And how a seven-year-old Emma Thompson used to cheat at poker

Tony Robinson has told how he was a teenage gambler – and how a seven-year-old Emma Thompson used to help her dad cheat at cards.

Appearing on a podcast today, the 5ft 4in Blackadder star also told how insecurities about his height led him to become funny, while expressing his anger about how it was still acceptable to be prejudiced towards short men, especially in dating.

Sir Tony got into betting on horses and playing poker when he was a 17-year-old drama student. 

’On Friday nights we used to go down to one of our teacher's houses,’ he told Elizabeth Day on her How To Fail podcast. ‘His name was Eric Thompson… he had created the English version of Magic Roundabout’

He’s also Emma Thompson's dad, and Sir Tony recalled: ‘Emma was seven years old at the time when we would be playing poker, and she would go around and sit on our laps and look at the cards and signal to her dad, if she thought we got good cards. And you can't tell off a seven-year-old can you?’

The 78-year-old actor added that he got good at poker, saying: ‘I won, let's say two thirds of the evenings’ – and even entertaining the idea of becoming a professional.

When he became a theatre director at what's now the Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham he signed up for a professional game, thinking he might double his £20-a-week earnings. 

‘They were playing Texas Hold’em, which was a game I knew backwards and I knew all the odds and everything,’ he said. ‘I played on the first night, I lost 20 quid so that's a week's wages. I thought, that's all right. I've minimised my losses. 

‘Second week I went, I lost another 20 quid, breathing deeply. Go back the third week I lost 40 quid and at that moment, I knew I wasn't as good as I thought I was. I was maybe quite a good amateur poker player, but in no way would I ever be a professional.’

The actor also spoke about trying to overcome insecurities about his height, but admitted: ‘I think I still carry it around with me.

He explained: ‘I think what first set me off on this was there was a place which used to be called the Acton Hilton. It was actually the BBC rehearsal rooms over five floors, and the top floor was a restaurant where all the different actors from all the different shows– even if you didn't know them very well – we'd meet up and we would get friendly. 

‘I was in the lunch queue with Victoria Wood and we got talking. She said to me, "We'll never play Romeo and Juliet because I'm too fat to be Juliet and you are too small to be Romeo."

‘It hit me like a bolt from the blue and yet it was so obviously true that although both she and I had all those feelings, all those emotions, carried all that weight that Romeo and Juliet had, there was no way that we were going to be given those parts.

‘It took me back to my feelings at school and all those humiliations and that thing is still there. 

‘This is very weird. I've never talked about this out loud because, well, I think you'll understand why. Nowadays you don't pick on people's looks, do you? It's 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 don't want to talk about it’

When Day asked if he ever confided in anyone about the mean comments he received at school, Sir Tony replied: 'I didn't.  It sounds mad, doesn't it? I didn't know you could.

‘I just developed whatever weaponry I could as a young child to push away that hurt and of course, when it came to adolescence and I had to confront the fact that I wanted to court girls and that being a short man, I was by definition funny and not someone who most girls would want to be associated with because my height would ​rub off on them. 

‘That was very, very difficult and if I could live my adolescence again, it would be to do exactly what you said and seek out people who I could share that with. 

‘In the great scheme of things, it's not the worst thing in the world. It's not Syria or Gaza, is it? It's a little boy who's hurt and needs to find a vocabulary.’

But he says the prejudice still exists: ‘You look at Love Island. Every woman who is asked what bloke they want, they will always start by saying, "I want a tall man and then everyone else will laugh in collusion. If you look at those bleeding hearts columns, exactly the same. Smart women who wouldn't pick out the fact that they didn't want to be married to a [redhead] 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."   

‘And it really pisses me off really, to be honest.’

• Sir Tony’s episode of How to Fail with Elizabeth Day is out today. While Sir Tony will be touring An Evening with Sir Tony Robinson – From Blackadder to Alfred the Great next month.

Published: 6 Aug 2025