Series Review; Robin Hood (BBC TV) Series 1

Title: Robin Hood- Complete Series One (2006)

Starring: Jonas Armstrong, Lucy Griffiths, Richard Armitage and Keith Allen.

My Rating: 9.5/10

The series begins with the return of Robin of Locksley (Jonas Armstrong) and his faithful servent Much (Sam Troughton) from the crusades in the Holy Land. Expecting to return to his lands just as he had left it, Robin approches Locksley with a joyous heart only to find his lands and all that of Nottingham are now under the rule of an evil new Sheriff of Nottingham (Keith Allen).

Seeing the injustices of his people Robin refuses to do the Sheriff's bidding and is stripped of his title and lands and chooses to live in the forest as an outlaw. With the help of some wonderful characters including: Will Scarlett (Harry Lloyd), Allan A Dale (Joe Armstrong) , Little John (Gordon Kennedy) and Roy (William Beck), Robin embarks on a life full of danger as he battles against the Sheriff and Sir Guy of Gisborne.
One thing that Robin has up on the Sheriff and Guy is his secret informer and ally, the beautiful Lady Marian (Lucy Griffiths).

Robin's Gang: (from left) Much, Little John, Robin,
Will, Allan and Roy

I am not much of a TV person but when I saw a small clip from this series I was hooked and within the week I had my own copy of the first series. I thought the first episode was a little slow and although it sets the story and introduces the characters it really isn't a reflection of the entire series. This is my favourite re-telling of the legend of Robin Hood, which has been a beloved story of mine since I was a little girl.

Jonas Armstrong as Robin, Lucy Grifiths as Lady Marian
 and Richard Armitage as Guy

 Jonas Armstrong plays a charming, charismatic Robin who has some what of an ego but truly cares for his people and those suffering under the Sheriff. Keith Allen is brillant as the Sherrif, his performance is so gritty and evil its like he was born for the role. Richard Armitage's Guy of Gisborne is pure genius, he is strong and nasty but you can see this vulnerability in him and weakness at times. He really builds his character and despite him being the right-hand man of the evil Sheriff, as each episode goes by you begin to like him at little bit more.

Lucy Griffiths plays the lovely Lady Marian. This was Lucy's first major re-occuring role and she did a great job, she is beautiful, strong and independent. She was also only 19 when they began filming! 

Sam Troughton is awesome as Much and most of the comedy comes from his character and that of the trickster Allan A Dale played by Joe Armstrong. Gordon Kennedy is fierce as Little John and Willam Beck is so cute as Roy, however I find it hard to watch his character as he also played John Thorpe in Northanger Abbey 2007, so its hard to take his character seriously.

My favourite character in the whole series is without a doubt Will Scarlett, he is so passionate about the sufferings of the people particularly as he has experienced it first hand. Harry Lloyd is a wonderful actor, He brings Will Scarlett to life and I just love how Harry builds Will's character into a strong but very feeling man. Harry's performance was so good that I have keenly been following his career as I think their are some great things in the future for him, if you have seen David Copperfield 1999 you may recognise him as the young Steerforth and coincidently Harry actually is th great-great-great-grandson of author Charles Dickens! He is also in the newest version of Jane Eyre (2011) which I am dying to see.

The costumes and the setting of this series are just so beautiful I would encourage you to see this series for that alone. If you are a fan of the Robin Hood legend, or this time period this is definitely something you should see!

If your interested here is a short trailer for the first series, which I found on YouTube