Robin of Sherwood: The King's Fool

 "We're his pets. The wolves clever Richard trapped and tamed."

I'm impressed. For the second episode in the row we riff on a traditional tale, this time the one where King Richard returns and pardons the outlaws and, indeed, at firat it appears that this is happening. The fact that this is the last episode of the series makes it feel plausible, and John Rhys Davies certainly has presence and charisma as King Richard- at once larger-than-life and utterly believable, not an easy combination.

Yet all, as ever, is not as it seems, and the episode gives us a fascinating meditation on the ethics of compromise versus not selling out... and comes down firmly on the side of the latter. If this episode were a band, it would refuse to join a major label or learn a fourth chord, and rightly so.

Robin, blinded by hope, is the last to see Richard for who he truly is: a warlord, who knows and wants only war. A king who spends little time in England and sees it only as a cash cow for his dynastic wars, wars in which he wishes to involve the merry men. Oh, it may seem at first that Robin has royal favour and the Sheriff does not, but the natural order soon reasserts itself.

The ending, too, is fascinating. Gisburne, surely, is dead. And at first, by the evocative surroundings of a stone circle (let us gloss over the fact that there are none in or near Nottinghamshire), it seems that Marian does too... yet, at the last we have the atmospheric, vaguely Celtic magic of Herne the Hunter. Let us not think too hard about the provenance of these myths, shall we?

A triumphant ending to a promising first season. I'll shortly be resuming with series two, but first I'll be doing something else in this "slot"...

Robin of Sherwood: Alan a Dale

 "It's a wedding, Gisburne. Not a celebration.."

I rather enjoyed this episode, perhaps the best yet. Nickolas Grace really is growing into the part of a properly moustache-twirningly evil Sheriff, and the script this week particularly sparkles with more than the usual level of humour.

This is based around a fairly straight retelling of the tale of Alan a Dale (is it just me who now has the song from that sketch by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore as an earworm?), although it must be noted that Mildred is sixteen years old, barely legal and, indeed, quite illegal in many other jurisdictions. Not only the Sheriff but also Alan are borderline nonces, and Robin and his Merry Men are all complicit in a marriage that is borderline noncery. But yes, moving very swifty on...

All the characters by this point are fully realised. Gisburne as the Sheriff's bullied dogsbody. John as the good natured randy type who is doing it with Meg. Will cynical as ever. Friar Tuck the merriest of the lot but very astute, being a churchman, as to what's going on politically.

The conclusion, and rescue of Mildred, is clever and entertaining, however jammy it may be that it worked. And yet the Sheriff contrives to be the ultimate winner, a nice touch.

One more episode to go and the first season is already over. We're almost a quarter of the way through already. This is brewing away very nicely indeed.

Robin of Sherwood: Seven Poor Knights from Acre

 "You'll get too big foryour boots, you will."

"Then I'll get bigger boots."

This episode impressed me. In theory, I'm annoyed by stories in which someone is famsely suspected of something they didn't do: it's frustrating , and the frustration tends to overwhelm any sense of drama or peril unless handled with great care. And here we seem to have a tale in which seven crusading knights- looking very, very High Middle Ages- falsely suspect Robin and his outlaws of stealing some fancy MacGuffin.

But that's not the point at all, really. The episode deconstructs the idea of the crusading knight. Friar Tuck pretty much tells us that, yes, they're fighting monks, with a vow of poverty and everything, Yet they are violent,pitiless, overbearing, known for massacring both "Saracens" and Jews. Even the Sheriff is wary of these vioilent warriors who are accountable to no one but the Pope himself.

The pace is slow in places, Marian and most of the Merry Men are sidelined a bit, and that same old incidental music is getting a bit samey. Yet it's all so well shot in its action sequences and the look is so wonderfully gritty. There are moments that really hit home- the Sheriff deciding to put out Siward's remaining eye for thieving in particular. Yet the episode works, and it's truly rewarding to see the knights getting their comeuppance.

Robin of Sherwood: The Witch of Elsdon

 "If she wanted to bewitch me, I'd be inclined to let her."

Given the intensity of the first two-parter, it's fascinating to see an "episode of the week". The plot is simple enough, and quite appalling... poor Jennet is accused of witchcraft for not submitting to rape by a Norman piece of ****, has to make impossible compromises because of her husband being in the Sheriff's power and being under threat of death by torture... but she's a good woman.

One small problem: it wasn't until much later in mediaeval England that beliefvin witchcraft was a thing amongst the educated, which in those days meant the Church. Witchcraft was superstition. St Augustine said so. But anyway...

I like the very '80s opening, the dream, very New Age, with Gisburne featuring prominently. It feels at once of its time and very 11th century, that semi-pagan age of Norman apartheid and English distress of a kind we would one day inflict on others. 

It's instructive to see how tax collectors were viewed in the age of feaudalism. No welfare state here, monasteries aside. Just Norman racist greed. The English, subject to such racism, resolved never again to be so, um...

I like the character stuff between Robin and Marian, echoed by Ennet's experiences: Marian is nit a precious jewel. She has agency. She is a person. The Sheriff, meanwhile, expels all Jews from Nottingham as he twirls his moustache.

This is, I suppose, our first "normal" episode. But it succeeds, being both fun and disturbing.

Robin of Sherwood: Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, Part 2

 "If I should fail, one of you shall take my place, and Herne shall choose him."

A confession, dear readers: I watched the wrong bloody episode. I saw the first episode a couple of months ago, ahem, somewhere, but stopped there as the second episode didn't have subtitles. Now Robin of Sherwood is on Britbox, though. I can carry on. Hooray. But I forgot I hadn't seen this second part so yesterday I watched the episode after this. Today I've finally seen this second part and I can blog them both in order. Bloody annoying, though. Grr.

Anyway, there's so much to fascinate here. I'm loving the direction, the lived-in mediaeval look, yet contrasting with a very '80s mystical paganism that goes beyong the Clannad soundtrack. Herne the Hunter is fascinating. The legend isn't as old as you think, with no evidence beyond Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. But here he champions the English against the Normans, their ancient protector, his muythical arrow kept by Robin's father. Ironically, the Normans mention Gildas. Gildas, of course, was no friend of Angles or Saxons.

The vaguely pagan/devil-worshipping baron is fascinating; it doesn't feel as though this series is going to be heavily fantasy-based, but this is a world where dark magic exists. Yet so does hope, humanity and a genuinely Robin Hood feel, this time including that famous and almost cliched archery contest.

Nazir is interesting, too- a friend? He is, I believe, the accidental beginning of a new tradition of including a Muslim man from the Levant among the Merry Men. The romance between Robin and Marian is already going at full pelt, and the chemistry is great. Interestingly, Michael Praed is far from a conventional hero, but it works.

This is a strong start and, it seems so far, a strong foundation.

Robin of Sherwood: Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, Part 1

 "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.

The Master Blackmailer (1992 TV Film)

 "Give us a kiss."

"I don't know how..."

It is hardly novel to make the assertion that is an overly padded out version of Charles Augustus Milverton, a rather anonymous Doyle short story. Nor is is original to point out that it is directed in a pointlessly and pretentiously artistic manner, something wich has occasionally threaened to happen before but it is here that the line is crossed. Indeed, the film seems to break the fourth wall to concede both of these points in a scene where Holmes and Watson visit some snakes at a zoo or some such place for the sole seeming purpose of comparing them to Milverton as an overly laboured and clumsy metaphor. Even Watson asks Holmes whether they really have nothing better to do.

And yet, if only one film-length episode is to be made in 1992, this story is as good a choice as any. There are two full novels by Conan Doyle yet to be adapted, yes, but both A Study in Scarlet (assuming we ignore the fact it is the story where Holmes and Watson meet, something made impossible by the ages of the actors) and The Valley of Fear feature extended flashbacks in the United States, which would be problematic for many reasons.

Indeed, if we acccept that The Master Blackmailer has its obvious flaws, there are good things to be found here. This is a broadly faithful, albeit embellished, adaptation, and the excellence we typically expect from both Brett and Hardwicke is joined by a deliciously slimy performance from the great Robert Hardy as Milverton. The film also delves more deeply into Holmes' morally dodgy behaviour in becoming engaged to Milverton's maid, who genuinely likes him, while posing as a plumber. This is bastardly behaviour, and the film makes this clear in a way the short story does not.

On the other hand, the fact that Milverton's chief victims are two aristocratic engaged coulples is shown near the beginning by an absurd scene of them all cavorting in the garden of a stately home which reminded me of the late Monty Python "anyone for tennis" sketch.

In short, this is a flawed piece of work, and the criticisms often made of it are fair. And yet there are good things ro find in here too, and it could likely have been edited into a decent sixty minute drama. I wonder if the two films to follow will fare as well. I shall do them as quickly as I can but ther length will restrict when I can blog them.

Oh, and it seems this episode, and not the last one, is Lestrade's last. Oops.