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Robin Hood

The Prince of Thieves returns to British TV - yay!

Ok, I don't have that many obsessions stare but if there's one thing I've been raving about even more than Doctor Who this month it's the new BBC series of Robin Hood. I LOVE Robin Hood. I love the story, I love the fighting, I love the characters (good and bad) and I love 90% of the versions of it done so far. So when I heard the BBC were doing a new series I went 'Weeeeeeeeeyyayyyyaayyyyeeeyyyyhahahayippeeeeeeewooooooo!' and danced around a lot.

Last night I watched the first episode on BBC1. And what did I think of it? Well...

Episode 1 - Will You Tolerate This?

First off, I liked the scenery. It's dark and brooding (apparently it's filmed in Budapest) with a slightly barren look. Perfect for the times and for the story.

The costumes are alright (some are fantastic, some look distinctly like t-shirt and jeans...) but something that really, REALLY annoyed me was the very first peasant family you meet. They are supposed to be poor and starving and yet what is the daughter wearing? Masses of eyeshadow and some quite garish lipstick!

Eh??

Was it carelessness or could they simply not face a young woman wearing no make-up? And there are several other little details like this, things that obviously just haven't been thought about carefully. Which surprises me, considering how much the BBC have been trying to sell this show. I can understand it being a little bit edgier and perhaps the dialogue being a little bit more modern than it would have been back then. I don't mind that (so long as they don't start saying 'innit' or 'lol') - but that doesn't mean that they should be sloppy. They are experts in period dramas afterall.

The fight scenes on the other hand were really good - mostly - though I still can't figure out how six trained archers could miss 4 horses and six people running (not so quickly) towards them and then jumping over their heads. Maybe it was supposed to be a joke on the old series' where Robin could always escape from a room full of armed guards using only a broken arrow and a length of string. It could have been done better though - and it could have been a lot funnier. And it's always a bad sign if my gran starts to mock the ridiculousness of stunts. Which she did. confused

Still, I did enjoy watching the episode as a whole. There are some good characters (who I think will get even better) and it kept me cheering along to the action. I'm not sure about this new Robin Hood, he hasn't quite got the charm that he obviously thinks he has, but away from women he's quite likeable. The Sheriff is a little bit camp but suitably cruel and evil (reminds me of Alan Rickman's portrayal though nowhere near as sexy), the Merry Men that have joined so far are quite entertaining (as is Much - Robin's aide) and Maid Marian seems fairly intelligent though she hasn't really done much yet except look pretty and be teased and told to shut up... both of which she came out of quite well. They do seem to have an awful lot of comic relief characters... but then this is the BBC so they have to or they get nervous and run off.

Describe this episode in one word: Clumsy

(But that doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to the next episode - roll on the weekend!)

A fantastic site for anyone interested in the new series of Robin Hood is this one:

http://www.robinhood2006.com/

It's an unofficial site but very good. There is also the official one on the BBC website.

First I've heard of it. The trailer on YouTube looks cool.

Of course Roobarb's love for this show has nothing to do with the fact that Patrick Troughton's grandson plays Much the Miller's Son. razz

Oh yeah... men in tights! Men in tights!!!

My one concern was that if that guy in the beard at the end was little John, WHY? He meets Robin on a bridge... then knocks him off it.

Also, Will Scarlett doesn't join them till later, and Luke Scarlett i have never heard of.

Alan-a-dale was one of the first merry men, it's true, as was that benedict dude (i think).

Much there is some debate about, as to whether he was Much the Miller or Much the Miller's son. I think he is Much the Miller's son, who was there from the start but is not mentioned until the later stories.

I had an eight page rant about why i believe doctor who is going downhill and this guild should be renamed the Robin Hood and other saturday night tv guild, featuring the memories of when doctor who was good and it's up to the new series to change that opinion.

But i lost it...

Oh yeah! I still have to write you a copy of that Robin Hood game, don't I, Roobarb?

I forgot completly. And I missed the TV show. Argh.

Not even in colour! scream All good things are in black and white. The best Doctors are.

Anyway, repeats of the 1950s series used to be shown a lot on TV. Not so much now, but back in the day...

Then when I saw that you could buy a whole series of it for a tenner I jumped on it. Of course there are 4 series to get... gonk I'm up to 3...

Robin Hood - A Brief History Of Entertaining Men In Tights

Ok so I'm not really an expert on all these, I've only watched about 2 or 3 Robin Hood series' (and a few more films) but then I have Wikipedia to fill in the gaps. And I will, eventually, watch them all.

Except for the Patrick Troughton one and all the ones before it... which are gone forever. But now is no time for crying... *sniff*

I would also like to say that my mum was right. The Troughton one wasn't the earliest (whoever said that to me I shall kick) but he was pretty darn early.



1908 - The first ever movie was a silent film called Robin Hood And His Merry Men and was, apparently, directed by Percy Stow. I don't know who he is but well done to him cos he snatches the top slot.

(I'll whizz through the rest cos there are so many...)

1922 - Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks.
1938 - The Adventures of Robin Hood.
1939 - Robin Hood Makes Good, a Chuck Jones animated cartoon.
1946 - Bandit of Sherwood Forest
1948 - The Prince of Thieves
1949 - Rabbit Hood, a Chuck Jones animated cartoon with Bugs Bunny.
1951 - Tales of Robin Hood
1952 - The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men and Miss Robin Hood (Miss Robin Hood???).
1953 - Patrick Troughton in Robin Hood on the BBC Television Service.
1955–1960 - The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene. One of my personal favourites which also had a few spin-off movies.
1958 - Robin Hood Daffy, a Chuck Jones animated cartoon.
1964 - Robin and the Seven Hoods
1967 - A Challenge for Robin Hood, a Hammer version, with Barrie Ingham as Robin.
1967 - Rocket Robin Hood which is (get this) a space-age version of the Robin Hood legend, where he and his band of Merry Spacemen live in the year 3000 on Sherwood Asteroid and fight the evil Sheriff who rules the space territory of N.O.T.T. I have to see this one.
1968 - Pinkcome Tax with the Pink Panther as a Merry Man.
1973 - The famous Disney movie edition.
1975 - The Legend of Robin Hood, a BBC miniseries starring Martin Potter.
1975 - When Things Were Rotten, a comedy TV series produced by Mel Brooks and starring Richard Gautier, Bernie Kopell and Misty Rowe.
1975 - Robin Hood's Arrows which is a Russian adaptation.
1976 - Robin and Marian where Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn played the couple at the end of their lives looking back.
1981 - Time Bandits contained a most excellent version of Robin Hood played by John Cleese. If that counts.
1984 - The made-for-TV spoof The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood.
1984–1986: The 1980s British series Robin of Sherwood, aka Robin Hood, was a New Age fantasy starring Michael Praed as Robin, later replaced by Jason Connery.
1989 - Robin Hood was Parodied in an Episode of The Super Mario Brothers Super Show as Hooded Robin.
1989–1994 - The British children's TV show Maid Marian and her Merry Men rewrote the legend with Marian as the hero. An excellent show.
1990 - A Belgian animated series called Young Robin Hood where all the characters are teenagers. It uses lots of magic and stuff.
1990 - Animated series Robin Hood no Dai Boken developed by Japanese studio Tatsunoko Productions also with Hood and gang as kids. And I actually found (what I think is) the title sequence HERE ON YOUTUBE. Click on the German version though, it runs better.
1991 - Robin Hood, starring Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman.
1991 - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starred Kevin Costner as Robin and the fantastic Alan Rickman as the mad Sheriff. heart
1993 - The Mel Brooks spoof Robin Hood: Men in Tights which you can see a very entertaining clip of HERE. It reminds me a lot of a similar song in the Sponge Bob Squarepants Movie.
1996 - Robin of Locksley was a made for TV movie starring Devon Sawa as a modern teenage Robin attending a prep school with the snobbish John Prince.
1996 - TV dog Wishbone plays Robin Hood in the episode "Paw Prints of Thieves".
1997 - A France–U.S. TV series called The New Adventures of Robin Hood starred Matthew Porretta as a black-leather-clad Robin. Mmm, kinky.
1999 - The children's series Back To Sherwood featured a teenage descendent of Robin (Robyn Hood) who discovers she has the power to travel back in time.
1999 - The Blackadder Millennium Special Back And Forth featured Rik Mayall as Robin Hood.
2001- Robin Hood and the Merry Men make a memorable cameo appearance as unwelcome rescuers in Shrek.
2001- Robin Hood's heroic daughter, Gwyn, Keira Knightley on horseback with bow in hand, takes over her father's role and comes to his rescue in the made for TV movie Princess of Thieves. Which I honestly didn't know about - shame on me.

2006 - Robin Hood, a new thirteen-episode television series produced for BBC One. YAY!



Ok so I nicked nearly all of that from the Wikipedia website and it's probably incredibly boring to read but if you are still interested then check out THIS PAGE HERE.

Erm... I'll pause a moment there and catch my breath.

My parents recorded the Disney version off TV. The amount of times I watched it as a kid... I love that movie. Apparently a new version of the DVD (with an alternate ending confused ) is coming out soon. I might think about getting it... when the price drops.

whee I found the Rocket Robin Hood opening titles on YouTube. My life is nearly complete.

Rocket Robin Hood Titles

I also found this video of a mad green man singing the titles:

Mad Green Man

And there are loads of other Rocket Robin Hood clips on RocketRobinHood's Account.