Maid Marian & her Merry Men

Maid Marian and her Merry Men was a UK children's television series created and written by Tony Robinson. It began in 1989 and ran for four series, with the last episode shown in 1994. The show was a comic 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-.

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 far more surreal than Blackadder, however, and drops even more anachronisms. Like many British children's programmes, there is a lot of social commentary sneakily inserted. Many of the plots included film spoofs, including Jurassic Park and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

The show was such a success, there was an adaptation produced for the stage, a cartoon strip by Paul Cemmick (now available in book form) and the programme was repeated in 2001. In spite of this, only Series 1 has ever been released on video, although Tony Robinson has recently been enquiring about a DVD release.

Characters

Maid Marian (Kate Lonergan)

The Sheriff of Nottingham (Tony Robinson)

Robin of Kensington (Wayne Morris)

Barrington (Danny John-Jules), the resident Rastafarian Merry Man, who would often rap during the episodes' songs.

Little Ron (Mike Edmonds), a very short and insanely angry and violent Merry Man.

Rabies (Howard Lew Lewis), another Merry Man, very strong, and very stupid, athough with his heart in the right place.

King John (Forbes Collins, who also played John's brother, Richard the Lionheart, in the episode The Whitish Knight)

Gary and Graeme (Mark Billingham and David Lloyd), the Sheriff's henchmen. Very affable, but not very clever.

Guy of Gisbourne (Ramsay Gilderdale), the king's wet-behind-the-ears nephew and mummy's boy.

"Rotten" Rose Scargill (Siobhan Fogarty), rival to Maid Marian and both Marian's best friend and worst enemy.

Gladys and Snooker (Hilary Mason and Robin Chandler), two villagers. Gladys is an elderly lady, fond of telling stories and legends, and hanging out with Barrington.

Nettle, a young female villager, who is definitely the equal of Marian in intelligence.

Hayley, another intelligent female villager, who is very sarcastic. She had a comet named after her after she puked as it shot across the sky. ("Hayley's Vomit".)

The programme was set in the very real Nottinghamshire town of Worksop, near Sheffield, although the whole show was shot in Somerset. The outside scenes were filmed in woods near Minehead and the castle scenes in Cleeve Abbey in Washford.

The memorable music and songs for Maid Marian and Her Merry Men series were composed by Nick Russell-Pavier and David Chilton.