The
lowdown: 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' is one of many television
series based on the legendary outlaw who
robs from the rich and gives
to the poor. It starred Richard Greene as Robin Hood, who was accompanied
on his many
adventures by Little John,
Friar Tuck and Alan-a-Dale. Maid Marion was played by two actresses, Bernadette
O'Farrell
and Patricia Driscoll. Alan
Wheatley played Robin Hood's arch nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham, who
was constantly
scheming to bring Robin
and his band of Merry Men to justice. A total of 143 episodes were made,
and broadcast on
ITV1 between 26 September
1955 and 12 November 1960. The series was shot on 35mm film, and used what
was a
then-revolutionary technique
of using a limited number of sets mounted on castors so they could be wheeled
into place
quickly. This drastically
reduced the amount of time needed to produce each half-hour episode.
The
episode: 'Food for Thought' was the 69th episode of the
second season, and was broadcast on 22 April 1957.
Robin Hood and his men come
to the aid of the residents of Upper Minton after a local landownert Count
Oliver (John
Sharplin) imposes a new
tax which requires them to give most of their food to the tax collector.
They face the real
possibility of starvation
during the coming winter unless Robin can recover the food. He intercepts
the tax collector
en route to Olivier's castle,
and takes back the food, which is then hidden in a cave. The villagers
agree to share their
food with each other to
ensure that it remains out of the clutches of Olivier, but one of the villagers
is unwilling to share
and unwittingly leads Olivier's
men to the cave. Meanwhile, Count Olivier plans to use the food to provide
a sumptious
banquet for his friends.
He hires a famous chef, the Great Maurice, to cook the food, but Robin
has other plans. He
convinces Maurice to work
with him to return the food to the villagers, so Maurice orders most of
the food to be thrown
away, saying he never uses
the same food twice. The guests who are eagerly anticipating a feast are
served delicacies
such as pig's snout and
sheep's tails, while the villagers get most of their food back. Patrick
Troughton has a brief role
as Seneschal, an official
in the castle of Olivier. He had played the same role in episode 56, "The
Blackbird".
Who
connections: This was the fifth of eight appearances by
Patrick Troughton in the series, although he was in the
same role just once. Roger
Delgado was in one episode, titled 'The Minstrel', while the series also
featured John Dearth
(Lupton in Planet of
the Spiders), Joan Sims (Katryca in Trial of a Time Lord), Geoffrey
Bayldon (The Creature from the
Pit), Graham Crowden
(Soldeed in The Horns of Nimon), Jack Watling (Professor Travers
in the two Yeti stories), Kevin
Stoney (Tobias Vaughn in
The
Invasion) and Michael Gough (The Celestial Toymaker).
Video Clips: The
Great Maurice 7.2mb
The
banquet 4.6mb |
 |
