"Beware the Horned One!"
I dimly remember reading the comic strip in Look-In in the mid-'80s, of which I remember nothing, but until tonight I'd never seen an episode of Robin of Sherwood, though its reputation precedes it.
It's fascinating to see what was in the zeitgeist in 1984: Herne the Hunter features prominently in The Box of Delights too, albeit the subtext of his being Woden- god and protector of the downtrodden English- is more explicitly present. We have a magic sword, a New Age score by Clannad, Robin's iconic duel with Little John involving mystical possession.
And yet... the way this is shot, acted, written, is grim and gritty. This is not the clean, fantasy Middle Ages of Errol Flynn; this is a dirty, lived-in Norman England, a place of despair and unspeakable tyranny where the Norman lords, universally, are cynical, world-weary and cruel and the English, up until now, are meek and downtrodden. It's all so very well thought through. Yet the effect is far from a Flynn-style swashbuckler. This is both action adventure and drama. And, yeah, with that fascinating mystical pagan twinge.
One slight criticism: this is Sherwood Forest, which bestrides Nottinghamshire and the South Riding. So what's the stone circle? Why so many southern accents?
That aside, though, this is extraordinary. I'm hooked.
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