Robin of Sherwood - Overview

Overview

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, and 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. It was shot on film, and almost entirely on location, mostly in the north east and south west 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.

Together with Richard Lester's offbeat 1976 film Robin and Marian, Robin of Sherwood is one of the most influential treatments of the core Robin Hood legend since The Adventures of Robin Hood, featuring a realistic period setting and introducing the character of a Saracen outlaw.

Michael Praed played Robin of Loxley in the first two seasons. His 'Merry Men' consisted of Will Scarlet (Ray Winstone), Little John (Clive Mantle), Friar Tuck (Phil Rose), Much (Peter Llewellyn Williams), the Saracen Nasir (played by Mark Ryan) and Lady Marian (played by 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 Gisbourne (Robert Addie), as well as the Sheriff's brother Abbot Hugo (Philip Jackson) (representing all the greedy abbots in the legends).

At the end of the second season, Robin of Loxley is killed and Robert of Huntingdon (played by Jason Connery) replaces him as Robin Hood. During the course of the third season, the new Robin discovers that he is the half-brother of his nemesis Guy of Gisbourne (an idea suggested to Carpenter by the fact that both actors had blonde hair). This particular story arc was never resolved due to the show's cancellation at the end of the third season, along with with Robin and Marion's intended marriage being broken off and Marion's choosing to remain at Halstead Abbey as a novice.

The series came to an end when 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 eighties, but had hit a lean spell with such films as Revolution (1985) and Absolute Beginners (1986). As the series was expensive to make, HTV could not afford to produce it alone and no more episodes were made.