The Adventures of Robin Hood
Episode 3: Dead or Alive
Introductory minstrel song: “Freedom is calling to Little John, the giant; Robin helps him understand, a serf can be defiant!”
Regular Cast
Sir Robin of Locksley – Richard Greene
Maid Marian – Bernadette O’Farrell
The Sheriff of Nottingham – Alan Wheatley
Little John – Archie Duncan
Original air date: 9 October 1955
Screenplay: Eric Heath (a pseudonym for Ring Lardner Jr.)
Director: Dan Birt
Plot: Little John escapes from his feudal lord – after lifting him off his feet and placing him on a window ledge. He’s then enticed by the Sheriff’s men to capture Robin Hood in exchange for his freedom.
The Bayeux Tapestry again features, this time in a lord’s hall.
Agnes Bernelle guests as a Countess from an unnamed European country. In equal measure, she is impressed with Little John’s strength and appalled by the cold British weather.
More regulars are introduced to the cast: Simone Lovell as Joan, a servant at the Blue Bull Inn, and Bernadette O’Farrell as Maid Marian in a brief scene with the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Marian’s scene is brief because this story serves as Little John’s introduction. Archie Duncan was well-cast in the role. He had the physical build for Little John and mannerisms that suggested, intellectually, he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the forest.
Simone Lovell was a regular in historical television series – The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1956), The Count of Monte Cristo (1956), Ivanhoe (1958), and The Adventures of William Tell (1959). She also appeared in Emergency Ward 10 (1961), Z-Cars (1965) and Public Eye (1968).
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Archie Duncan appeared in over fifty television series and films including The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), Saint Joan (1957) and Lancelot and Guinevere (1963). He also appeared as Inspector Lestrade in the 1954 series Sherlock Holmes.
Archie’s association with Robin Hood was twofold: as well as his best remembered career role as Little John, he also played Red Gill in the 1952 film The Story of Robin Hood.
📷 Archie Duncan as Little John
Standout scene: an evergreen – the quarterstaff fight between Robin Hood and Little John as they try to cross a river.
Sword fights – 1. Bow fights/bow skills – 0.
Running total: Sword fights – 2. Bow fights/bow skills – 3.
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Book One in my Maid Marian and Robin Hood series will be The Tourney. The Sheriff of Nottingham organises a May festival (1215) and the various characters arrive to display their skills. Chapter One opens with Marian practicing her archery skills. However, because she’s a woman, the sheriff will not allow her to participate in the tourney.
Marian has other matters to concern her – Sir Piers Longespèe arrives with a claim on Marian’s hall, Huntington Hall. Her problems are compounded when the deeds proving her ownership of the hall are stolen. Into this milieu strides Robert of Locksley, with an interest in all the above.
🖼️ Women Defending a Castle with Bows and Crossbows – Walter de Milemere, c1326, Christ Church, Oxford.
Medieval tournaments developed as a training ground for warfare. As time moved on, the tournaments became entertainments with music, dancing, various sporting events, betting and stalls.
In 1348, a shocked monastic chronicler recorded that forty “wonton” women dressed as men in multi-coloured garments and paraded through the lists on chargers and palfreys. They “forgot” their marriage vows and indulged in “lewd behaviour”.
🖼️ Artist unknown
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