Maid Marian and Her Merry Men


Maid Marian and her Merry Men is a British 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 partially musical comedy 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 more surreal than Blackadder, however, and drops even more anachronisms. Many of the show's cast such as Howard Lew Lewis, Forbes Collins, Ramsay Gilderdale and Patsy Byrne had previously appeared in various episodes of Blackadder alongside Robinson. Like many British children's programmes, there is a lot of social commentary sneakily inserted, as well as witty asides about the Royal family, buses running on time, etc. Many of the plots spoofed or referenced film and television shows including other incarnations of Robin Hood in those media.
The show was such a success that there was an adaptation produced for the stage and a cartoon strip by Paul Cemmick which was serialised in the Daily Telegraph's children's paper "The Young Telegraph", and the programme was repeated on BBC One in 2001. Series 1 was released on video in 1990 and 1993, with three episodes each on four tapes, and all four series are available on DVD. It was repeated in April 2002 on the CBBC Channel and the first series was repeated in June 2007 at 12:30 on the CBBC Channel. During the summer of 2009, Gold repeated the entire 4 series.

Plot elements

Many of the plots featured, included or revolved around spoofing particular things, including films such as Jurassic Park and It Came From Outer Space, and television programmes, including The Crystal Maze and the long-running televised fundraisers Children in Need and Comic Relief. There were also frequent references to other Robin Hood incarnations, most notably ITV's Robin of Sherwood and the contemporary film adaptation . The latter actually features Howard Lew Lewis among its cast - hence his doubly witty line in the episode "They Came from Outer Space," which episode also passingly satirises the film for casting the lead with an American accent.

Main characters

Protagonists

The memorable music and songs for Maid Marian and Her Merry Men were composed by Nick Russell-Pavier and David Chilton. Each episode contained either one or two songs, which were mostly originals but were sometimes parodies. According to commentaries on the DVDs, the actors were frequently dubbed in their singing voices, both by themselves and by professional singers in post-filming studio sessions. Gary, Graeme, Guy and Barrington almost always sing their own songs, however.

Series One: 1989

  1. How The Band Got Together: "Mud"
  2. Robert The Incredible Chicken: "The Story So Far" ; "The Sheriff's Excuse"
  3. A Game Called John: "Pancake Day"
  4. The Miracle of St Charlene: "Gotta Get Across"
  5. The Sharp End of a Cow: "Popular"
  6. The Whitish Knight: "The White Knight / The Whitish Knight"

    Series Two: 1990

  7. The Beast of Bolsover: "Ambush"
  8. The Worksop Egg Fairy: "What Is Happening Here?" ; "Bop For An Egg"
  9. Little Brown Noses: "Against The Law" ; "Colin's Release Song"
  10. Rabies In Love: "Rabies In Love"; "Wedding Today"
  11. Rotten Rose : "Robin Hood"
  12. Rotten Rose : "Rotten Rose"

    Series Three: 1993

  13. The Big Baby: "Father Bloopy" ; "Don't Worry 'Bout The Pain"
  14. Driving Ambition: "Boring" ; "Take Action" ; "A Friend Like Rose"
  15. Keeping Mum: "Pierced" ; "Call The Dentist" ; "Hurrah for the State of Luxembourg"
  16. They Came From Outer Space: "Only Child" ; "Naked To The Visible Eye"
  17. Robin and the Beansprout: "I Wish They'd Put Their Heads Outside" ; "Chop Suey"
  18. The Great Mud Harvest: "White Suit"

    Christmas Special: 1993

  19. Maid Marian and Much the Mini-Mart Manager's Son: "Much The Mini-Mart Manager's Son" ; "Deception"

    Series Four: 1994

  20. Tunnel Vision: "Double Trouble"
  21. Bouncy Sheriff: "Friends Or Foes?"
  22. Raining Forks: "Vacation" ; "High Forks Night"
  23. The Wise Woman of Worksop: "Here Comes Pixie Paul"
  24. Robin The Bad: "Thicky Stupid" ; "A Selection Of Amusing Things"
  25. The Nice Sumatran: "The King of England Is a Pig" ; "Party People Party" ; "Take My Heart"
  26. Voyage to the Bottom of the Forest: "You're So Lazy" ; "The Story of Workflop"

    Awards

Maid Marian and her Merry Men won several awards, including the 1990 BAFTA for Best Children's Programme . It was also nominated for the same award in 1991, losing to Press Gang. The programme also won at least one award from the Royal Television Society, as well as the prestigious "Prix Jeunesse Variety Award" at the International Children's Programme Festival in Munich.

Locations

The programme was set in the very real Nottinghamshire town of Worksop, which, along with Mansfield, is one of the two closest modern day towns to the Major Oak, although the whole show was shot in Somerset. The outside scenes were filmed in woods near Minehead at a place called Porlock and the castle scenes were filmed in Cleeve Abbey in Somerset. The beach at Porlock features in some of the episodes including The Whitish Knight.

Episodes

Video and DVD releases

Video

Subsequent series were not released on video.

DVD (Region 2)

The DVDs were released after much online campaigning and a petition setup by fans circa 2002.
Some of the signatures included cast members, although proof of this is now lost.
Written by Tony Robinson, illustrated by Paul Cemmick. Published by the BBC and BBC Books Ltd. between 1989 and 1992.
The programme was adapted for a stage musical by Tony Robinson, Mark Billingham and David Lloyd. It toured several British theatres. The theatre programme for the production at the Bristol Old Vic featured new artwork by Paul Cemmick, showing Tony Robinson dreaming the production after being hit in the head by a football. The script for this production was later published in book format by Longman literature in 1992, as part of a series of BBC TV plays to be used in classrooms at Key Stage 3 level. The book includes support material and activities for this purpose.