There aren't many of them left, but some people's voices have the power to transport you back ito an age before all our broadcast media came packaged with built-in irony. I'm pleased to say that one such voice returns to radio today, in the form of Robert Robinson, who presents Top Brain 2008 on Radio 4 at 1.30pm. If you work in an office, eat a sandwich at your desk and listen live at bbc.co.uk/radio4.

Top Brain is a contest between past winners of the Brain of Britain. By now Robinson, aged 81, must know all the answers himself. He has been testing the knowledge of the people of this country for the best part of half a century. In his prime, he was the chairman of the much-parodied Ask the Family in the 1970s. At tinyurl.com/4j9n6k you can see the opening titles of this classic show, as Robinson introduces the Almond family from Reading, and the Griffiths family from Llandudno. The animations and understated music are a vintage treat, and even this short clip leaves you wondering whether British noses of the 1970s were more robust than those of today. Why?

Just imagine the weight of the spectacles they're supporting. When Robinson wasn't grilling families, he was rifling through the Oxford English Dictionary on BBC Two's Call My Bluff. At tinyurl.com/ 3kk2gk he introduces team captains Frank Muir and Patrick Campbell. Their teams comprise a very young Joan Bakewell, a very handsome Edward Woodward (the man for whom the letter D was invented) and a very hairy Noel Edmonds. Here, the word whose definition is the subject of debate is Zobo*.

Such is the enduring power of Robinson's dry style that 30 years later he was still being parodied by the post-modern comedians Mitchell and Webb. At tinyurl.com/6oebjc is the full history of the gaming phenomenon that is Numberwang (think Mornington Crescent with maths), complete with a “clip” from the golden era of the game, with our man Robinson (impersonated by Webb, above) as the host.

*It's a kind of domestic cattle reared in Asia. Or is it?

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