What they said about the first series...
ITV triumph with Robin Hood
The extent to which ITV has taken over from the BBC as the producers of high quality television is nowhere better illustrated than in it's output of programmes for childen writes Robert Bennett.
It began with Wurzel Gummage then the triumph of Metal Mickey and now it looks set for another triumph with Robin of Sherwood. It must have taken a great deal of self confidence to launch the new series with a two hour slot, but that confidence was amply justified. This is a brand new approach to what had become a very tired tale.
Richard Carpenter, the script writer, has turned his back on the image of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Indeed so far most of Robin Hood's men are positively morose and with very good reason. The England they live in is a country under occupation. The Normans are the Mediaeval equivalent of the Nazi SS and the AngloSaxon people are torn between keeping their heads down or standing up to them and facing almost certain death.
It is no fun being an outlaw in such a situation and it is not much fun hiding in Sherwood Forest which really is a forest. In this version the outlaws lounge around on awkward hillsides among dense and uncomfortable greenery. Such realism is vital - for Richard Carpenter has also introduced myth and magic to the story. Robin, played by Michael Praed, is a man whose destiny is controlled by the forces of light and darkness, and in particular by Herne the Hunter, half man, half beast, who haunts the forest and turns a Robin who is essentially a young man forced by accident to rebel into a resistance fighter with a prophecy to fulfil.
It may owe a great deal to the current fashion for fantasy in children's literature and to something like Star Wars, but it is no less effective for that. Sadly, the least successful scenes were those in which young Robin rowed across a steaming pond to meet Herne the Hunter - a poor replica of Arthurian legends - but that was more than offset by the confrontation with the Baron de Belleme, superbly threatening and superbly played by Anthony Valentine, as the personal representative of the powers of darkness. With Judi Trott as a stunning pre-raphaellite Lady Marion, and I am pleased to say a lot of Yorkshire accents around, it is difficult to see how Robin of Sherwood can avoid becoming a classic of childrens television. Certainly if the remaining four episodes live up to this standard, and if Richard Carpenter continues to ignore the traditional version of what is a myth anyway, we are in for a treat, not to mention the children.
Why on earth British television should spent money buying badly made, unimaginative, poorly scripted American junk when homegrown talent can produce something like this is beyond me.
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Having been a keen follower of Richard Greene's Robin Hood I can't help thinking that this new chap 'Robin of Sherwood' went to the wrong school. In days of yore, greenwood outlaws had a good tailor of quiet but obvious quality and a barber one could trust. Michael Praed, as the latest incumbant of Sherwood Forest, has chosen to forego the niceties one has come to expect of England's premiere legend and associate with a bunch of yahoos and ne'er-do-wells. Not that I am complaining. Two hours of Richard Greene would have been enough to plunge even the hardiest viewer into a deep and dreamless sleep, as much as I hate to say it. HTV's latest coproduction with Goldcrest (around the ?2 mark) gets closer to the period feel. In those days and in those conditions, Robin and his men would have had little time or inclination to stop for a wash and brush up. Writer Richard Carpenter has woven an interesting tale and much of the length of Saturday's film was needed to set the scene for the rest of the series. Coming as it does from the producer who made The Professionals, the belief was obvious that actions speak louder than words. Robin did have his moment when rallying his men with a stirring speech about feudal oppression - "No voice, no justice, no England," but generally the dialogue was on the Bodie and Doyle level. The theme music from the Irish band Clannad who did so well for Harry's Game went for atmosphere and missed. When Robin faced his sworn enemy, Guy of Gisburne, the music suggested that they were going to kiss. But, not wishing to have an arrow (wrapped with a cloth bearing a threat scrawled in blood) thud into my desk I should add that I will be off to the woods next Saturday to catch Robin and the lads in pursuit of the Sheriff. It's a great story. HTV have got it 80% right and there's a long way to go. Neil Clements
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Robin Hood and his team of wets
Robin of Sherwood had to be one of the wettest dramas ever, and not just because of the endless display of damp breeches from all the sitting around on rain soaked location grass. I missed the first no doubt vital episode because my dear old mum dusted the preprogrammed video and wiped it off while I was away. But the rest of the series was so dismally slow and whimsical that it seemed to have been put together by an ex hippy driven slightly dippy by the mystical cow bells ringing in his ears. Nickolas Grace, stamping his tiny hoof in a constant state of vexation as the Sheriff of Nottingham, was good value for money, and I quite took to Herne the Hunter, heavily disguised as a coat hanger, waving his magic antlers. And I did feel a certain pang when stupid Guy of Gisburne crashed to the ground with his coat alight. Anyone that monumentally dopey deserves all the human sympathy he can get.
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Robin Hood and his mystical men by Gerard Dempsey
They ushered him in with close-harmony chords and the low croon of the synthesiser... A Robin Hood for the eighties. Michael Praed is a beardless freedom fighter with the face and form of a pop star, a fustian figure in drap olive rather than natty Lincoln green. But he brings a marvellous authenticity to the title role in Robin of Sherwood, a raw and riveting new look at the old greenwood tale. This Robin is a spooky specimen, disciple and agent of the Lord of the Trees, who sounds like Tarzan but is in fact Herne the Hunter, the forest dwelling horned man of ancient legend. Avenging So the new Robin is not your regular Sherwood tearaway. He is the avenging spirit of Herne's prophecy : 'Beware the hooded one.' Hence Robin i the Hood - Robin Hood. Get it? Well, it was new to me. So, too, was the concept of the Merry Men as manifestations of something elemental and mystical like characters in a German opera. It was this excursion into the supernatural which added a thrilling new dimension to Richard Carpenter's free-ranging new series. In this fearless new version, King Richard is an out and out villain, Little John a bewitched bother boy, Maid Marion the kind of girl who invites a ruffianly stranger into her bedchamber, and the outlaws a rabble of dissident ragamuffins. Is this the old greenwood? Errol Flynn and Richard Greene wouldn't know the place.
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Look In letters
....I liked the series Robin of Sherwood because it was full of sorcery and there was a lot of action. I think that Michael Praed, Judi Trott and the rest of the gang played their parts very well. I was glad to hear that they are making another series....
....My family and I all think that Robin of Sherwood is the best series on TV. All the characters are brilliant and they could not have chosen a better Robin. It's a shame the series wasn't on longer, but I hope there will be a lot more to come.....
....I am writing to congratulate ITV on their series Robin of Sherwood. I think that it's the best ITV programme ever. I like the idea of Gisburne being a stupid twit because it adds a funny touch to the programme. My favorite outlaw is Robin Hood and my second is Friar Tuck because he's very funny. I bet it was great fun making the series and I wish I could have been there....
....I thought Robin of Sherwood was great. I like Friar Tuck when he hits the Sheriff's men on the head with a big thick stick!....
....I agree that Robin of Sherwood is a brilliant series and was glad to hear there is soon to be another series screened. They couldn't have chosen a better Robin than Michael Praed.....
....I really enjoyed Robin of Sherwood and a prime example of terriffic actic was how anyone as nice as Robert Addie could play anyone as evil as Guy of Gisburne. I can't wait for the next series.....
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