The Legend of Robin Hood

This seventies BBC version with Martin Potter and Diane Keen remains one of my favourite adaptations of the Robin Hood legend, but its not without its failings.

Despite the evident attention to historical detail in the matter of costumes and props, there are some jarring anachronisms in the script, such as a Saxon thegn called Kenneth (Gaelic), a Norman henchman called Alaric (Visigothic) and a merry man called Brett (Tuolumne County).

The production is very much of its time. There is a very Seventies cynical edge and lots of speechifying; the script is not frightened of serving up dollops of history and at times borders on the lumberingly expositional. But while the production suffers as a result of the disastrous decision made by the BBC to video all interiors on cardboard sets at Television Centre, the location photography is rather charming - seldom has the greenwood looked greener.

British B movie beefcake Potter is a handsome if far from merry Robin, Keen of course is luminous as Marion, while David "Ford Prefect" Dixon and Paul "Ker Avon" Darrow, as respectively Prince John and the Sheriff, exercise more restraint than one might have thought them capable. Some of the supporting players are pure repertory ham (an old crone is straight out of Blackadder), but William Marlowe and Miles Anderson add Shakespearean heft in their roles as Guy of Gisborne and Will Scarlet.

Tony Caunter had yet to acquire the girth one associates with Friar Tuck, but Conrad Asquith is a booming Little John; Much is played by Johnny Speight's boy Richard and Stephen Whittaker completes the meiny as the hitherto unrecorded outlaw Ralph Gammon. David Ryall enjoys himself as a corrupt abbot.

The action sequences are lame by today's slick, and often graphic, standards, but the climactic broadsword duel between Potter and Marlowe has an earthy vigour. Seldom have you seen two actors looking quite so completely knackered.

I also have found, if vague, memories of watching this on PBS in New York in the early 1980s. These versions of Robin Hood and King Arthur, among other legends, were free of the cheesiness and camp of sword-and-sorcery movies of that time and foreshadowed the low-magic, human-scale dramatic (but not melodramatic) approach of TV and movies such as the more recent "Cadfael" and "King Arthur."

I, for one, would love to see these available on DVD in the U.S., and I'd be happy to sign any petitions, but I don't know how many people are aware of this version of "Robin Hood." The reasonably well-done version of a few years later with Michael Praed and Jason Connery (plus more New Age trappings) is better known.

I saw this on WTTG Channel 5 in Washington early Saturday mornings in the early '80s. Then it resurfaced on A&E about ten years later. Yes, that was the same actor who played Ford Prefect on TV playing Prince John. Then it disappeared again. The other poster was absolutely right. WHEN WILL WE SEE THIS ON DVD??????!!!!!!! (I'm not allowed to shout in the summary,or I would have).

There was also a King Arthur series made in the UK in the 1970s to which the same thing happened. That one had also appeared on "Once Upon a Classic" on PBS; which was a show like "Masterpeice Theater," but for kids, hosted by Bill Bixby. Another show on "Once Upon a Classic" to appear on Channel 5 in the early '80s was "The Prince and the Pauper," but I don't remember that ever being on A&E. A similar miniseries that appeared on A&E in the early '80s was a live-action, taped (not filmed) version of "Ivanhoe" which I don't remember seeing before or since.

I remember watching this series on PBS in the late 1970s. Having always been a Robin Hood fan, I have collected as many of the various versions of the story of the ultimate hero as I have been able to find, and truly wish that this version was available on DVD. Maybe if enough fans of this version would write directly to PBS, they might make a DVD available.

Lead Martin Potter and the rest of the cast were well chosen and all did very well in their respective roles. The production values seemed at times very cheap, but the story and the acting kept me from being distracted.

Most of all I remember the series host American actor Bill Bixby who recounted at the end of the story that a small gravestone was found in England that said (to the best of my recollection):

"Here, beneath this little stone Lies Robert, Earl of Huntington. No archer was as he so good, and people called him Robin Hood." (or something very like this). If this is just my imagination, I hope someone else writes a review correcting my assumption, but this is how I remember it!

I haven't heard of any other report to corroborate this but, if true, it certainly points to the existence of an actual hero, not just the exaggerated legend of today that talks about a compilation of various heroes whose deeds make up the Robin Hood legend.

In any event, I highly recommend this to anyone who can find the series nowadays in some watchable media format. It's well worth watching!

It is a crime that this series is not available on DVD or VHS. It is simply the best treatment of the Robin Hood legend that has yet been put on film. The acting was superior, costuming very good, and it both sought and succeeded in telling a very credible tale of Robin of Locksley. This is the only Robin Hood film adaptation that I can recommend besides "Robin and Marion", and I think this a better dramatic work.