The new Robin Hood series (Saturdays BBC1, 7pm-ish) seems to have attracted much criticisms falling into the camps of love and hate.
I love anything to do with Robin Hood, after all, I live on the fringe of what was once sprawling Sherwood Forest. So, when this new series came along I watched with keen interest. My first impressions were sort of mixed, the music is rousing, I wasn’t immediately sure on the actors and the costumes were far from period authenticity, some characters were even over daubed in make up.
Criticisms from viewers and critics alike seem to target the actors; the fact filming was done abroad (Hungary) and the pantomime like costumes to name a few. I personally felt a bit narked that some of it wasn’t shot over here, for example in the first episode Robin remarks it will be good to see the river Trent again…. yet we never saw it.
So, a few episodes in.
The Actors have grown on me though; Jonas Armstrong plays a convincing unshaven Robin, with a little bit of cocky arrogance which makes a change from the usual clean shaven do-gooder. His side kick ‘Much’ played by Sam Troughton has more substance than the village idiot type Much from the 80’s Robin of Sherwood on ITV. Keith Allen is camp and very predictable as the evil Sherriff, though he is the more experienced actor of the cast to me he seems the weakest member. The rest of the merry men seem likeable enough and then there’s Lucy Griffiths as Marion (drool drool).
Addressing the criticisms and putting things into perspective.
Obviously it’s cheaper to film abroad and there are a lot of lovely locations in mainland Europe, also it’s away from the prying eyes of the British press. We could argue there’s plenty of great locations here in the UK but no Robin Hood to my knowledge has never been filmed in Nottinghamshire, mainly because there’s not much left of Sherwood forest and Nottingham castle isn’t really much of a castle at all (most was destroyed in the civil war). We do have the river Trent though which is magnificent!
The costumes are bad; Guy of Gisborne swaggers around in a long black leather trench coat, Little Johns jacket looks like it belongs in Star Wars and the Sheriffs men look way over the top. We have to take into account this is prime time Saturday Tv and not some Simon Schama history documentary though, so why not make the characters a bit more debonair?
Which brings me to the conclusion that the critics are perhaps being a bit harsh, this isn’t a stuffy classical production of Jane Eyre, this is Robin Hood on at 7pm Saturdays catering for the audience watching at prime time. Kids aren’t bothered about detailed period costumes, they want escapism and action. Back in the 70’s when I watched things like Space 1999 I didn’t snicker behind my hands at the cheesy costumes and dodgy sets, I thought wow!
On the whole the new Robin Hood isn’t bad, it’s not fantastic but the cast are promising, the music is good and there’s plenty of action to please the younger ones. If anything, it keeps the Legend alive in the minds of future generations.
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