Introductory minstrel song: “Robin Hood bold and free, of every man is unafraid; ’til one day he meets his match, with Marian the maid!”
Regular Cast
Sir Robin of Locksley – Richard Greene
Maid Marian – Bernadette O’Farrell
The Sheriff of Nottingham – Alan Wheatley
Little John – Archie Duncan
Friar Tuck – Alexander Gauge
Joan of the Blue Bull Inn – Simone Lovell
John Drake, who appeared as Harold the Smith in episode four, features here as Ned, an outlaw.
Original air date: 23 October 1955
Screenplay: Anne Rodney (pseudonym of Howard Koch and Anne Koch)
Director: Ralph Smart
Plot: Disguised as a (very shapely) page, Lady Marian Fitzwalter infiltrates the outlaw camp to capture Robin Hood, whom she suspects of stealing her jewels. However, Robin turns the tables and Marian ends up cooking for the outlaws and doing the washing up.
Maybe the subtitle for this episode should have been “Fifty Shades of Lincoln Green”. Read on for an explanation.
Standout scene: bear in mind, this series was broadcast in the 1950s, at teatime.
Robin to Marian: “The years have given you a taste for strange pleasures.”
Marian to Robin. “Quickly, Robin, tie me up and bind me.”
Born in Ireland, Bernadette O’Farrell broke into film and television in her twenties, after meeting director Carol Reed. Maid Marian became her career-defining role. She left the series in 1957 to avoid type-casting. Ironically, she basically retired from acting shortly after, to live on a Buckinghamshire farm with her husband, film writer, director and producer Frank Launder.
Little John – Fact or Fiction?
Little John aka John Little is one of the regular characters in the Robin Hood legends. A giant, sometimes portrayed as seven feet tall, and a master of the quarterstaff, Little John could be relied upon to provide muscle whenever Robin Hood needed it.
🖼️ Robin Hood and Little John by Louis Rhead
In folklore, Little John met Robin Hood on a tree bridge that spanned a river. They fought for the right to cross, and developed a mutual respect. This is a standard scene in most Robin Hood films.
Little John appears in Robin Hood ballads throughout the fourteenth century. In these ballads he is portrayed as intelligent and cunning, or uneducated and slow-witted. In Thomas Love Peacock’s Maid Marian, published 1822, Little John serves as Robin Hood’s treasurer, distributing the money taken from the rich to give to the poor.
Numerous actors have portrayed Little John in films and on television. This list is far from exhaustive – it merely offers my personal highlights.
James Robinson Justice in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, 1952
Archie Duncan in the television series The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1955-59
Nigel Green in Sword of Sherwood Forest, 1960
Leon Greene in A Challenge for Robin Hood, 1967
Inthe medieval compilation, A Gest of Robyn Hode, Little John takes the alias Reynold Greenleaf, and it’s been suggested that Reynold Greenleaf was a real person. However, Reynold Greenleaf appears in his own right in other ballads. All of which offers thin evidence to support the idea that Little John was based on a real person.
With no solid trail to follow, I think it’s safe to say that Little John is purely fictional.
🏹 🏹 🏹
What to make of this film, a modern German take on the Robin Hood legend seen from Maid Marian’s point of view?
I enjoyed the forest scenes and the medieval buildings (many of these were in ruins, but that was built into the script). Also, good to see a story from Marian’s point of view. The legends were well adapted and made sense in the film’s narrative.
I’m was not so sure about the plot-line and some of the action scenes. The film reminded me of my sons’ video games – lots of running through a landscape, a violent encounter, then a moment of reflection. Repeat, ad infinitum.
Marian was the main protagonist in the violent scenes, some of which I thought were unrealistic. Robin received two injuries where he was basically sliced in half – his role in the film was as an invalid.
If you enjoy modern action-adventures, you will enjoy this film. If you prefer something more traditional, you can give this a miss.
For Authors
#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on over thirty occasions.
Former British diplomat Harold “Kim” Philby was officially named yesterday as the “Third Man” who tipped-off his Foreign Office colleagues Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean that the Security Services were on their trail.
Philby vanished in January, and it’s now believed that he is in Russia. This revelation, made by Mr Edward Heath, the Lord Privy Seal, follows twelve years of official denial that Philby was the “Third Man”. MPs want an inquiry. They also want to know if there is a “Fourth Man”.
Glamorous tennis star Pat Stewart, the 29 year old fashion model American-born wife of England Test batsman John Edrich, said angrily at Wimbledon last night, “I want to deny these dreadful rumours. I am not the girl behind any ticket syndicate. I am not “Miss X”. I shall take action if these rumours continue.”
Twelve suitcases containing 11,000 watches were taken from a private plane, a court was told yesterday. This consignment was part of a smuggling racket involving private planes and Jaguars, which were used to bring Swiss watches into England. The racket involved the evasion of £500,000 in customs duty. The case continues.
The number of typhoid cases in South Shields, Co Durham has now reached 42. So far this year there have been 125 cases of typhoid in Britain, excluding the cases traced to Zermatt, Switzerland.
Television highlights: Adventures in Learning. No Hiding Place. The Bodkin Club.
Radio highlights: The Last Outlaw. The Hippolytus of Euripides.
Weather: outbreaks of thundery rain. Outlook – showery. 20c, 66f.
Wednesday 3 July 1963
A bit more peace and quiet – this is what Britain needs the most. A committee looking into the problem concluded that mental health is not affected by excessive noise. However, sleep can be affected, and that is injurious to health. The committee recommended a crackdown on vehicle noise, aircraft noise and heavy industrial machinery noise. The noisiest part of Britain is around London Airport.
Six motor racing drivers took tests organised by psychiatrist Mrs Berenice Krikler. The drivers were Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, Jack Brabham, Innes Ireland, Bruce McLaren and Jim Clark. The tests were designed to measure reaction times, in particular in relation to Stirling Moss, who is still recovering from a serious head injury. Moss made nine times as many mistakes as the others. He is now considering retiring from motor racing.
Thought for the Day: “One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.” – William Shakespeare.
A tennis player at Wimbledon has told organisers, “I know the identity of “Miss X.” “Miss X” is believed to be the leader of a ticket syndicate. If identified, the player, a “star”, will be hauled before the organisers.
Wimbledon Ladies Semi-Finals: Miss Margaret Smith v Miss Darlene Hard. Miss Billy-Jean Moffitt v Mrs Ann Haydon-Jones.
Television highlights: Stars and Garters featuring Kathy Kirby. Coronation Street – Ena Sharples insists on her rights. Look – a hare’s life.
Radio highlights: Topical Tunes. The Fight Game – a radio ballad of boxing.
Weather: bright spells and showers. Outlook – mainly dry. 20c, 68f.
Thursday 4 July 1963
There was a gasp of surprise in court yesterday when society osteopath Stephen Ward was released on £3,000 bail. Mr Ward, a central figure in the Profumo scandal, had been arrested for living off immoral earnings. Mr Ward grinned when he heard the magistrate’s decision. He left in a taxi, which was then involved in a collision. No one was hurt.
Mandy Rice-Davies, who gave evidence at the Stephen Ward trial, plans to register her name as a limited company. She said, “That’s the only way I’ll avoid heavy tax now that I’m in the money. I reckon I’ve negotiated ten grand already – and that’s just the start.”
There was a twist in the horse doping case yesterday when striptease dancer Elaine Grande was accused of “interfering” with a prosecution witness. Miss Grande shouted from the public gallery, “That’s not true at all!” The magistrate told her to remain quiet. Five men have been accused of conspiring to dope race horses. The case continues.
Four skeletons were found on a beach in Devon, yesterday. Four hours earlier, four other skeletons were found on the same beach. The police believe the remains were of sailors shipwrecked in 1760.
Wimbledon: Men’s Semi-Final Results – C. McKinley beat W. Bungert in three straight sets, F. Stolle beat M. Santana in three straight sets.
Television highlights: Gallery – Commonwealth immigration. Sir Lancelot. The Epilogue with the Rev Michael Hollings.
Radio highlights: Thanks For the Melody. Lawn Tennis and Rowing.
Weather: sunny spells and showers. Outlook – little change. 21c, 70f.
Friday 5 July 1963
After studying the ever-changing English language, our columnist Marjorie Proops complied this glossary – see below.
Soccer star George Eastham, 26, yesterday won his High Court fight for footballers “freedom” – and his victory will lead to one of the biggest upheavals ever seen in British sport. The judgement means that players are now free to negotiate their own contracts and if they are worth £125,000 or more on the transfer market they can walk out at the end of their contracts without their club getting a penny.
Dame Irene Ward has called for a probe into “black market” tickets sold by touts at “exorbitant” prices for sporting events. At Wimbledon, an investigation has so far failed to identify “Miss X” a tennis star alleged to be the leader of a ticket syndicate.
Wimbledon: Ladies semi-final results – Miss Margaret Smith beat Miss Darlene Hard 6 – 3, 6 -3. Miss Billie-Jean Moffitt beat Mrs Ann Haydon-Jones 6 – 4, 6 -4.
Cricket: England are in the Test dust cart! When rain arrived at teatime at Edgbaston, England were 157 – 5 in the Third Test against the West Indies. The pitch bestowed lavish help on the bowlers. Left uncovered to the elements, it could become unplayable tomorrow.
Television highlights: Ivor the Engine. Sunday in August – Italian film. Roving Report – the Grand Tour.
Radio highlights: Go Man Go with the Hollies. Welsh Music.
Weather: sunshine, showers and thunder. Outlook – similar. 21c, 70f.
Saturday 6 July 1963
Should Wimbledon abandon its all-white clothing rule? There was no colour at the tournament this year, of any kind. Attendance figures were down and the crowd lacked atmosphere. Top fashion designer, Ted Tinling said, “The dresses didn’t project the players’ personalities. It was like a scene out of Emergency Ward 10.” However, Pat Stewart, the 29 year old fashion model American-born wife of England Test batsman John Edrich, said, “Tennis, white and tradition go together. I thought there were lots of pretty dresses in white, and colour is not really necessary.”
At present, any money saved on housekeeping legally belongs to the husband. However, a new Bill presented to Parliament aims to give housewives a half share. However, Lord Boothby, a bachelor, spoke against the Bill. He said, “The temptation will be for the housewife to serve ghastly food from a tin, and not fresh food from the market.”
The production of cards given away free with bubblegum has halted – for the time being. The cards – Illustrating the invasion of Earth by Martians – were criticised in the House of Commons by Sir Edward Boyle, Minister of Education. He called them “horrific, absolutely deplorable”. A spokesman for the manufacturers, based at Harold Hill, Romford, Essex, said, “The drawings were made for us by a famous American artist. We commissioned them because of the tremendous interest in Space travel and the likelihood of inter-planetary travel in the near future. The cards are not horrific. They merely show the bestiality of war.”
Cricket: England closed the second day of the Third Test at Edgbaston on 216 all out. The pitch is very lively and tomorrow’s play should be very interesting indeed.
Tennis: in a one-sided match, Chuck McKinley beat Fred Stolle 9 – 7, 6 – 1, 6 – 4 in the men’s final at Wimbledon yesterday.
Television highlights: Music of the World – in aid of UNICEF. Rave! Danger Man.
Radio highlights: Test Match Special, including motor racing and athletics. Harp Recital.
Weather: sunny spells then rain. Outlook – rain then sunny spells. 22c, 72f.
Sunday 7 July 1963
Two men were accused yesterday of “wilfully worrying ducklings in a pond”. The men told the magistrate that they were feeding the ducklings with bread and splashing water over them. The park patrol man said the men were trying to catch hold of the ducklings. Despite the men’s suspicions behaviour, the magistrate dismissed the case.
A company in America, Surprise Records, has issued an LP, Music to Strip By. The cover is decorated with a genuine stripper’s g-string. Tip for the top: If I Ruled the World by Harry Secombe and True Love by Dr Kildare himself, Richard Chamberlain.
Agony Aunt: “Yorkshire Woman” writes, “My husband talks in his sleep and sometimes he curses me. What should I do?” Jane Adams’ reply, “Stop worrying. It’s what he says when he’s awake that counts.”
Rain was the only winner at Wimbledon yesterday. For the first time since 1927 the programme was not completed within the scheduled fortnight. The committee informed the spectators that money taken at the turnstiles would not be refunded.
With 28,000 spectators present, only 2 hours 40 minutes of play was possible in the Third Test Match at Edgbaston. Scorecard: England 216 all out. West Indies 110 – 4. Tomorrow is a rest day.
Television highlights: Robin Hood – The Devil You Don’t Know. Music of the World with Marlene Dietrich. The Other Man’s Farm.
Radio highlights: Family Favourites. Juke Box.
Weather: cool with showers and sunny intervals.
Available for order and pre-order, my Swinging Sixties Mystery Series
Jane Morgan (pictured) enjoyed a long career on Broadway, on record, on television, and in nightclubs and movies. Her career blossomed in America and Europe, and featured a number of million sellers including The Day the Rains Came (number one in Britain in 1959), which she released as a double A side, an English version of the song and a French version – Le jour où la pluie viendra.
Later in her career, Jane Morgan released an answer song to Johnny Cash’s A Boy Named Sue called A Girl Named Johnny Cash. She performed this song on Cash’s television show, 1971. Check it out, it’s clever and amusing.
Jane married twice and her second husband, Jerry Weintraub, was instrumental in Elvis Presley’s re-emergence in the early 1970s.
Jane Morgan celebrated her 100th birthday on 3 May 2024.
Some artists write and record a song in half an hour. With ‘More Than a Feeling’, Boston’s Tom Scholz took five years. During that time, Scholz worked for Polaroid, and used his wages to build a recording studio in his basement. Boston’s rich sound, built around Scholz’s harmonised guitars and Brad Delp’s long-held notes, arguably, created the blueprint for the American rock sound of the mid to late seventies.
Incidentally, Scholz cited ‘Walk Away Renee’, the Left Banke version, as his main ‘More Than a Feeling’ influence.
***
A pop music curiosity: The Specials’ Too Much Too Young (1980), at just under two minutes, was the shortest number one since the Beatles’ From Me to You (1963).
“And every song was short and sweet, and every beat was fast And every paper in the land said rock-and-roll won’t last You know it just won’t last, it’s such a rapid burn.”
Class of ‘58 – Al Stewart
***
Originally established in 1931 to broadcast in German and French, in 1933 Radio Luxembourg began Sunday broadcasts in English on 208 metres medium wave. After 1945, the station broadcast an English service daily and introduced a new feature – a top twenty based on sheet music sales.
With the BBC indifferent to popular music, Radio Luxembourg’s evening shows became an important source for British listeners. Indeed, the station dominated the pop music airwaves until the arrival of pirate radio ships in 1964.
Radio Luxembourg at Expo ‘58, Brussels, Belgium
In 1971 Radio Luxembourg abandoned its pre-recorded shows and adopted an “all live” format with disc jockeys presenting their programmes from Luxembourg.
In the late sixties and early seventies strong competition from BBC Radio 1 and British commercial radio stations reduced Radio Luxembourg’s audience. Listeners also preferred the cleaner sound of the BBC programmes to Radio Luxembourg’s “fade in-fade out” reception.
Despite the heavy hand of sponsors interrupting the music, and the dodgy reception, Radio Luxembourg played an important part in the development of 1960s pop culture.
Seren: The Maid of Sker. A Georgian Murder Mystery.
When a body is washed up on the shore, county coroner Samuel Brereton arrives in Sker to investigate. When a second body is washed up, his investigations turn to murder.
Seconded to assist Samuel due to her extensive local knowledge, Seren, a maid at Sker House, discovers the truth about the murder. Seren also falls in love with Samuel, a love that seems destined to remain unrequited, until she uncovers a startling secret about her ancestry.
When the qualifying process is complete, in about a month, on Mastodon we will start voting on our top twenty favourite records of the 1950s/1960s, placing them in order. Through 190 match-ups, we will create a unique chart, every song a classic.
Here is some background on one of the qualifiers, Hey Jude by the Beatles.
Hey Jude, written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership, was released in August 1968. The song was the first Beatles release on their Apple record label.
John Lennon said in 1980, “If you think about it … Yoko’s just come into the picture. He’s saying. ‘Hey, Jude – Hey, John.’ I know I’m sounding like one of those fans who reads things into it, but you can hear it as a song to me. The words ‘Go out and get her’ – subconsciously he was saying, Go ahead, leave me. On a conscious level, he didn’t want me to go ahead.”
Paul McCartney added in 1997, “I started with the idea “Hey Jules,” which was Julian (Lennon), don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better. Hey, try and deal with this terrible thing. I knew it was not going to be easy for him. I always feel sorry for kids in divorces.”
The Beatles performing Hey Jude
Another qualifier, Then He Kissed Me by The Crystals
Then He Kissed Me was written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. The song, recorded by The Crystals, was released in July 1963 and quickly became an international hit. The lead vocal was sung by Dolores “LaLa” Brooks, while Jack Nitzsche provided the Wall of Sound arrangement.
Dolores “LaLa” Brooks, the second youngest of eleven children, enjoyed a long career in music, writing, recording and performing with a number of leading artists including Bobby Womack and Isaac Hayes. Now aged 76, she is still performing.
The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding
The Dock of the Bay was co-written by Otis Redding and guitarist Steve Cropper. Redding recorded the song twice in 1967, including just three days before his death in a plane crash on December 10, 1967. The Dock of the Bay was released in 1968 and became the first posthumous #1 single in America.
In a September 1990 interview Steve Cropper said, “Otis was one of those guys who had 100 ideas. He had been in San Francisco doing The Fillmore. And the story that I got, he was renting a boathouse, or stayed at a boathouse or something, and that’s where he got the idea of the ships coming in the bay there. And that’s about all he had: ‘I watch the ships come in and I watch them roll away again.’ I just took that… and I finished the lyrics. If you listen to the songs I collaborated on with Otis, most of the lyrics are about him. Dock of the Bay was exactly that: ‘I left my home in Georgia, headed for the Frisco Bay’ was all about him going out to San Francisco to perform.”
Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles
Hit the Road Jack was written by Percy Mayfield and recorded by Ray Charles with Margie Hendrix providing the female vocals. Initially, Mayfield sent an a cappella demo to music executive Art Rupe who played it to Charles.
Ray Charles’ recording reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on Monday, October 9, 1961. The song also resided at top of the R&B chart for five weeks becoming Charles’ sixth number one on that chart.
The Chantels released an answer song, Well, I Told You, which also entered the charts.
A Hard Day’s Night by the Beatles
A Hard Day’s Night, credited to Lennon-McCartney, was primarily written by John Lennon. The song was released on the film soundtrack of the same name in 1964.
The origins of A Hard Day’s Night as a title vary according to your source. In 1964, Ringo Starr said, “We went to do a job, and we’d worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, ‘It’s been a hard day …’ and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, ‘… night!’
In 1980, John Lennon said, “I was going home in the car and Dick Lester (director of the movie) suggested the title, ‘Hard Day’s Night’ from something Ringo had said. I had used it in ‘In His Own Write’ (a book Lennon was writing) but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo. You know, one of those malapropisms. A Ringo-ism, where he said it not to be funny … just said it. So Dick Lester said, ‘We are going to use that title.’”
In 1994, Paul McCartney said, “The title was Ringo’s. We’d almost finished making the film, and this fun bit arrived that we’d not known about before, which was naming the film. So we were sitting around at Twickenham studios having a little brain-storming session … and we said, ‘Well, there was something Ringo said the other day.’ Ringo would do these little malapropisms, he would say things slightly wrong, like people do, but his were always wonderful, very lyrical … they were sort of magic even though he was just getting it wrong. And he said after a concert, ‘Phew, it’s been a hard day’s night.’”
Book News
I’m delighted that Eve’s Peace, my sequel to Eve’s War, Heroines of SOE, is a top ten hot new release on Amazon’s genre charts, and even more pleased that readers are enjoying the book 🙂
For Authors
#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 36 occasions.
Hannah Howe 