Lucy Griffiths
The recent BBC series Robin Hood has come in for a great deal of criticism. None more so, than when in the final part of the second series, the writers had one of the strongest characters in the show, Marian, played by Brighton born Lucy Griffiths, apparently killed-off by the evil Guy of Gisborne. This led to the Robin Hood 2007 Blog, a companion of this site (see My Blog List) being inundated with 136 comments and over a thousand hits straight after the program! Later in his online poll, 69% of his readers wanted Lucy Griffiths to return for a third series.Twenty year old Lucy had followed Joan Rice’s earlier pioneering steps in the Story of Robin Hood (1952) and moved away from the traditional ornamental ‘Maid,’ into becoming a distinctly bright, independent 'Marian' with her own agendas. These included becoming a crime fighter in her own right as the leather clad, Kung-Fu kicking Nightwatchman. But with this sassy Marian came the modern ‘Top Shop’ style clothes that didn’t go down too well with traditionalists, including myself.
But one tradition that the writers of the BBC series did stick to, was the love triangle with Guy of Gisborne played by Richard Armitage as Robin Hood's (Jonas Armstrong) violent rival for Marian. This plot can be traced right back to Reginald De Koven’s successful Victorian play of 1890 called Robin Hood (produced in London as Maid Marian). This popular formula was also used in the 1938 classic swashbuckling film The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone and Olivia de Havilland.
The Gough Map
Our earliest historical glimpse of the town of Nottingham and Sherwood Forest can be seen on what is known as the Gough Map. It is now held in the Bodleian Library in Oxford and is the oldest road map of Great Britain. Very little is known about its origins. It was part of a collection of maps and drawings owned by the antiquarian Richard Gough (1735-1809), who bought the map for half a crown (12 ½ pence) in a sale in 1774. He later donated his whole collection of books and manuscripts (including this map) to Oxford University Library, under the terms of his will in 1809. The map measures 115 x 56 cm and is made of two skins of vellum. The unknown map-maker used pen and ink washes to depict the towns and villages, with the roads marked in red. The distance between each town is also included in Roman numerals.
Clues to the date of the creation of the map can only be found by analyzing the handwriting and the historical changes to some of the place names inscribed by its mysterious artist. Therefore it is generally put at about 1360.
The medieval artist has depicted the Royal Forest of Sherwood as two intertwined trees and just above can be seen the walled town of Nottingham.
Behind The Scenes
Once again Neil has sent me a remarkable picture. This time it has been taken behind the scenes of the First Unit’s filming of Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood. Little John (James Robertson Justice) is shaking hands with Will Scarlet (Anthony Forwood) just after the fight scene over the bridge with Robin Hood (Richard Todd). This was filmed on one of the huge sets, inside Denham Studios and leaning against the huge Technicolor camera, getting a view of the action is Ken Annakin the director.
The First Unit were:
Director:- Ken Annakin
Unit Manager:- Frank Sherwin Green
Director of Photography:- Guy Green
Camera Operative:- Dave Harcourt
Technicolor Technician:- Ian Craig
Asst. Technicolor Technician:- John Tiley
Clappers:- Derrick Whitehurst
1st. Assistant Director:- Peter Bolton
2nd. Assistant Director:- Peter Manley
3rd Assistant Director:- Kip Gowan
Continuity:- Joan Davis
Sound Mixer:- C.C. Stevens
Boom Operator:- Fred Ryan
Sound Camera:- K Rawkins
Floor Props:- Jim Herald
Floor Electrician:- Maurice Gillet
Floor Stills:- Frank Bellingham
Production Secretary:- Teresa Bolland
Ken Annakin had vivid memories of shooting in Technicolor at that time:
“It was the very elaborate three-strip system, with a very immobile camera. When you wanted to reload the camera in its very heavy blimp, you had to have it lifted on chains, and it took the first class Technicolor crew a minimum of eleven minutes to reload the camera. After every single shot the camera had to be opened and the gate had to be examined; the prism was the great thing because this was the light splitter which gave the registrations on the three strips.
For this reason if you were making a big picture like Robin Hood, you had to be very certain that you were not wasting setups or wasting shots, because it was a big industrial process every time to set up your camera.”
Michael Praed
Without doubt the most successful and influential re-telling of the Robin Hood myth in more recent times was HTV’s Robin of Sherwood. The writer of this series Richard Carpenter cleverly blended together elements of ancient pagan mysticism and folklore and created a gritty, realistic and hugely successful re-telling of the ancient legend for television. It soon became a firm favorite of mine.Paul Knight of Goldcrest and Richard Carpenter had seen Michael Praed in a West End production of The Pirates of Penzance in 1982. His real name was Michael Prince, but chose the old Cornish name ‘Praed’ (meadow), because another actor was already listed with that name in Equity. Praed was playing the part of the swashbuckling pirate Frederick and soon displayed to them, all the qualities they needed for the part of the ‘Hooded Man’ in their new project.
Robin of Sherwood was first shown on Saturday April 28th 1984 and went on to attain cult status and ran up until 1986. Praed played Robin of Loxley for the first two series then left leafy Sherwood for Broadway, later taking on the role as the Prince of Moldavia in the American TV series Dynasty.
The third season had Praed replaced by Jason Connery (son of Sean who had played an older Robin Hood in 1976) as a reincarnation of the outlaw, Robert of Huntingdon.
I will be looking at this series in greater depth in the future. The series has a huge fan base with various excellent websites out there, including http://www.robinofsherwood.org/.
If you enjoyed the series get in touch! How does it compare to the latest BBC version?
The Riddle Of Robin Hood #2
Richard Todd is shown above, photographed amongst the branches of the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, during a fact finding visit, in preparation for the making of Walt Disney’s live-action film The Story of Robin Hood (1952). This is featured in the short promotional film The Riddle of Robin Hood.Part 2 of the script from this very rare piece of Disney history is shown below:
"The Disney force headed for England to take up the quest for Robin on his own grounds. Here amid the fabled haunt of the outlaw and his merry men. In the midlands of England and Sherwood Forest itself, the trail began to warm up.
A clue was the ballads, from university libraries and private collections the ancient songs of Robin’s time were brought forward and examined. One of these ballad singers was Allan-a-Dale, reputedly a member of Robin’s band. It may well have been his song improvisations or those of someone like him that launched the story of Robin Hood on its merry way.
Allan-a-Dale sings:
“He robs the rich to help the poor,
A most unusual practice,
And now that he has been outlawed
He needn’t pay his taxes……..”
The famed Major Oak reputed trysting place of Robin and Maid Marian. The ancient village church of Edwinstowe, where Robin and the maid were married. The famous limestone caves of Sherwood, traditional hiding place of outlaws.
Photographs were taken of these places-more pieces to be fitted into the jigsaw riddle of the Robin Hood tale.
Would it be possible to evoke the ghosts of the past? And once again have these caverns ring with the laughter of pranks of the outlaw band!"
The Chronicles of Robin Hood
Above is an evocative illustration by C. Walter Hodges from The Chronicles of Robin Hood written by Rosemary Sutcliff. This picture does not appear in my edition of her novel from 1955, although his wonderful work can be seen right through the book. But there is full page copy of it, in The World of Literature, a collection of excerpts from classic novels and poems, printed in 1958, as part of the children’s ‘World of…..’ encyclopedias by Odhams Ltd of Watford.
Underneath the illustration, it has, “Take their weapons away lads, but don’t hurt them overmuch!”
Robert Newton as Friar Tuck!
According to a February 1951 Los Angeles Times news item, Walt Disney originally planned for the Story of Robin Hood to feature a young boy in Robin Hood’s camp, to be played by Bobby Driscoll. But, decided instead, to highlight the romance between Robin (Richard Todd) and Maid Marian (Joan Rice). The same news item also states that Robert Newton would play "Friar Tuck," but the Buffalo Courier Express reported in March 1951, that Newton's role in the RKO picture Androcles and the Lion prohibited him from joining the Disney production in London.
What sort of Friar Tuck would Newton have made, I wonder?
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