The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes broadcast weekly between 1955 and 1959[2] on ITV. It starred Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood, and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The show followed the legendary character Robin Hood and his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest and the surrounding vicinity. While some episodes dramatised the traditional Robin Hood tales, most were original dramas created by the show's writers and producers.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
- Drama
- Adventure
- Folklore
- Period drama
traditional legends
Carl Sigman sung by Dick James
United Kingdom
English
4
143 (list of episodes)
Joan Warwick
25 minutes
The programme was produced by Sapphire Films Ltd for ITC Entertainment, filmed at Nettlefold Studios with some location work, and was the first of many pre-filmed shows commissioned by Lew Grade. In 1954, Grade was approached by American producer Hannah Weinstein to finance a series of 39 half-hour episodes, at a budget of £10,000 an episode, of a series she wished to make called The Adventures of Robin Hood. She had already signed Richard Greene to the project as Robin Hood and been given the backing of US distribution company, Official Films Inc, who were confident of selling it to the US market. Grade was so impressed by her proposal that he agreed immediately to back the series,[3] hoping to make large profits by selling programmes to the lucrative American market. In the UK, the series premiered on ATV London,[4] on Sunday 25 September 1955.[5] ATV Midlands began the series on Friday 17 February 1956,[6] with a staggered start across other regions from 1956 to 1961 as the ITV regional stations came on-air for the first time in the UK. The US premiere was on Monday 26 September 1955 by CBS. The series was shot on 35mm film to provide the best possible picture quality, and had fade-outs where US commercials were intended to slot in (the series was sponsored in the US by Johnson & Johnson (baby products, Band-Aid) and Wildroot Cream-Oil.
In Australia, the show aired on TCN9 in Sydney NSW and HSV7 Melbourne Victoria, actually being the first drama series broadcast by this station and CBC in Canada, and on CBS[7] in the US. In France, RTF1 aired the show from 1965 to 1969 and RTF2 from 1969 to 1972. In Italy, Rai 1 aired the show from 1959 to 1964 and Rai 2 from 1965 to 1967. In Malaysia, RTM aired the show from late 1974 to early 1978. In the Philippines, ABS-CBN aired the show from 1963 to 1967, RBS (now GMA Network) from 1967 to 1972. In Indonesia, TVRI aired the show during the 1970s. In Romania, TVR aired the show from 1966 to 1980. In Poland aired the show in the late 1960s/early 1970s, in a popular programme for young people (each episode of the weekly programme "Ekran z bratkiem" ended with the broadcast of one episode of the series).
The programme continues to air in the United Kingdom on the Talking Pictures TV channel, shown regularly on Saturday mornings and on Sunday afternoons.
Production details[edit]
Blacklisted writers[edit]
The Adventures of Robin Hood was produced by Hannah Weinstein, who had left-wing political views. The series was explicitly created by Weinstein to enable the commissioning of scripts by blacklisted American writers.[10] Among these were Ring Lardner Jr., Waldo Salt, Robert Lees, and Adrian Scott. Howard Koch, who was also blacklisted, served for a while as the series' script editor. The blacklisted writers were credited under pseudonyms, to avoid the attention of studio executives.[10]
The sponsored prints of the first five episodes of series one, screened by CBS in the US on its first run, had no writer credits on their end title sequences; writers were only credited on sponsored prints from episode 6 onward, only later non-sponsored US re-run prints of series one have writer credits for these episodes, some of which differ from writer credits on UK prints. As an example, Lawrence McClellan is credited as writer of "The Coming of Robin Hood" on US prints, for the UK the pseudonym used is Eric Heath.[11]
After the blacklist collapsed, Lardner said that the series' format allowed him "plenty of opportunities to comment on issues and institutions in Eisenhower-era America"; presumably "A Tuck in Time" was such an episode, in which a twin of Friar Tuck arrives boasting of his willingness to sell a weapon that could destroy the world. In addition to the redistributive themes of a hero who robs from the rich and gives to the poor, many episodes in the programme's first two seasons included the threat that Robin and his band would be betrayed to the authorities by friends or loved ones, much as the blacklisted writers had been.[10] For example, the third season story "The Angry Village" had paranoid villagers turn on each other when they think a traitor is in their midst. But the half-hour length episodes and broad-target market precluded any political criticism that went beyond the generalities of 19th century Robin Hood revival books.
Filming[edit]
Whilst interiors were filmed at Nettlefold Studios, location shooting for the series took place on the nearby Wisley Common, Wisley, Surrey, and at the adjoining Foxwarren Park estate, near Cobham, owned by Hannah Weinstein. Horses used for filming were also stabled at Foxwarren House, which had a projection room for viewing daily film rushes and completed films. In 1956 a replica castle exterior, complete with drawbridge, was built in the grounds of the estate for filming of The Adventures of Sir Lancelot series (it features prominently in title sequence for the colour episodes). This was used predominantly for castle scenes in series 3 & 4 of Robin Hood, it first appears as Chateau Marmont in "The Bandit of Brittany" during series 2, in place of the standing castle and village set on the backlot at Nettlefold studios used in series 1 & most of series 2.
As well as this, establishing shots and short film sequences were also shot at various medieval buildings in the UK including: Allington Castle in Kent, this was used to establish Fitzwalter Castle, Marian's home in the series, Painshill Park, near Cobham, Saltwood Castle in Hythe, and Pencoed Castle near Magor in Monmouthshire. Three Northumberland sites were used: Alnwick Castle, Lindisfarne Castle, and Warkworth Castle. Some of the other sites used through the series were Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, Leith Hill near Dorking, Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, Newark Priory near Ripley, Castle Mill in Dorking, and Newark Mill.
Influence[edit]
The series was an immediate hit on both sides of the Atlantic, drawing 32,000,000 viewers per week.[13] Sapphire films were commissioned to make four other series by Lew Grade: The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956/57, broadcast by NBC on Monday nights at 8.00 pm), The Buccaneers (1956/57, broadcast by CBS on Saturday nights at 7.30 pm), Sword of Freedom (1957/58), and The Four Just Men (1958/59). The success of these inspired other historic drama series from ITC like The Adventures of William Tell, Sir Francis Drake, The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel, The Count of Monte Cristo. ITC continued to make and sell TV series to the US until the late 1970s, including The Saint and The Muppet Show.
Merchandise[edit]
Products[edit]
Many licensed products and knockoffs were sold, including books, jigsaw puzzles, iron-on patches, toy bows and arrows, a series of bubble gum cards, and more. The "Robin Hood" shoe brand sporting Richard Greene's likeness on the interior heel lasted long after the series stopped production. Magazine Enterprises featured Richard Greene photos on three Robin Hood comic books. Robin and Marian made the cover of TV Guide in the Week of 12–18 May 1956.
DVD[edit]
In Region 1, Mill Creek Entertainment has released all 4 seasons on DVD. They have also released a complete series set featuring all 143 episodes of the series.[14] Alpha Video has released 22 single volume collections of the series, featuring various episodes.[15]
In Region 2, Network DVD has released all 4 seasons on DVD in the UK. Three DVD boxsets of the series have also been released in Germany by KNM Home Entertainment as "Die Abenteuer Von Robin Hood" with German-language soundtracks in 2009.
In the early 1990s, in the wake of the Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, three movie-length compilation features (approx. 90 min. each) were created from the series by producers Philip May & Joseph Shields, through editing and computer-colourizing parts of the various episodes, though not necessarily in chronological order. These were as follows:
Film[edit]
Sidney Cole and Richard Greene produced the feature film Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960), for Hammer Film Productions (in association with Yeoman Films), directed by Terence Fisher, written by Alan Hackney, director of photography was Ken Hodges, and the film editor was Lee Doig, all TV series alumni. Richard Greene starred as Robin Hood with Peter Cushing as the Sheriff of Nottingham; blonde-haired Sarah Branch played Maid Marian with Nigel Green as Little John, Jack Gwillim as Archbishop Hubert Walter, and Richard Pasco as Edward, Earl of Newark. Oliver Reed also had a small role. It was filmed in colour and in a widescreen process referred to as "Megascope" on the opening titles. The film itself was a retelling of how Robin first met Marion.