Robin Hood by Rennison Nick

Author:Rennison, Nick
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781842436370
Publisher: Pocket Essentials
Published: 2012-02-12T16:00:00+00:00

TV

The very first person to play Robin Hood on British TV was the future Dr. Who, Patrick Troughton, who took the role in a six-part BBC series in 1953. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to judge how good or bad he was in the part because only one episode has been preserved and that one episode is very rarely seen. Troughton proved, however, to be merely trailblazing a path through Sherwood that was to be followed by one of the best-remembered and best-loved of all Robin Hoods to appear on either large or small screen.

In 1954, legendary British media mogul Lew Grade joined forces with the American producer Hannah Weinstein to finance a series of half-hour shows about the outlaw to be shown on the newly-launched ITV network in Britain and on CBS in the United States. The actor chosen for the title role in The Adventures of Robin Hood was Richard Greene. Greene was born in Plymouth, a member of a family that had been producing stage actors for generations, and was only twenty when his talent and good looks won him a contract with Twentieth Century Fox. He appeared in a number of Hollywood films (perhaps most famously, he played Sir Henry Baskerville in The Hound of the Baskervilles, the 1939 movie that first paired together Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson) but the Second World War, in which he served as a British army officer, effectively put an end to his hopes of major stardom. His career was languishing in the doldrums of second-rate swashbucklers like The Bandits of Corsica and Captain Scarlett when he was approached to play Robin Hood. He went on to become identified with the role in a way that few other actors have ever been.

For its time, The Adventures of Robin Hood, first screened on British TV in September 1955, was clever popular entertainment and it remains very watchable. In the opening episode, Robin is the returning crusader forced into outlawry by the machinations of his Norman enemies but, as the series progressed, the circumstances which led him to Sherwood are almost forgotten. He and his usual gang are just there, ready at a moment’s notice to sally forth to right injustice and put the Sheriff’s nose out of joint. Greene plays Robin as an almost avuncular character, more dependable than dashing, but he also gives him real presence and personality. The regular supporting cast of Archie Duncan as a surprisingly Scottish Little John, Alexander Gauge as Friar Tuck and Bernadette O’Farrell (in the first two series) and Patricia Driscoll (in the last two) as Maid Marian all seem at ease with their characters. Many of the actors who appeared occasionally in the series went on to greater renown. Screening successive episodes today can become an enjoyable exercise in spotting the famous face. Both Steptoe and Son (Wilfred Brambell and Harry H. Corbett) were in the series more than once, although never in the same episode; Sid

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