WEB PAGE NO. 2834 6th November 2021

First Picture: Richard Greene Robin Hood

Second Picture: Alexander Gauge Friar Tuck

Third Picture: Archie Duncan Little John

Forth Picture: Alan Wheatley Sheriff of Nottingham

The Adventures of Robin Hood, The British TV series, 1955 to 1960 The Adventures of Robin Hood starred Richard Greene as the rogue-hero of Sherwood Forest. Richard Greene had a rather undistinguished movie career and went into TV in 1950, and with Robin Hood a few years later, he received the fame that had eluded him. Robin Hood was advanced in its sets, scripts and acting. It’s true that Robin Hood frequently began with actors approaching through a forest and ended with a departure through the same forest, but the camera took advantage of filming in Northumberland and East Sussex. Any number of genuine castles and parish churches appeared, and there was an authenticity to sets of Norman corridors, banquet halls, inns and village houses. Carefully introduced were Friar Tuck (an appropriately overweight Alexander Gauge with a babyish face) and Maid Marian (Bernadette O’Farrell, replaced by a less attractive, less sympathetic Patricia Driscoll the last half of the series). Archie Duncan first appeared as Little John in the third episode, and would make the most appearances, third only to Richard Greene and Victor Woolf as Derwent. Like numerous actors in the series, Woolf sometimes appeared as other characters, occasionally as the ambiguous “an outlaw.” Larger than life, deficient in tooth, quick to anger and sometimes slow on the uptake, Little John was just as often the herald of peace and reconciliation among his fellows. Alan Wheatley will always be Robin’s nemesis, the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. He was there from the first episode. The sheriff had class somehow, with finely combed hair and a striking goatee, the best dressed of the cast, often in a fine leather tunic with silver accouterments. He played his role with sinister glee, forever scheming to kill, capture or discredit Robin, his clothes never dirty, his hair never askew whatever the skirmish. The scripts had an unexpected range. It’s true that many of the plots centered either on the sheriff’s always futile attempts to capture the forest rogue or on Robin’s fight for the downtrodden peasants, his infiltration of this castle or that caravan and his constant disguises—an ambassador, a knight, a minstrel, even royalty. Aside from the expected examples of the vicious abuse of the Saxons by the Normans, there was Robin’s men stealing grain, for only the best of intentions, from a storage house. What most invigorates me is the presence of famous stars. Sometimes I struggled to identify them. In some instances, the actors were obscure at the time, or would later acquire some degree of recognition, even become famous; in other cases, they were on the downward slopes of their careers. Time changes the appearance, makeup and costumes disguise it. The voice usually remains a giveaway. All though one episode, “The Prisoner,” this one actor’s voice sounded familiar. But beneath the hat and beard, he was a nonentity to me. I think it was mainly the presence of hair that confused me. Donald Pleasence. And he was Prince John in four installments of Robin Hood. Ronald Howard, the son of Leslie Howard, appeared twice as one of many actors who played Will Scarlet Incidentally, the actor who most frequently played Will Scarlet in the series was Paul Eddington. Jill Esmond played Queen Eleanor in two episodes, the last of her rather limited screen appearances. She was the first wife of Laurence Olivier. Small world! Charles Lloyd-Pack, with five episodes to his credit, was the father of Roger Lloyd-Pack, Followers of John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers will know Ballard Berkeley as the blasé, befuddled Major Gowan, my favorite resident of Basil’s disaster of a hotel One of the biggest nobodies to “rise above” the Robin Hood quaintness, if you wish to appraise the show that way, was John Schlesinger. He played Alan-a-Dale in one episode, and shortly thereafter turned to directing movies. Most episodes began with a minstrel singing a ballad as way of introducing the story, sung by Dick James, who sang Robin Hood’s marching song over the end credits. Peter Asher played the future King Arthur in three episodes; Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com