You cannot be serious!
June 28, 2009
Robin Hood without Robin Hood?
Any film or TV series about Robin Hood can hardly be called historically accurate – as far as we know, Robin Hood never actually existed. Yes, there are records of outstanding archers from around 1200 who had periods as outlaws, but not as leaders of outlaw bands.
But Robin Hood remains one of England’s folk heroes – like John Henry (US), William Tell (Switzerland), Rummu Jüri (an Estonian Robin Hood) – and has a well established folklore.
That folklore, of course, has been bolstered in the modern era by films (from Errol Flynn to Russel Crowe) and TV series from Richard Greene to Jonas Armstrong.
I first watched the Richard Greene series in the 1950s (OK – that dates me) – and it may be one of the reasons I enjoy archery now, particularly the longbow.
The latest BBC series has been criticised for its changes to the legend – new and different characters, the role of women – even the wrong bow – but has been an enjoyable diversion nevertheless.
However, the last episode of the current series managed to kill of the Sheriff of Nottingham (in a major explosion that also destroyed most of Nottingham Castle), his right hand man (Guy of Gisborne), and Robin Hood himself. The writing team must have wanted to start from fresh!
Yes, there is someone to step forward to lead the band (also reduced by the death of Alan A Dale) but Robin Hood without Robin Hood?
This isn’t the first time this has been done, Jason Connery (Robin of Sherwood) took over in series three of that – and there are shows such as Taggart where the named character is long gone.
The only saving grace is that Archer (the new character) does shoot the longbow rather than the Mongolian Recurve. The majority of films and TV characters have used the longbow, though one or two American ones are reported as using flatbows.
If you want to try your hand at archery, there’s going to be a club nearby. City of Cambridge Bowmen is the one I shoot with, and for a day out Robin Hood Events is difficult to beat.
Latest news: Its not clear which came first, that ending, or the decision to cancel the programme totally. However, that is what has just been announced by the BBC.
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1. Berenice Mann | July 7, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Hi Denis
Thanks for that interesting article, which has now explained the Taggart mystery to me – I’ve only watched a couple of episodes and couldn’t understand why it was called ‘Taggart’!
I think that the recent Robin Hood series suffered from the way TV production people think that huge amounts of action and resolution in the last 5 minutes of the show are a good substitute for a good plot. Unfortunately many people disagree on this, myself included, and would rather see a series with good stories, less violence, slightly more realistic stunts and not necessarily resolved in one episode (whatever happened to suspense?). The result is ’samey’ episodes and even my son, who at first enjoyed RH, became bored and didn’t bother watching.