Robin of Sherwood is a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 28 April 1984 to 28 June 1986 on the ITV network. In the United States it was shown on the premium cable TV channel Showtime and, later, on PBS. It was also syndicated in the early 1990s under the title Robin Hood.
The show starred Michael Praed and Jason Connery as two different incarnations of the title character. Unlike previous adaptations of the Robin Hood legend, Robin of Sherwood combined a gritty, authentic production design with elements of real-life history, 20th-century fiction, and pagan myth.Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping, The Guinness Book of Classic British TV. Enfield: Guinness Publishing, 1996. (pg. 352-4).
Robin of Sherwood has been described by historian Stephen Knight as "the most innovative and influential version of the myth in recent times".Stephen Knight, Robin Hood: a complete study of the English outlaw. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers, 1994. (p. 15) The series is also notable for its musical score by Clannad, which won a BAFTA award. A video game adaptation, Robin of Sherwood: The Touchstones of Rhiannon, was released in 1985. The series attained cult status worldwide.
Production Overview Richard Carpenter had previously worked with producer Paul Knight on two other dramas involving historical adventure, Dick Turpin (1979-1982) and Smuggler (1981).James Chapman, Swashbucklers: The Costume Adventure Series. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015. , (pp. 138, 152-165) For their next project, Carpenter and Knight decided to have their production company Gatetarn do an adaptation of the Robin Hood legend. With the aid of television producer Sidney Cole, Carpenter and Knight were able to create a production deal for the show. Goldcrest Films, the US network Showtime, HTV and Gatetarn agreed to fund the series.Bernstein, Abbie. "Legends of the Hooded Man: Richard Carpenter interview". Starlog Magazine, issue 151, February 1990, (pgs.30-33,64). Carpenter drew on the 1950s TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood and the 1973 film Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood as inspirations for Robin of Sherwood. Carpenter also used the books Robin Hood by the historian J. C. Holt and The God of the Witches by the folklorist Margaret Murray as sources for the programme.Orton, Andrew. Hooded Man: Volume One. Miwk Publishing, Tadworth, United Kingdom, 2014. (pg. 20). Robin of Sherwood was more expensive than Carpenter and Knight's previous series; each episode of Robin of Sherwood cost around £500,000 to film. Filming on Robin of Sherwood began in 1983. The show premiered in 1984, on ITV in the UK and on Showtime in the United States (re-titled Robin Hood). There were three series, composed of a two-hour opening episode and 24 one-hour long episodes, although the pilot is sometimes screened as two one-hour episodes. The episodes comprising "The Swords of Wayland" were transmitted as one episode in the UK on their original screening, on a bank holiday weekend in 1985. The show was shot on film and almost entirely on location, mostly in the northeast and southwest of England; HTV West in Bristol was the base of operations, and most of the filming was done in and around Bristol and its surrounding counties. Primary locations were the Blaise Castle Estate and Vassall's Park. Some of the forest scenes were shot near Bradford-on-Avon.
Robin of Sherwood is one of the most influential treatments of the core Robin Hood legend since the classic film The Adventures of Robin Hood. It featured a realistic period setting and introduced the character of a Saracen outlaw. Carpenter also added fantasy elements to the story, which had not appeared in previous TV versions of the legend. These included Robin's supernatural mentor Herne the Hunter, Robin's mystic sword Albion, and appearances by black magicians and demons.Nelson, Jayne. "Robin of Sherwood". SFX Magazine April 2008. (pp. 76-9)
Michael Praed as Robin Michael Praed played Robin of Loxley in the first two series. His fellow outlaws consisted of Will Scarlet (Ray Winstone), Little John (Clive Mantle), Friar Tuck (Phil Rose), Much (Peter Llewellyn Williams), the Saracen Nasir (Mark Ryan) and Lady Marian (Judi Trott). He is also assisted by Herne the Hunter (John Abineri). As in the legend, Robin is opposed by the Sheriff of Nottingham (Nickolas Grace) and Guy of Gisburne (Robert Addie), as well as the Sheriff's brother Abbot Hugo (Philip Jackson) (representing all the greedy abbots in the legends).
In the opening story, Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, Robin and Much fall foul of the Sheriff's henchman, Sir Guy of Gisburne, after Much takes Robin's bow and kills one of the King's deer, and are imprisoned in Nottingham Castle. After they manage to escape, Robin is declared a "wolfshead", an outlaw, by the authorities. Robin retreats to the woods, where he is encountered by the human vessel of the forest god Herne the Hunter, and gathers a band of fellow outlaws and rebels to fight back against the Sheriff's authority.Carpenter, Kevin. Robin Hood: The Many Faces of that Celebrated English Outlaw. BIS, Oldenburg, 1995. (p. 142)
Jason Connery as Robin At the end of the second series, Robin of Loxley is killed. Robert of Huntingdon (played by Jason Connery) replaces him as the new Robin Hood. The third series had the same episode count as the first two combined, so each incarnation of Robin featured in the same number of episodes.
At the conclusion of Series Three, Goldcrest was forced to pull out of the venture, due to a downturn in the fortunes of their film arm. Goldcrest had been responsible for critical and commercial hits such as Chariots of Fire (1981) and Gandhi (1982) earlier in the 1980s, but had hit a lean period with such films as Revolution (1985) and Absolute Beginners (1986). The series was expensive to produce; HTV could not afford to finance it alone, and so Robin of Sherwood came to an unexpected end. Goldcrest invested £1,289,000 in the first six episodes, £1,944,000 in the next seven and £4,035,000 in the next twelve. Despite the huge popularity of the series, Goldcrest's financial difficulties due to its cinematic investments, prevented further production.
During the course of the third series, the new Robin discovers that he is the half-brother of his nemesis Guy of Gisburne (an idea suggested to Carpenter by the fact that both actors had blond hair). Carpenter had planned to have Guy discover this. This particular story arc was never resolved, as the show's intended fourth (and final) series was never made. Series 4 would have also featured the return of Baron de Belleme. The sudden cancellation also broke off Robin and Marion's intended marriage and left Marion at Halstead Abbey as a novice. Carpenter later said that, if he had known the third season would be last, he would have married Robin and Marion.
Attempts at a revival After the series ended, Carpenter and Knight tried several times to revive the show. First, Knight attempted to gain funding from US producers for a fourth season, but was unsuccessful. Carpenter then wrote a script for a feature film adaptation of the series, and attempted to gather funding. Carpenter said in a 1990 interview that the film was intended to star the TV series' regular cast, with a new actor playing Robin if Connery was unavailable. Carpenter also said that the film would not be an adaptation of the unmade fourth season, but "a story on its own". The appearance of two Robin Hood films in 1991 (Robin Hood and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) meant that Carpenter and Knight could not interest potential producers in a third Robin Hood film. Coincidently, Jason Connery's father Sean Connery cameoed as King Richard in the second film, having previously played an ageing Robin in Robin and Marian (1976).
Historical dating Robin of Sherwood takes place in England in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, during the reigns of the Angevin kings Richard I and John, the usual setting of Robin Hood stories. Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, which opens Series One, begins in 1180, then flashes forward fifteen years. In the final episode of Series One, however, King Richard's return to England following his capture and ransom is depicted, which in actuality occurred in 1194. The Series Two episode "The Prophecy" is set in the year 1199, when Prince John becomes King of England. In the Series Three episode "The Time of the Wolf", the Sheriff dictates a legal document dated for the year 1211, and the plot of the episode involves King John raising an army to fight Llywelyn of Wales, an event which, in actual history, took place that same year.
Cast and characters The outlaws Robin of Loxley (Michael Praed)Born the son of Anglo-Saxon nobleman Ailric of Loxley, Robin was raised by his foster father, the local miller, after Ailric was killed by the Sheriff of Nottingham's soldiers. As an adult, Robin accepts the charge of Herne the Hunter and becomes the prophesied "Hooded Man", champion of the oppressed. Hiding in Sherwood Forest, he assembles a number of friends and fights for freedom and justice. He is an exceptional archer and a swordsman and often makes his decisions under the guidance of Herne, who bestows the sword Albion upon him. He falls in love with Lady Marion of Leaford and marries her. He is killed at the end of series two by Norman crossbowmen, on the orders of the Sheriff of Nottingham, the same manner in which his father died. Lady Marion of Leaford (Judi Trott)The beautiful and vivacious daughter of Richard of Leaford, a Saxon nobleman, Marion lives as a ward of Abbot Hugo, who is keen on gaining her inheritance. Intending to enter a nunnery, she enjoys beekeeping, but when Simon de Belleme desires her as his bride (actually intending to sacrifice her), she is rescued by Robin of Loxley and they escape into Sherwood Forest, where they fall in love and eventually marry. She is the band's unofficial healer and becomes a skilled archer. She loves Robin unconditionally and is heartbroken upon his death. She's later rescued from another unwanted marriage by Robert of Huntingdon before falling in love with him towards the end of Season Three. Much (Peter Llewellyn Williams)Son of the miller who raised Robin, he admires Robin as his big brother. He is dubbed "the half-wit" by Guy of Gisburne, but he is more uneducated and naive than intellectually impaired. Skilled in his portable catapult, he often acts as the groups' messenger and signaller. He loves to play his flute in his leisure time. He matures more after the first Robin's death. Will Scarlet (Ray Winstone)Originally named Will Scathlock. When his wife, Elena, is raped and beaten by mercenaries and trampled to death by their horses, he changes his name after slaying several of her killers. Hot-headed and filled with hatred of all things Norman, he is contrasted with the more collected Robin, which frequently leads to conflicts. He is a brave fighter and a skillful swordsman and archer. He has a brother, Amos, who owns an inn in Lichfield. Little John of Hathersage (Clive Mantle)Originally John Little from Hathersage, this giant of a man who stands seven feet tall was taken prisoner and placed under a spell by the Baron de Belleme. When Robin defeats John and frees him from the spell, John becomes a loyal friend to Robin (and later to Robert of Huntington). He often fights with his long quarterstaff made out of a tree branch, but mainly relies on his superhuman strength to dominate over the Sheriff's soldiers. His great stature and strength are contrasted by his soft heart. He is in a relationship with Meg of Wickham, but his outlawry makes marriage not feasible.