The Adventures of Robin Hood

1 9 5 5 - 1 9 5 8 (UK)
143 episodes

The Adventures Of Robin Hood was made for the American market and one of Lew Grade's first big money-spinners. Richard Greene played the title role for 143 episodes, after which he lived in semi-retirement.

Greene was ably supported in the series by Alexander Gauge as Friar Tuck, Archie Duncan as Little John, Paul Eddington as Will Scarlett, Alan Wheatley as the Sheriff of Nottingham and, first Bernadette O'Farrell then Patricia Driscoll (the Picture Book presenter) as Maid Marion.

The evil Sheriff was so detested by audiences that poor Alan Wheatley used to often find his car scratched, while Archie Duncan was also a hero in real life - he received a gallantry award after dragging a boy out of the path of a stampeding horse.

Perhaps the real star was a twenty-foot hollow tree-trunk on wheels which, because of its mobility, played most of Sherwood Forest. 

Much of the series was shot in the studio, but with careful camera angles that single tree gave a reasonably effective impression of a forest. 

To keep it company, the producers later built another tree. It gave a whole new meaning to the the term 'wooden acting'.

The opening theme to the show became as familiar as the series itself, and could be heard in many school playgrounds in the late 50s and 60s;

Robin Hood, Robin Hood, 
Riding through the glen
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, 
With his band of men
Feared by the bad, loved by the good
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood!

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Robin Hood Richard Greene Maid Marian Bernadette O'Farrell (1) Patricia Driscoll (2) Friar Tuck Alexander Gauge Little John Archie Duncan Will Scarlett Paul Eddington Sheriff of Nottingham Alan Wheatley Alan-a-Dale Richard Coleman Sir Roger de Lisle Leo McKern Edgar Alfie Bass Duncan Hugh McDermott Jessie Ellen McIntosh Derwent Victor Woolf Count de Severne Gerard Heinz