinet members of the century, is 4ft 11, an issue he publicly addressed in his blogpost. 'When it comes to choosing leaders, our society is exceptionally heightist and seems to be getting more so. My dear friend and mentor, the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith, was 6 foot 8. He once said that favouring the tall was 'one of the most blatant and forgiven prejudices in our society'.' But he added: 'I'm fortunate to have grown up (or at least grown upward) in a society that, more and more, values brains over brawn. There are still bullies in the world, of course. But in a civil society, those bullies can be stopped with words and ideas. At least, that's been my faith. That's how I've tried to compensate for my short height.' Prichard believes: 'We need more voices like Tony Robinson coming out and saying it, to show this is not all woke nonsense, [to] just sort of sit down and listen to what they have to say and go, OK, these are their lived experiences.'
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Tony Robinson: Women criticising men's height p----- me off
said it 'really p-----' him off when women comment on men's height but would not remark on other aspects of people's looks. The 5ft 4in Blackadder star told the How To Fail podcast that, as 'a shorter bloke', it angered him that women were still comfortable saying they wanted a partner taller than them. Elizabeth Day, the podcast's host, said she had heard similar complaints from actors Richard Osman and Stephen Merchant, both 6ft 7ins, about the 'insulting, slightly jokey' comments they get on their stature. Robinson said on the show: 'Nowadays, you don't pick on people's looks do you? It's like kind of a new understanding over the last 10 or 15 years, you don't deride people for what they look like. 'There is a blind spot about men's height, and the shorter blokes here will understand exactly what I mean, you kind of don't want to talk about it because what are you going to get back when you say that? 'But you look at Love Island, every woman who is asked what bloke they want will always start by saying 'I want a tall man' and then everyone else will laugh in collusion... 'I still carry it around with me' '[There's] smart women who wouldn't pick out the fact that they didn't want, I don't know, to be married with a red-haired man or a Jew or a blind person or anything else will laugh with their friends and say 'oh God, he's got to be taller than me'. 'It really p----- me off to be honest. My wife said 'don't get cross when you talk about this'.' Robinson said one of his problems in life was not being tall, and Day asked if this 'actually felt like a failure'. The 78-year-old said: 'In many ways, yeah, and I think I still carry it around with me. What first set me off was ... I was in the lunch queue with Victoria Wood and we got talking and she said to me, 'you know we'll never play Romeo and Juliet because I'm too fat to be Juliet and you're too small to be Romeo'. 'It kind of hit me like a bolt from the blue, and yet, it was so obviously true.' Day added: 'Your anger is welcome here, because I think it's an extremely good point. I've had two men on the podcast before who are very, very tall, Richard Osman and Stephen Merchant. 'They said the same thing. They get it the other way, where you might think 'oh pass me the tissues, complaining about your height', but they said that people quite often comment on their height in kind of an insulting, slightly jokey way and that's still actually acceptable in some way.'
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Will personal firefighting devices help or hurt in future wildfires?
Patrick Golling yanked the pull cord, and the Honda engine roared to life. Seconds after it began sucking water out of his father's pool, a powerful stream erupted from an agricultural irrigation nozzle fixed atop a bright red pole a few feet away, connected with a fire hose. In a minute flat, the system meticulously jerked across the landscape, drenching the ravine in 50 gallons of water. The demonstration on a hot July afternoon left the blackened sticks below the property — once trees before the Palisades fire ripped through — dripping with chlorinated water. The contraption is the brainchild of Golling and Arizona engineer Tony Robinson. After a TV interview where Golling discussed a cobbled-together version of the tech that he says saved his father's home from the Palisades fire, Robinson cold-called him, and Realize Safety was born. Now, the two talk of ambitious visions where entire neighborhoods living amid California's rugged brush-covered landscapes band together to create a community defense network of automated firefighters. Their system is the latest entrant in a growing group of often-expensive, high-tech sprinkler systems designed to protect homes in high fire hazard areas. But while a blue-ribbon commission after the January fires recommended L.A. adopt exterior sprinkler technology, some fire officials warn there's limited evidence that these elaborate and flashy systems work. Instead, they say the systems distract from less-glamorous but proven measures to protect homes, such as brush clearance and multipaned windows, while encouraging residents to risk their lives by staying back during an evacuation to protect their homes. 'Good solutions don't pop up overnight,' said David Barrett, executive director of the Los Angeles Regional Fire Safe Council. 'There is no silver bullet.' Especially for a vicious blaze such as the Palisades fire. Given the extreme weather conditions — winds over 80 mph, incredibly dry vegetation — there was very little firefighters, let alone home defense systems, could do, Barrett said. 'It doesn't matter what you've got in your pool,' he said. 'Nothing is going to stop an urban wildfire from progressing if it's wind-driven — sorry. That's the end.' Asked whether the system saved his father's home, Golling did not mince words: 'Absolutely.' After Golling got word of a fire developing in the Palisades on Jan. 7, he immediately thought of the gas pump and irrigation sprinkler system his father had bought just months before to protect his home in the Palisades Highlands. Golling rushed to his father's house and spent the next two days deploying the system throughout the neighborhood, putting out spot fires that threatened the development. Golling said firefighters encouraged him to keep up the work as they struggled to contain monster blazes one neighborhood over. As the smoke settled, most of Golling's neighborhood remained standing. But little data exist on the effectiveness of home defense sprinklers. Wildfire researchers often use large datasets of destroyed and standing homes after devastating fires to compare the success of the various home hardening strategies they used. But scientists have yet to identify and analyze fires where sprinkler systems were widely used. Some anecdotal evidence has suggested that these systems provide some protection. An analysis of the 2007 Ham Lake fire in Minnesota found that of 47 homes identified with functioning sprinkler systems, all but one survived. Meanwhile, only about 40% of the 48 homes without the systems remained standing after the fire. Typical home defense sprinkler systems work by drawing water from utility systems, and using it to wet the exterior of a house and create — at least theoretically — another barrier from fire. Realize Safety's goal is to prevent the fire from even reaching the house by dousing nearby vegetation in water and creating a mist to dampen any embers that could ignite the home. To do it, they're tapping into an underutilized source of water: pools. Barrett said that, without a doubt, firefighters could put pool water to better use than these systems. Firefighters, he said, already have all the equipment they need to utilize pool water, and all residents have to do is install a clear sign out front letting firefighters know they have a pool. But as Golling looked at the view of the Palisades from his father's backyard in early July, he counted eight destroyed homes with still-full pools. 'We think — that had they had a system in place like the one we're talking about — they could have saved their homes,' Golling said. Utility water sources are not designed to handle large-scale urban fires. During the Palisades fire, the chief engineer for the city's water utility told The Times that the system saw four times the normal water demand for 15 hours straight. It's in part why, when an independent 20-member Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire-Safe Recovery recently issued dozens of recommendations for rebuilding and recovery, it called for prioritizing additional water storage capacity in neighborhoods and encouraging the development of standards for and the installation of systems that draw on water stored in pools or cisterns, with external sprinklers to douse homes. Using a 20,000-gallon pool, Realize Safety's system can run for over six hours straight. And unlike many traditional water defense sprinklers, it is not dependent on the house having electricity and access to utility water systems. Reliability is paramount for Robinson, who has spent much of his engineering career working on airplanes and satellites — where failure is synonymous with catastrophe. The same is true for wildfire defense. In the Ham Lake fire, the researchers also counted nine residences where home defense sprinklers failed. Eight of them burned. In the quest for reliability, Golling and Robinson have made significant improvements on the unwieldy system Golling used in January (where, after some time, the generator cart rattled itself straight into the pool it was drawing water from). With a sturdy generator cart and sprinklers that are firmly anchored into the ground, the two are confident that residents can trust it long after they've evacuated. But Barrett credits success stories such as Golling's not to specific technology, but instead to the dangerous practice of ignoring an evacuation order to protect a house. He worries systems such as Realize Safety's — that essentially give residents all the tools they need to try their hand at firefighting instead of evacuating — could encourage more people to stay behind, as Golling did. 'The problem with that is people then stay behind putting their lives and the lives of firefighters at risk, when they're not trained in firefighting,' he said. A comprehensive 2019 study from fire researcher Alexandra Syphard found that, in previous Southern California wildfires, a civilian staying behind to protect a house reduced the chance of a home burning by 32% — more than every other factor studied, including defensible space, concrete roofs and even the presence of the fire department at the property. (The study did not evaluate the effectiveness of sprinkler systems, which were not widely used in the fires analyzed.) However, fire officials across the state — in no unclear terms — strongly discourage this practice. It endangers human life, and when a manageable fire fight suddenly becomes unmanageable for a homeowner, rescue efforts can redirect essential resources that are desperately needed elsewhere. Some fire safety advocates also worry flashy and unproven tech could distract from well-tested home-hardening methods, such as clearing flammable debris from the yard and roof. Barrett recalled visiting a house about a year ago to inspect the resident's home-hardening efforts and provide feedback. 'The person had spent $50,000 on a sprinkler system, but he had overgrown branches hanging onto his roof and the rain gutters were all full of needles,' he said. Barrett's blunt personal assessment: 'This house is going to burn down." "Chopping those branches and clearing the needles out would have cost $1,000 or less,' he said. Golling and Robinson say they're focused on providing the cheapest, most reliable tech they can. They see their home defenders as another, relatively affordable, tool in the arsenal to increase the odds their customers' homes survive a fire. A fully operational, autonomous system starts at $3,450, which Golling said is cheaper than what he spends on defensible-space lawn maintenance in some years. "We did the brush clearance. We have the water pump. We're going to do the ember-resistant vents and home hardening," Golling said. "You've got to really do it all." Times staff writer Ian James contributed to this report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Telegraph
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Tony Robinson: ‘People are supposed to say 'I have no regrets' – but I do'
How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Tony Robinson 7am I'll write. I've been immersed in my new book, The House of Wolf. It's like steel shutters being slammed down, and I concentrate on what I'm doing, regardless of what's going on around me. I was an only child – my parents doted on me and were always talking to me, but I wasn't listening as I was always doing something else. My mum took me to an ear specialist because she thought I was deaf. 9am A slow-burn breakfast because I don't want to eat again until evening. Microwaved porridge, zero-fat yogurt, and blueberries and raspberries decorating it in a pyramid, so you can't see the boringness of the porridge underneath. 10am I drive to see my granddaughters, who are 16 and 13, play football. It's one of the most exciting new things in my life. Women's football has exploded exponentially. If you watch boys' football, from about age 13, you could cut the ambition with a knife. With girls, there's a whole different spirit about it. I shout praise, which might be embarrassing for them to receive from a 78-year-old man, but I would say, honestly, it's when I'm at my happiest. 12pm Down the M4 to watch Bristol City. They're an extraordinary football team. Every year for the past 10 years – and I think I'm only slightly exaggerating here – they have come between 11th and 13th in the Championship, so a really exciting year is when they come 11th and a really depressing year is when they come 13th. This is not what most football supporters see as excitement. At the moment, it looks like we may make the play-offs this year, and consequently I'm in seventh heaven. 5pm Back to west London, listening to the radio. There's been a real renaissance of Radio 4, the imagination of the programmes is great. It could be a show about Ray Charles's childhood, then 'Who's best, Aristotle or Plato?' followed by a documentary about tap dancers with disabilities. If I'm part-way through a programme and get home, I sit in the car until it finishes. 7pm I'll read scripts, like the ones for The Madame Blanc Mysteries [Thursdays at 9pm on Channel 5; or streaming on In fact I didn't even need to look at the script at first, I just thought, '[Co-creator] Sally Lindsay is lovely and it's filmed in Gozo,' but then I read it and it was fantastic. I had a cameo role that turned into a whole series this time. As an actor, the length of your employment is normally so short that there's always part of you thinking, 'How am I going to pay the phone bill?' 8pm My wife and I always have Saturday evenings together; I can't remember the last time we didn't. I've been cavalier in my relationships as far as time is concerned – I think people are supposed to say, 'I have no regrets,' but I do. I wish I'd had the integrity to spend more time with partners. Sometimes you've got nine things on the go and the one you can put at the bottom of the list is your partner, but it's so damaging. 8.30pm Around 60 paces from home, we have an Everyman cinema, which knocks every other cinema experience into a corner. I feel like a little boy living next to a sweet shop. The last thing we enjoyed was the Bob Dylan movie [ A Complete Unknown ]. I'd have thought that, as an actor, I would recognise great actors, but I've never particularly noticed Timothée Chalamet is the truth. He is stunning in it. 11.13pm I turn to my wife and say, 'I'm thinking about going to bed,' and when we look at our watches, it is always 13 minutes past 11. In the middle of the night, I get up, go to my study and write down notes or plot ideas – 'his sister kills him', 'buy choc ices', 'get a new razor'…
BBC News
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Bristol in Pictures: Annie Mac, Prince William and Tony Robinson
Well, where to begin? It's all been going on in Bristol this legendary DJ Annie Mac packed them in at Prospect, then the Prince of Wales dropped in at actor and celebrity Bristol City fan Sir Tony Robinson started off a charity walk at Ashton Gate, then, at the same venue, hundreds of people turned out for the Anti Banquet event on Friday round things off, there was a typical Bristol scene on Saturday morning - hot air balloons in the sunshine over the harbour. After dark: DJ royalty visited Bristol last weekend as Annie Mac was the main act for a night of dance music at Prospect in the south east of the city. Job well done: Hundreds of people attended the Anti Banquet event at Ashton Gate on Friday evening. Some of the best chefs in the city gave up their time for the evening, which raises vital money - organisers hope £100,000 this year - for charities tackling food poverty across Bristol. A love story: Romeo and Juliet, directed by Corey Campbell, is bringing a rap, soul and R&B version of the Shakespeare play to Bristol Old Vic until 5 April. On my signal: Prince William the Prince of Wales dropped in to an event aimed at young farmers in Pensford south of Bristol, speaking to the guests and watching some physical challenges, including a tug-of-war. Look up: As soon as the clearer, warmer days arrive you can be sure to see hot air balloons over Bristol. Some passed over the city centre early on Saturday. Red letter day: The Bristol City Robins Foundation and social action group Game Changers dropped in at Everygreen Primary Academy in Easton. Pupils met the Bristol City robin and were encouraged to wear red as part of the Show Racism the Red Card campaign. Match action: Team Bath Netball's first NXT Gen League match in Bristol proved to be a thriller as they were edged out by a last-gasp goal by Manchester Thunder at Clifton College, the visitors winning 50-49. His ship came in: Retired sailor Alan Wilcock, 75, had plenty of reasons to be cheerful after winning £1m on a National Lottery scratchcard. Where better to pose for the cameras than the SS Great Britain? Not to be: Despite a great hit from Romaine Sawyers to make it 1-1, Rovers slipped to a 2-1 defeat against Mansfield at the Mem on Saturday. Lifesavers: Blackadder star Sir Tony Robinson joined a nationwide relay aimed at encouraging football fans to learn how to perform CPR. Sir Tony, a Bristol City fan, started his leg at Ashton Gate as part of the British Heart and Sky Bet campaign. New partnership: SUP Bristol, which runs paddle sports on the harbour, has now become part of the Mendip Adventure Group. David Eddins from Mendip and Tim Trew from SUP posed for the camera to celebrate the news. Read all about it: Children's author and poet Alex Wharton dropped in as more than 60 Emersons Green Primary School pupils joined staff to celebrate South Gloucestershire Council opening open a new children's area at the local library. Let the hunt begin: Bristol Zoo Project and other tourist attractions across the West and South Wales have created one of the biggest Easter egg hunts of the year. From now until 4 April, several golden eggs are being hidden at locations across the regions, one a day. Clues will be placed on the zoo's social media accounts each day and anyone who finds an egg zoo tickets and a toy. Recognition: Consultant Rachael Morris, who works at Weston General Hospital, has been awarded a medal from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine for her "outstanding" work caring for older people. Dr Rebecca Maxwell, chief medical officer for University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, said the trust was "proud" of Rachael's achievement. Going green: Two of the city's business improvement districts (BIDs) have joined forces to help companies make changes as Bristol aims to become a net zero city by 2030. The City Centre and Redcliffe & Temple BIDs are offering advice and support along with the Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership.
