Robin of Sherwood, retitled Robin Hood in the US, was an acclaimed 1980s Britishtelevision series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. It was made by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 1984 to 1986 on the ITV network. The show starred first Michael Praed then Jason Connery as two different incarnations of the title character, and was created by Richard Carpenter. Unlike previous adaptations of the Robin Hood legend, Robin of Sherwood combined a gritty, authentic production design with elements of real-life history and pagan myth.
Contents
1Overview
2Cast and characters
3Crew
4Music
5Episodes
5.1Series 1
5.2Series 2
5.3Series 3
6Places of action
6.1Villages
6.1.1Castles and cities
6.1.2Abbeys
7DVD releases
8References
9Bibliography
10See also
11External links
Overview
There were three series, comprising a two-hour opening episode and 24 hour-long episodes, although the pilot is sometimes screened as two one-hour episodes. It was shot on film, and almost entirely on location, mostly in the north and west of England - HTV West in Bristol, being the base of operations.
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, somewhat contradictorily, introducing the character of a Saracen outlaw.
Robert of Huntingdon (Jason Connery) and his "Merry Men", in the final episode "The Time of The Wolf" (closing shot)
At the end of the second season, Robin of Loxley is killed and Robert of Huntingdon (played by Jason Connery, whose father Sean Connery had played Robin in Robin and Marian) replaces him as Robin Hood. During the course of the season, 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).
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.
There is little likelihood of the series returning with Richard Carpenter having announced, via the show's official fan club, that he was not intending to write any further episodes
[1].
The award-winning music for Robin of Sherwood was composed and performed by Clannad, the Irish folk group. The show's original soundtrack, Legend, was released in 1984 and won the BAFTA award for Best Original Television Music.[1]
While not all of the show's music is found on the Legend album, some additional pieces can be found on Clannad's albums Macalla (released 1986) and Clannad: Live in Concert, 1996 (released 2005). In November 2003, Clannad revealed on their official web site that "there were several other pieces of music recorded for the 3rd series of Robin of Sherwood that were not included on the Legend album. Unfortunately no-one has been able to locate the master tapes of this music. The search is continuing and hopefully one day these recordings will be able to be released."[2]
In repeats, episodes have frequently been broadcast out of order, and an alternative order has been suggested by Frank Shailes: S1 as broadcast; in S2, he places The Swords of Wayland first, followed by The Lord of the Trees, The Prophecy, The Children of Israel, The Enchantment, and The Greatest Enemy, in that order; in S3, he moves The Sheriff of Nottingham to after Rutterkin.
Places of action
Villages
Loxley - burned village, childhood home of the first Robin.
Wickham - village where lived Meg, girlfriend of Little John
Carpenter, Richard (1984). Robin of Sherwood. Puffin Books. ISBN 0-14-031690-6. Novelization of the first series by series creator Richard Carpenter.
May, Robin (1985). Robin of Sherwood: The Hounds of Lucifer. Puffin Books. ISBN 0-14-031869-0. Novelizes the second series, but begins with The Swords of Wayland two-parter which actually came towards the end of the second series, not the beginning; it was intended to be shown first, but deferred to show its feature-length episode on the British Bank Holiday weekend).
Horowitz, Anthony; Carpenter, Richard (1986). Robin of Sherwood: The Hooded Man. Puffin Books. ISBN 0-14-032058-X. Novelizes Herne's Son Parts 1 and 2 and The Power of Albion from the beginning of Series Three, showing how Robert of Huntingdon became 'Robin'.
Carpenter, Richard (1988). Robin of Sherwood: The Time of the Wolf. Puffin Books. ISBN 0-14-032660-X. The final episodes of Series Three (The Cross of St Ciricus, Rutterkin, and The Time of the Wolf Parts 1 & 2).
Carpenter, Richard (1990). The Complete Adventures of Robin of Sherwood. Puffin Books. ISBN 0-14-034450-0. Novelizations of Series One, Two, plus the beginning and end of Series Three.
(1986) Robin of Sherwood Annual 1. Egmont Books Ltd. ISBN 0-7235-6758-1.
Nicholson, Russ; Staplehurst, Graham (1987). Robin of Sherwood Game Books: The King's Demon No. 1. Puffin Books. ISBN 0-14-032294-9.
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