The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV Series)

The Adventures Of Robin Hood (TV series)

The Adventures of Robin Hood is a popular British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes. It starred Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The show aired weekly between 1955 and 1959 on ITV in London in the United Kingdom and on CBS in the US. The show followed the legendary character Robin Hood and his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest and the surrounding vicinity. While some episodes dramatised the traditional Robin Hood tales, most episodes were original dramas created by the show's writers and producers.

The programme was produced by Sapphire Films Ltd for ITC Entertainment, was filmed at Nettlefold Studios with some location work, and was the first of many big-budget shows commissioned by Lew Grade. In 1954, Grade was approached by American producer Hannah Weinstein to finance a series of 39 half hour episodes, at a budget of £10,000 an episode, of a series she wished to make called 'The Adventures of Robin Hood', for which she had already signed Richard Greene to the project as Robin Hood and been given the backing of US distribution company, Official Films Inc, who were confident of selling it to the US market. Grade was so impressed by her proposal that he agreed immediately to back the series, hoping to make large profits by selling programmes to the lucrative American market. In the UK, the series premiered on ATV London, on Sunday 25 September 1955 the US premiere was on Monday 26 September 1955 by CBS, ATV Midlands began the series on Friday 17 February 1956, the series had a staggered start across the other regions from 1956-1961 as the ITV regional stations came on-air for the first time in the UK. The series was shot on 35mm film to provide the best possible picture quality, and had fade-outs where US commercials were intended to slot in.

To mark the end of production on the series Mr and Mrs Fisher (Hannah Weinstein and her new husband John Fisher) and Richard Greene threw a final wrap party at The High Pine Club on 10 December 1958, cast members Alexander Gauge, Archie Duncan, Patricia Driscoll with husband Duncan Lamont, Paul Eddington, both Sheriffs Alan Wheatley and John Arnatt attended. Also there were producer Sidney Cole, Ken Hodges (lighting cameraman), Noel Rowland (camera operator), Pip Pearson (sound) and directors including Compton Bennett, Gordon Parry, Terry Bishop, Robert Day, Peter Seabourne and Anthony Squire and stuntman Rupert Evans.