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 stars 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 Bernadette O'Farrell
and Patricia
Driscoll. Alan Wheatley
played Robin's main foe, the Sheriff of Nottingham, who constantly schemed
to bring Robin
and his band of Merry Men
to justice. There are 143 episodes in all, and the series was broadcast
on ITV1 between
26 September 1955 and 12
November 1960.
The
episode: 'The Shell Game' was the 18th episode of the
second season, and debuted on 28 January 1957. The
episode begins in the camp
of Robin Hood, where a confidence trickster named Pick is winning money
from Robin's
men using a game of chance
whereby the punter must identify which of three shells a nut is under.
Some of the men
become angry because they
believe Pick is cheating, but Little John recognises him as a man who had
helped King
Richard the Seventh to escape
from Prince John, and says Pick has a noble streak and should be given
all the help
that they can give him.
Robin receives a message (by arrow, of course) warning that the Sheriff
of Nottingham's men
are ambushing a traveller
in their territory. Robin and his men rescue of the traveller (Patrick
Troughton), and drive off
the Sheriff's men. This
traveller, who had been wounded in the ambush, is on a secret mission for
Queen Eleanor, to
collect jewels from a man
named Seneschal (presumably not the same character played by Troughton
in a previous
episode), who has hidden
them in a secret vault at Hastings House in London. The traveller
was to deliver the jewels
to King Richard, who will
use them in his new campaign in France. However, Seneschal has been arrested
by Prince
John and is likely to face
torture. However, the jewels have not yet been found, and Robin decides
to travel to London
and recover the jewels himself.
The traveller warns that Hastings House is impregnable and constantly guarded.
Robin
takes Pick along, intending
to utilise his lockpicking skills to gain access to the house and the vault,
although some
of his men do not believe
that they can trust Pick. Robin and his men recover the jewels, but Robin
drops them during
a battle with Prince John's
men and Pick scarpers with the jewels. Just when Robin thinks his
men were right about
Pick, he returns and gives
the jewels to Robin.
Who
connections: This was the fourth of eight appearances
by Patrick Troughton in this series, although he was in
the same role just once.
Roger Delgado was in one episode, titled 'The Minstrel'. The series also
featured a number of
other Doctor Who actors,
including 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
Clip: A
traveller is attacked 10.0mb |
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