RoS Trivia
Мелочи о сериале
Most of the trivia in here is curtosy of Mike Hobbs.
Did you know...
Знаете ли вы, что...
что майкл Прайд действительно прыгнул со скалы в РЕвенскаре? НУ, почти прыгнул... Он прыгнул более 10 футов , а каскадер Стив Дент, совершил другой прыжок 30 футов и нырнул. В воде мы видим Стива Дента, а не Майкла. Но и Майкл тоже прыгнул неплохо 
Michael Praed did do the jump from Ravenscar Cliff in The Swords of Wayland. Well, sort of... he jumped about 10 feet down a cliff and the stunt man, Steve Dent, did another jump @ 30 feet and landed in the water. That's Steve Dent you see lying in the water, not Michael. But MP did do some cliff climbing as well!
The role of Nasir was created by Richard 'Kip' Carpenter as a henchman of Baron De Belleme just for Robin Hood and The Sorcerer, and was orginally not even a Saracen but some Edmund the Archer. Mark Ryan had created the role of Magaldi in the original production of Evita in the West End and Esta Charkham became Consultant Casting Director on it, replacing people when they left because it ran for years and years. Anyway, Mark was very action man and could do all the riding and shooting and Ian Sharp - the director - thought he was great and he was cast as Nasir. In Kip's original script for Robin Hood and The Sorcerer, Nasir who was a baddy was killed off....but Mark got on so well with everybody and was such good fun, that they decided to keep him on and Kip did a quick rewrite and Nasir became a goody. Hence the first time ever there had been a Saracen in the Merry Men. And Mark had to learn how to fight with two swords in just one day...
Richard Carpenter did not write the Golem in The Time of the Wolf that way. The creature was supposed to have eyes that glowed with a preturnatural light for one brief moment while chasing an animal to eat in the forest, but other than that, look just like Robin. Someone else came up with the fangs and at first Jason Connery thought they were really cool and like a little boy put them in and ran around baring his teeth at fellow cast and crew to scare them. Then someone said, "You look like a moron!" and Jason realized how outrageous the teeth really would look on camera, but the director stuck with them...
When Michael Praed announced decision to leave RoS to go to the good old US to play a leading role in a Broadway production of The Three Musketeers as D'Artagnan, the production team racked their brains trying to decide what to do. They thought about all sorts of actors:
Simon Dutton (Mark) was considered (which is why he didn't drown in the end of The Prophecy - just in case...), but they figured Mark was already so established as a baddy that it wouldn't work and there was also a wonderful wickedness about Dutton that you couldn't quite believe he would be "Robin Hood".
Then Paul McGann (Dr. Who) was tested, but he was too short.
The closest contender before Jason was Neil Morrissey. He had long dark hair, brown eyes and a gentle quality. He was so close to it, that the company paid for him to go to a gym to bulk up a bit - he was apparently skinny as ever! There are one or two bad quality snaps around of him testing.
Jason Connery was also tested - that was Beth Charkham's (Casting Director on Series 3) idea.
It was between Neil and Jason. It took forever to make a decision and that decision was based on what Richard 'Kip' Carpenter wrote. Morrissey would have been great to replace Loxley (kind of like in Dallas or Dynasty: same character, different actor), but the decision was made to create a new character as far away from Loxley as possible - hence Robert of Huntingdon: high born, educated, gentle, and very much a team player.
The Hooded Man who rescues the Merries at the end of The Greatest Enemy is neither Michael Praed nor Jason Connery, but a stuntman. It certainly wasn't Michael because he had already left nor Jason because he had not yet been cast when they shot the The Greatest Enemy. They had no idea yet who was going to play the Hooded Man for the Third Season, so they tossed a stuntman under the Hood. According to the DVD commentaries to RoS Series 3 Part 2 by Jason Connery and Mark Ryan it was Graham Crowley (Jason's double in Series 3). And the voice was not MP's or JC's either, it belonged to an actor called Simon Shepherd.
Michael Praed's real last name is Prince. He originally wanted to use his real surname, but there was already another actor on the "rolls" by the same name, so he changed his. He took Praed from Praed Street in London where a famous clinic for social diseases is, and he used to introduce himself: "Praed" - as in the clinic. Mike himself pronounces 'Praed' as 'Prayed', as one syllabal.
Michael Praed likes a particular brand of cigars: Romeo and Juliettas (the Cuban variety, not the Dominicans). He likes them short and fat.
In the novelization, Martin dies at the hands of the Templars and it's James who sticks around to the end of the first book, while on screen it is the other way around. It seems that this reversal came about because RoS stunt coordinator Terry Walsh liked Martin West, who played Martin, better than Steven Osborne who was playing James, and he apparently had say in who got killed by the Templars.
James (book) / Martin (TV) just disappeares after The King's Fool because Richard Carpenter simply forgot about his existence when it came to writing Season Two. 'Kip' had to be shown The King's Fool again to prove he had really written him into the series!
The chain mail that Robert Addie is wearing in the famous mud wrestling scene between Robin and Guy in Alan A Dale was actually just string spray-painted silver, but as it had not been pre-shrunk it shrunk in the water and almost choked him - Terry Walsh had to cut him out of it quickly!
Michael Praed nearly drowned after the mud wrestling scene in Alan A Dale from fatigue and the weight of his clothes, and had to be rescued by a stuntman, whom Terry Walsh had prudently positioned in the water.
To make it even worse, they had to reshoot the whole mud wrestling scene again the next day, because somehow the first tape had got destroyed.
Michael Praed always got to the shower (which had been provisioned in a near-by cottage) first after the mud wrestling takes, which left Robert Addie with cold water. Robert claims this was because Michael was the star, Michael maintains that Robert went to the bottle of champagne first.
Jason Connery had to redo the scene in The Inheritance where he is shot and falls into (freezing water of) the castle moat over and over again because the director, Ben Bolt, couldn't make up his mind whether the take was OK or not. Of course, in the end they used the first take after all. It later turned out that this was the director's revenge because Jason had once smashed a pastry in his face.
The Sheriff's mustache is fake, it is a glued-on one.
The Sheriff's neck chain was made of of spray-painted, glued together biscuits (cookies:)
The Silver Arrow was actually wooden, also spray-painted.
Judi Trott (Lady Marion) had hair extensions for at least part of the show, her real hair was about shoulder length.
Under the Herne headdress was a motorcycle helmet. And the thing sitting atop the helmet was actually an elk's head rather than a stag, accounting for the funky-looking antlers.
Apparently, Gisburne catching fire in The King's Fool was not planned - it just happened when Robert Addie dropped the torch and the straw in the loft caught fire. Robert actually was in real danger when he was there lying in the trough.
The script only called for him to be shot and wounded, but not fatally, and certainly not set on fire, because the writer (Richard Carpenter) knew Guy was coming back next season. The director, however, didn't realize this and just thought it would make the scene more exciting for Guy to get hit in the back and catch fire. Richard Carpenter was shocked when he saw the footage and telling the director: "But he has a contract for next season!"
Jason Connery lost his facial hair and the front of his head hair during the shooting of the scene at the pool at the end of Cromm Cruac when the special effects guy, nicknamed Dr. Death, screwed up with the oxygen and the gas.
"You have stolen my rowboat" is supposedly what Mark Ryan (Nasir) said instead of (as intended) something to the effect of "I am the guardian, none shall pass" when Marion and Tuck are trying to get around him in Cromm Cruac.
The entire Albion sword changed between Seasons One and Two. The first hilt had "jewels" and was down-curving; the second hilt had the lion pommel and a more rectangular shape. The first sword also does not have the word "Albion" in English on it -- this addition was probably for clarity in The Swords of Wayland episode. The change with the jewels was because they were hurting Michael Praed's hands when he had to use the prop. There were multiple copies of the each of the versions of the sword, props for close-up and props for fighting, as well.
Judi Trott (Marion) and Mark Ryan (Nasir) went out for a while during the filming of RoS. Jason Connery (Robert of Huntingdon) was dating Clare Parker, who played Will's wife Elena in Cromm Cruac.
Annabel Lee (Mad Mab in Rutterkin) is Richard 'Kip' Carpenter's -- the creator of Robin of Sherwood -- wife. Kip said where else could he find an actress willing to be dirty all day and carry around a pig that peed down the front of her.
The dance at the feast in Huntingdon Castle in Herne's Son is most likely not an original dance. It was based on the pavanne, but was probably adapted to give the actors (specifically Judi Trott) some lovely moves to focus attention on her. The pavanne does indeed use similar steps and choreography, not the particular series of steps used in RoS.
Phil Rose (Tuck) specifically asked Richard Carpenter not to have Tuck address Marion as "Little Flower" any more because he hated saying it -- not sure if it didn't flow trippingly off the tongue or if he just felt it didn't seem like something Tuck would say.
The RoS music came to be done by Clannad because one day Mark Ryan (Nasir) and Clive Mantle (Little John) were riding out to location in Mark's car and he had a tape with the Harry's Game theme from Clannad. They both agreed it was the kind of atmospheric music needed for RoS and kinda forced Paul Knight (Producer) to listen to it. Paul loved it and contacted Clannad and the rest is history...
Michael Praed (Robin of Loxley) has been dyeing his hair for year owing to premature greyness, his beard is white when it grows.
Ailric of Loxley sounds remarkably like Michael Praed during the scene in Robin Hood and the Sorceror where he leaves Robin with the miller ("Look after the boy"), because it actually is Michael Praed voice-overing the actor, Wayne Michaels.
Some of the versions of The Time of the Wolf seem to be missing Gulnar's demise. (The UK TV broadcast didn't have it, the US and NL broadcasts had it, the Network DVD has it.) The Golem is out in the woods and Gulnar, after leaving Grimstone Abbey, comes across him. The Golem picks him up by the neck, strangles him and then throws his body on the ground.
In order to get into Clun Castle in Herne's Son Robert masquerades as a messenger from King John in the book but as a peddler named Cedric in the TV series.
Richard 'Kip' Carpenter came up with the idea of making Robert and Guy brothers at a party where the only two blonds in the room were Jason Connery and Robert Addie, and he though to himself that they could be brothers. The idea grew from there and in the end he wrote The Cross of St. Ciricus and made it happen.
The episode The Cross of St. Ciricus was originally entitled The Girdle of St. Ciricus.
There was no fourth season because Goldcrest, the company that bankrolled the show, went bankrupt. At the time the third season ended, everyone thought there would be another season.
Some of the RoS sword fight moves and stances have become standard in the TV/movie repertoire under the names of "Robin Hood 1", "Robin Hood 2", and "Robin Hood 3". You can watch Mark Ryan perform them in the "Robin Hood 1-2-3 Screen Swordplay short" in the special features section of DVD 5.
Sean Bean (Boromir in Lord of the Rings) was Richard Carpenter's own choice -- if Jason Connery turned it down -- to play Robin in the once planned film version of RoS a few years back.
Apart from in Robin of Sherwood, the RoS crew have worked together on a lot of other projects as well:
Casualty (TV series): Clive Mantle (Dr. Mike Barratt - regular), Michael Praed (Chris Meredith - guest in episodes "Code Red", "Big Rocks And Very Hard Places", "Waving Not Drowning"), Mark Ryan (? - guest), Ray Winstone (Terry Brennan - guest in episode "Heartbreak Hotel"), Jeremy Bulloch (Peter Cunningham - guest in episode "Taking Stock"), John - Herne - Abineri (?) and his son Daniel Abineri, Rula - Morgwyn of Ravenscar - Lenska (? - guest in episode "Act Of Faith").
Darkness Falls (movie): Ray Winstone (John Barrett), Michael Praed (The Hitman), Oliver - Bertrand de Nivelles - Tobias (The Money Dealer).
Merlin (TV): Nickolas Grace (Sir Egbert), Robert Addie (Sir Gilbert).
Scum (TV): Ray Winstone (Carlin), Philip - Abbot Hugo - Jackson (Mr Greaves), Esta Charkham (casting).
Quadrophenia: Ray Winstone (Kevin), Philip - Prince/King John - Davis (Chalky), Daniel - William Sparrow - Peacock (Danny), Esta Charkham (casting).
Dempsey & Makepeace (TV series): Mark Ryan (Jimmy - guest in episode "Extreme Prejudice") & Clive Mantle (Big Ben Davis - guest in episode "Extreme Prejudice"), Ray Winstone (?), Phil Rose (? - guest in episode "The Prizefighter").
Pulaski: Paul Knight (producer), Richard Carpenter (writer several episodes), Ray Winstone (Detective Sergeant Ford - guest in episodes "Ten By Eight Glossy", "And The Killer Of Rose Amelia Bonner"), Robert Addie (? - guest in episodes "Tough Guys don't Blink").
Riders (TV): Michael Praed (Jake Lovell), Marcus - Lucifer - Gilbert (Rupert Campbell-Black), Anthony - Baron Simon de Belleme - Valentine (Colonel Carter).
First Knight: Mark Ryan (Lancelot's challenger & assistant swordmaster), Valentine Pelka (Sir Patrise).
The Secret Life of Ian Fleming (TV): Jason Connery (Ian Fleming), Clive Mantle (Marine Sergeant Ellis), Patricia - Queen Hadwisa - Hodge (Lady Evelyn).
Hello, Mum (TV series): Clive Mantle (various roles - regular), Jason Connery (?).
Face: Ray Winstone (Dave), Philip - Prince/King John - Davis (Julian).
Our Boy: Ray Winstone (Woody Williamson), Philip - Abbot Hugo - Jackson (Detective Sergeant Yorke).
Thief Takers: Reece - Arthur - Dinsdale (D.I. Charlie Scott - regular), Ray Winstone (? - guest in episode "Remember Me").
Cat's Eyes (TV series): Ray Winstone (Geoff - guest in episode "One Away"), Peter Llewellyn Williams (?), Philip - Abbot Hugo - Jackson (Jarvis - guest in episode "The Double Dutch Deal"), Oliver - Lord Owen of Clun - Cotton (Stefan - guest in episode "Good As New").
The First Olympics: Matt - Roger de Carnac - Frewer (Francis Lane), Jason Connery (Thomas Curtis), Robert Addie (?).
Max Headroom (TV series): Matt - Roger de Carnac - Frewer (Edison Carter/Max Headroom), Nickolas Grace (Grossman).
Smuggler (TV series): Richard Carpenter (writer), Paul Knight (producer), Oliver - Bertrand de Nivelles - Tobias (Jack Vincent), Robert Addie (Scott-Ponsonby - guest in episode "The Press Gang").
Crossbow a.k.a. The Adventures of William Tell (TV series): Anthony Horowitz (creator), Valentine - Sarak- Pelka (Roland - regular), Nick - Earl Godwin's captain - Brimble (Horst & Prince of the Wasteland), Robert Addie (Brother Arris - guest in episodes "Spirit of Rebellion", "The Touch", "The Moment of Truth" Part 1 & 2), Mark Ryan (barbarian - guest in episode "The Lost City"), James - Grendel - Coombes (Anton, guest in episode "Silver Rider").
Alien 3: Clive Mantle (William), Philip - Prince/King John - Davis (Kevin).
The Master Of Ballantrae (TV): Nickolas Grace (Dass), Patrick Dromgoole (producer), Esta Charkham (casting), Nick - Earl Godwin's captain - Brimble (Chew).
Lords of Discipline: Jason Connery (MacKinnon), Matt - Roger de Carnac - Frewer (Senior), Peter Hutchinson - Alan a Dale - (Senior), Simon - Alan a Dale's voice - Shepherd (Senior), Katherine - Sarah de Talmont - Levy (Teresa).
The Professionals (TV series): Michael Praed (terrorist - guest in episode "No Stone"), Nickolas Grace (Joe - guest in episode "Mixed Doubles"), Philip - Prince/King John - Davis (Billy - guest in episode "Old Dog With New Tricks"), Yes - Reynald de Villaret - Beneyton (Rene Lacoste - guest in episode "Blood Sports").
Doctor Who (TV series): Jason Connery (Jondar - guest in episode "Vengeance on Varos"), John - Herne the Hunter - Abineri (Van Lutyens - guest in episode "Fury From the Deep", General Carrington - guest in episode "The Ambassadors of Death" , Richard Railton - guest in episode "Death to the Daleks", Ranquin - guest in episode "The Power of Kroll"), Jeremy - Edward of Wickham - Bulloch (Tor - guest in episode "The Space Museum", Hal - guest in episode "The Time Warrior"), George - Sir Richard of Leaford - Baker (Login - guest in episode "Full Circle"), Dallas - Peter Verdelet - Adams (Prof. Howard Foster - guest in episode: "Planet of Fire"), Rula - Morgwyn of Ravenscar - Lenska (Styles - guest in episode: "Resurrection of the Daleks"), Terry - stunt coordinator - Walsh (stunt double for Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, lots of minor roles).
Tank Malling: Ray Winstone (John 'Tank' Malling), Jason Connery (Dunboyne), Nick - Earl Godwin's captain - Brimble (American).
The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne (TV series): Michael Praed (Phileas Fogg - regular), Mark Ryan (swordmaster & stunts), John - King Richard - Rhys-Davies (Porthos/Alexandre Dumas - guest in episode "The Cardinal's Revenge").
The House of Eliott (TV series): Anthony - Baron Simon de Belleme - Valentine (Victor Stride), David - Joshua de Talmont- de Keyser (Sir Desmond Gillespie).
King Arthur: Ray Winstone (Bors), Mark Ryan swordmaster/fight director, Steve Dent as horsemaster, Moya Brennan (Clannad) soundtrack.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last updated Sun 26 Jun 2005
