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Maid Marian and her Merry Men was a UK children's television series created and written by Tony Robinson and directed by David Bell. It began in 1989 on BBC One and ran for four series, with the last episode shown in 1994. The show was a comic retelling of the legend of Robin Hood, placing Maid Marian in the role of leader of the Merry Men, and reducing Robin to an incompetent ex-tailor.

The programme was much appreciated by children and adults alike, and has been likened to Blackadder, not only for its historical setting and the presence of Tony Robinson, but also for its comic style. It is far more surreal than Blackadder, however, and drops even more anachronisms. Like many British children's programmes, there is a lot of social commentary sneakily inserted. Many of the plots included film spoofs, including Jurassic Park and Prince of Thieves, and television spoofs, including The Crystal Maze. There were also frequent references to ITV's Robin of Sherwood, most notably a parody of that series' Clannad soundtrack in the episode "The Whitish Knight".

The show was such a success, there was an adaptation produced for the stage, a cartoon strip by Paul Cemmick (now available in book form) and the programme was repeated on BBC One in 2001. Only Series 1 was released on video, but DVD releases of all four series are expected in 2006 and 2007. Series 1 was released on DVD on 20th March 2006 and Series 2 is set to be released on 24th July 2006 [http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000FOT6Z6/202-2992196-2964604?v=glance&n=283926.

Characters

  • Maid Marian (Kate Lonergan), a passionate and idealistic freedom fighter. Although the most intelligent of the gang, she often lets her idealism blind her to the realities of situations, most notably the rest of the gang's incompetence. She also isn't very patient, but she will always defend anyone who she feels is wronged.
  • The Sheriff of Nottingham (Tony Robinson), a devious plotter obsessed with collecting taxes. While he is dedicated to stopping Marian, they sometimes find themselves in sympathy regarding the stupidity of everyone else.
  • Robin of Kensington (Wayne Morris), an extremely vain tailor and a yuppie. Became seen as the leader of Marian's gang by accident, and remains because he sees it as a cool image to cultivate. His most significant contribution to the outlaws was nevertheless to insist they all wear green to "co-ordinate with the trees".
  • Barrington (Danny John-Jules), the resident Rasta Merry Mon, who would often rap during the episodes' songs. He often acts as a kind of semi omniscient narrator (in a similar manner to Alan-a-Dale in more traditional versions).
  • Little Ron (Mike Edmonds), a very very short, insanely angry and violent Merry Man. Known to face the wrong way in ambushes. A parody of Little John.
  • Rabies (Howard Lew Lewis), another Merry Man, very strong, and very stupid, although with his heart in the right place.
  • King John (Forbes Collins, who also played John's brother, Richard the Lionheart, in the episode The Whitish Knight, and Queen Eleanor, King John's sister), a violent and unstable monarch. His brother, who was thought to be a wise ruler who would bring England back to a Golden Age, is identical.
  • Gary and Graeme (Mark Billingham and David Lloyd), guards of the King's castle, and the Sheriff's henchmen. They're "bestest mates" and extremely affable, but in the tradition of clever baddies with idiot sidekicks, not very clever most of the time. They are often very friendly with The Merry Men, who tend to return the sentiment - except when Gary and Graeme are doing what they're paid for. Graeme has a brother called Kevin. Graeme tends to enjoy things like torture and teasing the villagers more than Gary does, though Gary will challenge Graeme for the chance to do executions.
  • Guy of Gisbourne (Ramsay Gilderdale), the king's wet-behind-the-ears nephew, village idiot, and mummy's boy. Aged 27 but acts like a 4 year old.
  • "Rotten" Rose Scargill (Siobhan Fogarty), rival to Maid Marian and both Marian's best friend and worst enemy. She's Robin Hood's biggest fan.

Secondary characters

  • Gladys and Snooker (Hilary Mason and Robin Chandler), two villagers. Gladys is an elderly (and extremely stupid) peasant, fond of telling stories and legends, and hanging out with Barrington. She is Worksop's "wise old woman", but admits to being underqualified. Snooker is another extremely stupid peasant, who appears to be about 40. His greatest claim to fame is apparently inventing a game involving a long stick, a table, and a number of coloured balls. Together, they serve as the mouthpieces of the village, but are generally no more intelligent than the peasants they speak for.
  • Nettle (Kerry Potter), a young female villager, who is definitely the equal of Marian in intelligence.
  • Chickweed (Karen Salt) - a very young peasant girl.
  • Hayley (Carly Britnell), another young intelligent female villager. She had a comet named after her after she puked as it shot across the sky. ("Hayley's Vomit".)
  • The Beast of Bolsover - a clear reference to Dennis Skinner, MP for Bolsover and member of the Socialist Campaign Group.
  • Eric "The Newt" Teasel- an archer, appearing in the episode "Robert The Incredible Chicken". From Epping Forest.
  • Cowpat - a pretty young village woman. She is a friend of Rose, and one of Robin's many fans. Her main appearance is in "Rotten Rose part one"
  • Clough - a tall, red haired and bearded village man, from Nottingham forest and often seen about Worksop. Participated in the archery contest. The character name is a clear reference to Brian Clough, manager of English football team Nottingham Forest at the time.
  • Nigel Pargetter - semi-regularly appearing but uncredited peasant who fell victim to a number of misfortunes, including being punched in the head several times, being crushed by a radiator during Bloopie, and having a large cucumber lodged in his head by Robin's lookalike. Named after a well-known character in long-running BBC Radio 4 soap opera, The Archers.

Music

The memorable music and songs for Maid Marian and Her Merry Men series were composed by Nick Russell-Pavier and David Chilton. Each episode contained either one or two original songs.

The songs include such titles as ''The Whitish Knight, ''Gotta Get Across, ''Call The Dentist, ''Rotten Rose and ''Robin Hood.

Locations

The programme was set in the very real Nottinghamshire town of Worksop, which is the closest modern day town to the Major Oak, although the whole show was shot in Somerset. The outside scenes were filmed in woods near Minehead and the castle scenes in Cleeve Abbey in Washford.

Episode guide

Video and DVD releases

Video

  • Series 1 was released in two volumes of 3 episodes each. In keeping with other BBC video releases of the time, such as Blackadder, each volume was named after an episode:
    • "How The Band Got Together" featured episodes 1-3.
    • "The Miracle of St Charlene" featured episodes 4-6.
Subsequent series were not released on video.

DVD (Region 2)

Comic books

  • Maid Marian and her Merry Men ISBN 0582095549
  • How the Band got Together ISBN 0563208082
  • Robert the Incredible Chicken ISBN 0563208090
  • The Whitish Knight ISBN 0563360402
  • The Worksop Egg Fairy ISBN 0563362200
  • The Beast of Bolsover ISBN 0563360410
  • It Came From Outer Space ISBN 0563367091
  • Rabies in Love ISBN 0563362197
  • Driving Ambition and Keeping Mum ISBN 0563367105

See also

References

External links

Fansites

Actor Sites General Sites

BBC children's television programmes | Robin Hood | Period piece TV series

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Maid Marian and her Merry Men".

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