Radio Times

Robin Hood looks like it was made out of Playmobil, one of those clip-together kits of shiny trees and plastic figures with blunt weapons and detachable hair. Just look at Jonas Armstrong - he's even got the raggedy fringe and painted-on stubble. These people don't live by their wits, they're let out of the box for 45 minutes and then tidied back into the toy cupboard.

I knew I wasn't going to like it from the opening episode. It was Pirates of the Caribbean done in the style of an end-of-term school play. They all looked like children too - how was Robin supposed to have spent five years fighting in the Crusades? He must have been the lucky mascot or something. And then there was the way the names of the locations kept flashing onto the screen accompanied by the thwack of a flying arrow, which had all the urgency of a DVD menu screen.

Unlike Robin's ridiculously superhuman way with a bow, this one had misfire written all over it. We've even been swindled out of a great baddie. I like my Sheriff of Nottingham sneeringly villainous, but even in his more reflective moments, Keith Allen just sounds like his beard is on fire. All in all, it just isn't Robin of Sherwood, is it? I know all the mystical gubbins of Richard Carpenter's 1980s version wasn't to everyone's taste and Michael Praed's hair had more swish than a shampoo model, but at least it had soul and heart.

The other problem is that Robin in a Hoodie doesn't live up to its theme music in the way its predecessor did. "Robin, the hooded man", mournfully whispered by Clannad, was memorably haunting and melancholy, just like the tone of the show. The BBC tune is all crash, bang, wallop - a big rousing intro let down by a rep theatre budget.

I know what the counter argument is: every kid needs a Robin for their generation. Michael Praed was a New Romantic for the Middle Ages, Jonas Armstrong is an Asbo kid in Sherwood Forest. But the first series felt rush-released to cash in on the family teatime Doctor Who audience and the second run looks like more of the same. Honestly, he can rob from the rich and give to the poor all he likes, I still walk away feeling short-changed.

I very much loved this show, esp. the gorgeous and talented Jonas Armstrong, but felt that since about the middle of S2, the actors were terribly shortchanged by the writers. It all began w/the asinine murder of Marian and went downhill from there. But I wish all the talented actors from this show, who gave their all in spite of what the writers threw at them, all the best in future projects.

I was looking forward to watching the final episode tonight, till I discovered I'd recorded an hour of Wimbledon instead - my anger at the Beeb for the last-minute schedule change proves, I suppose, that the series grew on me a little.

Stil, not a patch on Robin of Sherwood. The women are more like something out of Coronation Street, complete with obligatory cleavage and modern eye make-up. But the Sheriff's quite entertaining at times, and Gisbourne is wonderfully sincere and serious…though they've lifted both character studies from Robin of Sherwood. Much is painful to watch. I haven't even noticed Will Scarlet - though nobody could have followed the one from ROS.

Oh well, maybe I'm just geting old :-(

Robin Hood is pure entertainment - it's supposed to be nonsense - I love the humour - the acting is strong and the storylines are 'anything goes'! - love it. It is excellent Saturday Night fare - a lot of good fun!!

P.S I would love to give 'Mutch' a cuddle - bless him!

The show is ridiculous and plagued by bad writing, bad acting, low budget and the need to please a diverse target audience.

The highlight of RH is of course Richard Armitage's brilliant portrayal or moody tormented Guy of Gisborne.

Like most female viewers, Guy is the reason I watch the show. How Mr Armitage managed to tease out of the mediocre scripts a character like Guy, flawed, full of hidden depths and irresistably addictive is a miracle and a testament to his great talent.

I watch for Guy, if he is killed off, I'll stop watching. So will the majority of 18-40 female viewers.

I too am only watching it for guy- and have done since the beginning. My kids were always telling me to stop telling Marian she was after the wrong fella, I was just pleased when he killed her off - she really got on my nerves!

I just wish my hair woul,d stay as perfect as Robin's- even with all my modern stuff I can't match his mediaeval hairstyle !

hi

I love robin hood and if you don't like it TRY CHANGING CHANNEL im sorry if i seem a little rude but just because you and a load of wet blankets don't like deosn't mean it has to be stopped. .

Robin Who? I'm watching the show for Guy.

I love it, even if it is in a somewhat divergent timeline from established myth/legend. If you don't like it, try watching something else, or heaven forfend, go outside and get some fresh air. It's a perfectly acceptable fun tea-time romp with a fresh twist on old characters, and the fact this is series three starting means it's been popular enough for it to be recommissioned twice. But why in Robin's name is it now on more or less opposite Primeval?!?

I ended up purchasing the two series and I liked series one much more tham series 2. I hate to say this but the acting scenes with Lucy Griffiths (Marian) and Richard Armitage (Guy) were awful, they have no chemistry at all and it seemed like they struggled thru the scenes. I like Richard Armitage as an actor, but this was not a good role for him. Jonas Armstrong and the remainder of the cast were great. In the commentary's on the videos, Lucy's imaturity was apparent. She mentions the Armitage Army how foolish. I feel it was a good thing to end her role, for the love triangle was making the male actors look like idiots. I do have to say that the scenes with her and Jonas (robin) seemed more realistic, than her and Guy. I would rather see Robin and Guy fight over the Holy Lands and the people of knotingham. It does sadden me to hear that Jonas Armstrong is leaving in sesason 3, he will be a great loss.

Anachronistic rubbish. Keith Allen should never ever have been allowed to attempt acting -he is a total waste of time as an actor.

i think what i hate most of all is the style. It's like an even worse Knights Tale than Knights tale. The modern speech, tactics, clothing etc, sloppily placed in a Old England pseudo setting.

Dreadful generally, but has moments which are rather good. Keith Allen's turn as the Sheriff is suitably sinister, but most of the rest of it is too trendy and "spit and sawdust" for my taste.

It maybe a tedius old chestnut, Sycamore Flint but it is a good old chestnut, don't you just love them roasted at Christmas? It's like being in a Dicken's story.

Thanks for explaining what a differing opinion is but I have just about grasped that and I am more than happy to except everyone's opinions. I am wondering how if you did indeed turn over for the whole series, how you can form an opinion on it at all? Glad to hear you did though. Just so you know when to turn off next, it's back for a third series in January for another romping 13 episodes!!!! YEY!!!! Can't wait.

I love the show but it's not as hilarious as reading these comments! You have to enjoy the (outlaw) camp and Keith Allen's scenery-chewing and wait for the moments when Richard Armitage shows a depth to Guy that is heart-rending.

Have you watched Robin of Sherwood recently? All that metaphysical mumbo-jumbo and some bloke in a poncho wearing an elk's skull hasn't held up well. Remembering how into it you were gives the same feeling as watching a Wham video on YouTube.

i love robin hood, but still can't believe gisborne killed marian, i mean wasn't he supposed to hsve been in love with her?? apparently lucy griffiths (marian) is returning for series 3 but jonas armstrong will be leaving.

Judi, thanks for trotting out that tedious old chestnut about switching over or off if we don't like it - the standard guff from those who seem unable to accept a differing opinion. That, by the way, is a point of view that's different from yours, you might want to consider it, it's quite an interesting concept. In fact, I didn't just switch over for 45 minutes, I switched off for the rest of the entire series. I'm more than happy to leave you and any other undiscerning viewer of any age and articulacy level to watch this vapid series. But it's a pity that when someone dares to go against the gushing praise, we get the dreary old "you can switch over if you don't like it" cliche. Yes, we know. We have.

Just read a comment about here about robin v Guy with robin being the overall winner! you are either crazy or very very young? Robin may well be good looking but Richard Armatige aka Sir guy Truely is so handsom and has all the extra qualities of being a real man. He rocks

I can understand where some people are coming from when they say they don't care for the new robin hood but, i would have to disagree. We've seen the films about robin hood and although i liked most of them they were all the same. but i like this one because it can be watched every week and because it is so lighthearted. it leaves me with that good feeling that i take with me on the way out the door. It's also funny.If one wants hard core fighting I suggest a light out in a rough pub' should get some rough fighting there.I have to add it is also pleasing to the eye especially Sir Guy (Richard Armatige) I wish jonas would stay a little longer. I feel he may have been listening to too many negetive comments from plebs. Looking forward to season 3

Sycamore Flint, an amazing piece of gadgetry called a remote control turns the channel over! Turn off for 45 minutes while all those who love this adaptation of Robin Hood, me included, watch. It's not hard, it has little buttons and everything.That goes for all you non-fans! Before you arrogantly pronounce me to be a semi-literate adolescent, I'm a 41 year old teacher.

The true "fact" is that this series has a huge fan base of all ages and walks of life.

The fact that most of the supporters here seem to be semi-literate adolescents speaks volumes. And I loved Angel Fish's comment - it set out to do "something different." It's one of the most predictably cliched formulaic pieces of unimaginative tosh I've ever seen!

Robin Hood is amazing and Jonas Armstrong is soooo gorgeous, he is clearly the winner in the Robin v Guy battle, he is so clearly the winner that i feel there is so battle. anyone that thinks that keith allan is even a desent actor is deluded, anyone that say robin hood isn't amazing is majuorly deluded. Robin Hood rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE ARE ROBIN HOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Poor dialogue, poor scripts,poor acting and unrealistic backgrounds. Everything Robin Hood should never be and the only redeeming feature is Keith Allen.

Just who are the talentless idiots who put this show together?

Last night's double episode was a great let-down. For forty-five minutes we had to put up with with a north London therapy session in which battle-hardened outlaws talked about their ishoos and cried a lot, before being whisked off to the crusades where we were exposed to robin and marion speaking anachronistic wedding vows to one another not once but TWICE. This is very shoddy writing indeed. shoddy editing, too. god bless keith allen, the only reason to watch. WE ARE THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM!

Well most people are right... limp acting, poor plots, formulaic scripts, made to a transatlantic formula with more eye on the dollar and exports than providing real quality drama.

The sadness is that the BBC can make high quality family drama... just look at Doctor Who, Bleak House, Oliver Twist and Shadow in the North. There is absolutely no excuse for Robin Hood.

Oh and a comment on Saturday's final show... Since when has Portsmouth been anywhere near close to Nottingham? Or did they mean Portsmouth, West Yorkshire (yes really, just outside Todmorden) Since when has there been a Portsmouth Road? Take the Coast Road? To Skegness? Please.....

Come on Dominic Minghella - even you must have an elementary grasp of British geography and travelling conditions in the Middle Ages. How could you make such elementary mistakes?

Oh dear, you really don't get it do you? This is a brilliant series and I for one will miss it. It's supposed to be daft and funny - why else would they have cast Keith Allen in the role as Sheriff?

The whole idea is to present us with something new not a copy of something that has been done before, such as Robin of Sherwood, what would be the point otherwise!

What I can't understand is why go to all the trouble of writing a 5-paragraph essay on why you hate it so much? Do you not have a life? How sad!

What a shame they killed off Marian last night!

Having never previously seen it, I decided, after reading this entry, to give it a shot. I only needed to get to the point of Keith Allen asking "Why don't you ever kiss my ring?", where I swear I saw a cheeky smile emit from him, to realise that it it is indeed hate-worthy.

... I'm in the wrong department, I don't hate robin hood.

But the ladies love it. Guy of Gisborne v Robin Hood is apparently no contest, not difficult to see. Of course that's the only reason (quote) she watches it. I'm a very shallow viewer.

Robin Hood is pretty damn rubbish.

It's like a cartoony caricaturey 'young' 'trendy' version of the film Prince of Thieves. Robin himself being the eye candy. The Sheriff of Nottingham being a rotten old sod. Imagine Costner's Hood gone back in time to a day when he still took himself seriously, but didn't take anything else seriously, and took his hairstyle even more seriously (honestly-- what is WITH that indie boy hairdo?? As if Robin Hood really had time to CARE??!). Imagine Rickman's Sheriff stripped of his humour and camping up the nasty pantomime villain thing (Rickman screaming something nasty and Keith Allen screaming something nasty create REALLY different effects: one cool and actually quite sexy, stealing the show, while the other just Phil Mitchell-esque- but with worse acting skill).

The plotlines aren't even good. I mean, Maid Marian being sequestered in a castle and managing to 'sneak out' or be graciously let out, for some reason, by a man who no longer thinks she fancies him?!? It's all a bit too ridiculous, and a bit too shiny. Robin Hood has become a soap opera.

ilu robin.

I'm intrigued to read someone has seen Nottingham Castle. I thought the Roundheads burnt it down during the Civil War.

X-(

I think you really have missed the point of the show, it wanted to do something different and it really has. It took me a few episodes to get settled into the modern take of the show. If I wanted Michael Praed running around the forest with chippendale hair, I would have gone and bought the dvds of the old show.

This is something new and witty, and tongue in cheek. I like some of the minor actors and their not so great acting, but more importantly I love the performances of stand outs like Richard Armitage and Keith Allen and Lucy Griffiths.

Season 2 has been a vast improvement on season 1, in every way, they have given the bad guys more believable characters, and not the cartoonish ones of season 1. Robin has gone through some interesting changes too, from the we do no kill, to lets go kill everyone, the only problem i have with that is that it sends out a mixed message to kids who may have been watching the first season and now see robin have a bigger body count than the baddies.

Well, I think it's silly but I also think people are entitled to criticise and comment on television programmes. What a dull, anodyne and uncreative world we live in if we can't debate these things.

I agree with you! Everything about this show is awful. And I'm apparently the generation it's being aimed at. The Sheriff is possibly the worst thing in the show, he sucks. I struggled through the first series (as there was little else to watch at the time) but gave up completely after episode one of the new one, which went beyond a joke. It's a shame because Robin Hood has the potential to be such a good show (I'm too young to remember any older ones) so I'm really disapointed with this one. I'd rather the BBC spent the money on decent US dramas than wasting it on utter garbage like this.

I must agree largely with with DavidBrown-RT and rosalindjane. I think it largely post tea-time "tosh" primarily for kids and impressionable adults who like the scenery and action but don't mind a set of very unbelievable characters and plot-lines. It might also appeal to David Cameron. The only vaguely interesting people are Keith Allen's quasi-comic sheriff and Richard Armitage's hapless Guy who alternates between feelings of loyalty to the sheriff and horror at some of his actions.

I Think It's Briliant , I find it exciting.It keeps you on the edge of your seat .I'm glad The BBC have brought it back to show every one that Robin Hood really is a ledgend . He changed England for good ; not for bad.The Wit And Romance Makes It even greater for families to sit down at tea-time and watch it together while eating there dinner.I Think it's a great drama for a saturday night.The Trees ''arn't made out of Playmobil'' , At Least The producers though about it and made it in Budapest and filmed in a real forest.And Meanwhile the castle Looks Brilliant and so brought to life.Ive Seen Nottingham Castle . They Look Like Twins To Me .

I was about to be shocked that I agreed with you, then realized this was posted by someone who wasn't the last posts poster. Hmm, confusing.

I hate Robin Hood so much. The plots are stupid. Keith Allen just rubs me the wrong way - he's not scary at all, more pantomime villain amongst a cast who seem to think he's really, really creepy which he is but more in the 'dirty old man in a coat' way than 'tyrant with massive force at his command.'

And the women! Let’s throw in a token female outlaw with Jacq and then let’s make her really girly this season. Oh and all our token outlaws can be in love with her. And Marian swords fights and wears clothes that are so inaccurate it hurts. Not that the male characters are any better, between them they’ve been given enough personality to flesh out about one character in a good tea time drama (I have fond memories of a three week serial about chocolate being made illegal. Any chance we can see that one again? Or more of the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy being dramatized?)

And, I have to say, I just hate the pacing of the whole thing. I never feel comfortable watching it because of the jarring cutting and silly arrows flying around telling you where everyone is. "Sherwood forest? Oh, I never would have guessed they were there - I mean it's not like the trees give it away" They have about four sets! It's not hard to keep track of where they are.

But, sadly enough, it's filmed on the old set of the far more superior Cadfiel.