Creators: Tom Kuhn, Fred Weintraub, and Sandra Weintraub. Main cast: Matthew Poretta as Robin Hood (1996-1998), John Bradley as Robin Hood (1998-1999), Anna Galvin as Marion Fitzwalter (1997), Barbara Griffin as Marion Fitzwalter (1997-1999), Richard Ashton as Little John, Martin Ellis as Friar Tuck and Hakim Alston as Kemal, Nomad Warrior (1997-1998. Robert Addie played Friar Groliet in the third episode of season two: The Devil's Bride.

Robin Hood is an action and adventure hero, who robbed from the rich and give to the poor. There was sword fighting, horse riding, and romance. We agree with those who describe The new adventures of Robin Hood as a light-hearted, silly piece of recorded live role-playing. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115289/usercomments ] There isn't any unified plot line - only the same characters keeps the episodes together. The actors probably had a lot of fun playing out their own fantasies. :) The plots consist mainly of Robin Hood and his merry men (Marion, Tuck, Little John) helping people in need, resulting in fights against the antagonists of the relevant episode. As in similar series (Sinbad, Hercules etc), there is no blood. In fact the whole series is completely bloodless and soulless. Robin Hood is flippant (for comic relief), Marion is haughty (for comic relief), Little John is stupid (for comic relief) and Friar Tuck is a fat fart (for comic relief).

Topping off this silliness is a lack of credible plots and a long line of historical inaccuracies. For instance Vikings (ca 800-1000) and Mongols (Asia and Eastern Europe ca 1200-1400) appear in what should be a late 12th century England setting. A series like this should make you very, very upset that someone wasted even low-budget money. But you can also revel in all the silliness and try to find as many historical inaccuracies or ridiculous fight scenes as possible....

This episode has a huge resemblance to some episodes of “Robin of Sherwood” – “Robin and the Sorcerer”, “The Swords of Wayland”, “The Herne’s Son” and “Cromm Cruach”. Also, the theme of Marian and the Sheriff of Nottingham from “Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves” is explored.

Robert Addie plays Brother Groliet. He mostly wears a black habit and a strange necklace with some paw with claws (similar to that Gulnar’s one in “The Time of the Wolf”), but later he changes it into black and red garments. He was once a steward to Marion’s father, and was wooing her, but she loved Robin already. So Groliet became a Crusader to impress her. Some strange sect in the Holy Land caught him, and after he got himself out from that hell, he returned to England, became a monk and – so people say – founded a hospice in the forest.

He is a friend to Robin and asks for his help, but we know already he wants to kidnap Marion as a bride to a demon (Balor – a Celtic god by the way), whom he is worshipping secretly. He succeeds finally and takes Marion to his enchanted castle  (“Robin Hood and the Sorcerer”). Of course she doesn’t want to agree to such a fate, so after some trials to persuade her, he uses a magic flower to cast a spell over her, and she loses her will for some time (“Herne’s Son”).

In the meantime Brother Tuck leads Robin and Little John to a monastery, where in a library they find some books with an information and pictures of Balor and his cult  (”Cromm Cruac”). Finally Robin, with a magic horn of a unicorn enters Groliet’s castle exactly at the moment of wedding (“Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves”). Groliet lets Balor possess his body, and now he looks like a devil, his voice is changed by computer wizardry and it is not a big pleasure to look at him…

The final battle between him and Robin with their lighting swords reminds me of the battle between Luke and Darth Vader. There are some dramatic moments, when Robin is shouting something like: “Groliet, there is a good man inside of you, just get out of it!” and we can hear Groliet’s voice: “Robin, please, help me!” – but eventually the demon possesses Groliet’s body again, and pierced with Robin’s weapon, disappears completely. (I would rather prefer Groliet to stay with us and to recovered.)

It is one of Robert’s biggest roles, and a first big one after he returned to his career. Maybe because he did it straight from the stage, this role has something theatrical in itself, and he looks much more professional than all his companions in the episode, especially the actress playing Marion.  More directly: he looks like a professional actor invited to take part in a school theatre… He has no good lines of dialogue, but he managed to put some life in that formulaic character. He shows us “this” look of his eyes, he can shout and command as older Sir Guy (and it looks like he is enjoying it…), he has one nice riding scene across the forest in those splendid garments, leading Marion’s horse behind himself (like Mildred’s horse), he is again fighting with a sword, and this role is most similar to Gisburne from all those since 1997. And it is a real pleasure to look at him. That in itself is a good reward for sitting through all of the deficiencies of the plot. And when he is on the screen – he steals the show-we don’t need to pay attention to anything else.

This website is hosted for free by . Get your own Free Website now!