Adventures of Robin Hood, The (ITV 1955-1960, Richard Greene, Alan Wheatley)

‘Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the Glen, Robin Hood, Robin Hood, with his band of men’

Period action adventure series telling of the exploits of Robin Hood and his merry men as they try to outwit the evil Sheriff of Nottingham.

Blessed with a cracking theme tune by Dick James shis shot on film black and white adventure series helped start a trend in 1950s TV in the UK, this was a purely family, sanatised version of the famous legend of the outlaw from the 12th century doing battle against the evil sheriff of Nottingham.

As with most of these ITC series filming was done at Nettlefield Studios, many of the sets were constructed on wheels to make the changes on the quick filming show easier.

Interestingly many of the scriptwriters on the show were black listed Hollywood screenwriters who had fled the McCarthy witch hunts. They were, however, forced to write their scripts under pseudonyms. The legendary Lindsay Anderson directed several episodes of the show too.

One aspect of the show that is quite amazing is the way that many of the regular characters changed faces at some point, for instance Will Scarlett was played by both Ronald Howard and Paul Eddington (Eddington in fact crops a number of times in different roles throughout the course of the series).

The shows many imitators (most of which, it must be said, were made by the same company) included (all called The Adventures Of) Sir Lancelot, William Tell, The Buccaneers and the Scarlet Pimpernel.

production details
UK | ITV Network-ITC-Sapphire / 143×25 minutes / Broadcast 1955-1960

Executive Producer: Hannah Weinstein
Music: Dick James

cast
Richard Greene as Robin Hood
Archie Duncan as Little John (1)
Alexander Gauge as Friar Tuck
Paul Eddington as Will Scarlett (1)
Alan Wheatley as Sheriff of Nottingham
Bernadette O’Farrell as Maid Marion (1)
John Arnatt as Deputy Sheriff of Nottingham (1960)
Patricia Driscoll as Maid Marion (2)