Maid Marian and Her Merry Men

Maid Marian and her Merry Men

Series 1 DVD cover
Genre Situation Comedy
Created by Tony Robinson
Directed by David Bell
Starring
Composer(s)
  • David Chilton
  • Nick Russell-Pavier
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 4
No. of episodes 26
Production
Producer(s) Richard Callanan
Cinematography David Gautier
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time 25 minutes 1x 50 Minutes
Production company(s) BBC
Release
Original network BBC1
Original release 16 November 1989 (1989-11-16) – 16 February 1994 (1994-02-16)

Maid Marian and her Merry Men is a British children's sitcom 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 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-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 (as well as early, uncredited, script editing work being undertaken by Richard Curtis), but also for its comic style. It is more surreal than Blackadder, however, and drops even more (deliberate) 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, a cartoon strip by Paul Cemmick which was serialised in the Daily Telegraph's children's paper "The Young Telegraph" (also available as a series of collections), and the programme was repeated on BBC One in 2001. Series 1 was released on video in 1990, with three episodes each on two tapes, and all four series are available on DVD. 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 in particular that series' Clannad soundtrack is lampooned in the episode "The Whitish Knight") and the contemporary film adaptation Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The latter actually features Howard Lew Lewis (Rabies) 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 (Kevin Costner).

Main Characters

Protagonists

Antagonists

Secondary characters

Music

The memorable music and songs for Maid Marian and Her Merry Men series 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 (more often) 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" (sung by Barrington)
  2. Robert The Incredible Chicken: "The Story So Far" (sung by Barrington); "The Sheriff's Excuse" (sung by Barrington)
  3. A Game Called John: "Pancake Day" (sung by Barrington)
  4. The Miracle Of Saint Charlene: "Gotta Get Across" (sung by Barrington, Marian, Robin, Rabies and Little Ron)
  5. The Sharp End of a Cow: "Popular" (sung by the Peasants)
  6. The Whitish Knight: "The White Knight / The Whitish Knight" (a take-off on the theme song to the 1980s TV series Robin of Sherwood)

Series Two: 1990

  1. The Beast of Bolsover: "Ambush!" (sung by Barrington)
  2. The Worksop Egg Fairy: "What Is Happening Here?" (sung by Barrington); "Bop For An Egg" (sung by Barrington)
  3. Little Brown Noses: "Against The Law" (sung by Barrington); "Colin's Release Song" (sung by Marian, Robin, Barrington and Rabies)
  4. Rabies In Love: "Rabies In Love"; "Wedding Today" (sung by Nettle and the Peasants)
  5. Rotten Rose (Part One): "Robin Hood" (a take-off on Bananarama; sung by Rose, Gladys and Cowpat)
  6. Rotten Rose (Part Two): "Rotten Rose" (sung by Barrington)

Series Three: 1993

  1. The Big Baby: "Father Bloopy" (sung by The Sheriff, Gary, Graeme and the Peasants); "Don't Worry 'Bout The Pain" (sung by Barrington, Marian, Robin and the Peasants)
  2. Driving Ambition: "Take Action" (sung by Barrington, Robin and Rabies); "A Friend Like Rose" (sung by Marian and Barrington)
  3. Keeping Mum: "Pierced" (sung by The Sheriff and the Peasants); "Call The Dentist" (a take-off on the Ghostbusters theme song; sung by Barrington and the Peasants); "Hurrah for the State of Luxembourg" (sung a cappella by Gary and Graeme)
  4. They Came From Outer Space: "Only Child" (sung by Marian, Barrington, Rabies and Little Ron); "Naked To The Visible Eye" (sung by Barrington and the Peasants)
  5. Robin and the Beansprout: "I Wish They'd Put Their Heads Outside" (sung by Barrington, Marian and Little Ron); "Chop Suey" (a take-off on Elvis Presley's "In the Ghetto"; sung by Robin)
  6. The Great Mud Harvest: "White Suit" (sung by Robin and the Peasants)

Christmas Special: 1993

  1. Maid Marian and Much the Mini-Mart Manager's Son: "Much The Mini-Mart Manager's Son" (sung by Barrington); "Deception" (a take-off on Michael Jackson; sung by Barrington and one of the show's regular session musicians, appearing on-screen for the first time - note the line 'It's not him that's singing...')

Series Four: 1994

  1. Tunnel Vision: "Double Trouble" (sung by Barrington and Robin)
  2. Bouncy Sheriff: "Friends Or Foes?" (sung by Rose, Marian, The Sheriff, Gary, Graeme and the Peasants)
  3. Raining Forks: "Vacation" (sung by The Sheriff, King John, Robin, Barrington, Gary, Graeme and the Peasants); "High Forks Night" (sung by Barrington, Robin and Guy)
  4. The Wise Woman of Worksop: "Here Comes Pixie Paul" (sung by Rabies, Barrington and Little Ron)
  5. Robin The Bad: "Thicky Stupid" (sung by Robin); "A Selection Of Amusing Things" (sung by The Sheriff and the Peasants)
  6. The Nice Sumatran: "The King Of England Is A Pig" (sung by the coronation choir); "Party People Party" (sung by Barrington); "Take My Heart" (sung by Snooker)
  7. Voyage to the Bottom of the Forest: "You're So Lazy" (sung by Marian, Robin, Barrington and Little Ron); "The Story Of Workflop" (sung by The Sheriff, Gary and Graeme)

Awards

Maid Marian and her Merry Men won several awards, including the 1990 BAFTA for Best Children's Programme (Entertainment/Drama).[2] It was also nominated for the same award in 1991, losing to Press Gang.[3] 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.

The village of Worksop was specially built for the programme.

Episode guide

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.

Comic books

Written (and adapted) by Tony Robinson, illustrated by Paul Cemmick. Published by the BBC and Penguin Character Books Ltd. between 1989 and 1992.

Ratings (CBBC Channel)

Thursday 11 April 2002- 30,000 (5th most watched on CBBC that week)
Tuesday 9 April 2002- 30,000 (8th most watched on CBBC that week)
Tuesday 23 April 2002- 20,000 (10th most watched on CBBC that week)
Thursday 2 May 2002- 30,000 (2nd most watched on CBBC that week)[5]

Other materials

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 (and radio) plays to be used in classrooms at Key Stage 3 level (roughly ages 11–14). The book includes support material and activities for this purpose.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "'Baldrick' joins Labour's elite". BBC News. 23 May 2000. Retrieved 18 December 2007.
  2. ↑ BAFTA Award Winners of 1990 at IMDB. Retrieved 17 December 2007
  3. ↑ BAFTA Award Winners - and nominees - of 1991 at IMDB. Retrieved 17 December 2007
  4. ↑ Eureka Video press release for Series 1 DVD. Retrieved 5 March 2006
  5. ↑ http://www.barb.co.uk

External links

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