Tony Robinson Quotes

There's just so many great stories in the past that you can know a little bit about, but you can't know it all, and that's where imagination can work.

I've always been a history buff. It was one of the few subjects at school that really, really caught me. I think you'll find a lot of actors will be interested in history because it sparks your imagination so much. When you enter a period of history, your imagination just goes wild in creating the world, which is really what acting is.

I like the stories with the historical themes.

'Downton Abbey' is one of my favourite shows ever - it's just beautifully filmed, and the stories and characters are so wonderful.

I love to have real people of history interact with my fictional characters. History gives me the plot. I research the period meticulously, and then I blend in a romantic and sensual love story to give it balance. The heavier the history, the more romantic the couple must be.

I love period drama as much as the next person, but there's a tendency to let all of the costume get in the way of the people.

I can see myself wanting to write a historical novel - you don't need to worry about references to reality TV or pop music, you can just get on with the basics of story and character.

You have no idea what's going to happen [in Downton Abbey] until you get the script. We roughly knew a couple of the key points that were going to happen, but when I got the last episode, I turned to the last page to check that I was still alive.

People whose concept of ancient history is the first series of Star Trek may be treated with patience, because it's usually not their fault they were reduced to getting their education from school.

The point is movies can teach a lot without preaching.

Period drama is such a huge umbrella term: it seems to cover everything from Claudius to something from the 1920s.

I watched 'Downton Abbey' twice, and I'm thinking of watching it for a third time. It is so good!

The millions who watch 'Downton Abbey' do so neither relating to the Granthams nor hating them. It's an amused enjoyment of spectacle.

With any period piece I think the thing to do is forget that it's not contemporary when you're writing and to have the characters feel as much as possible like characters that you would know.

It's always shocking when you see a modern woman in a period story line. It doesn't make sense.

I love historical fiction because there's a literal truth, and there's an emotional truth, and what the fiction writer tries to create is that emotional truth.

Those who read the fiction assume that, because I'm also a historian, I know what I'm talking about.

My favourite TV show is... 'Downton Abbey.' The characters are wonderful, and the style is created so beautifully on screen. Everything from the table settings to the linen seem perfect to me. While I'm watching it, I'm in a totally different world.

It might be the history major in me, but I look to the past when I try to construct my fictional futures.

'Downton Abbey'. I love all things olden-days, and I'm very interested in somebody brushing my hair out at the end of the night.

I don't really watch TV. I've got the box set of 'Downton Abbey,' which I'm enjoying.

This is what I think is fun about fiction - you get to use as much history as you want as scaffolding and then go beyond it and change it and mutate it.

To read a piece of material from a period drama told from the woman's perspective is just so unique.

It is good to be well connected with English language, literature and history, but the knowledge of our culture and roots is equally important.

I'd always wanted to do costume drama, but period dramas often become very wooden. Just because they're born in the 1400s, all of a sudden people start losing their sense of humour or their personalities.