From England to the U.S. - - The Adventures of Robin Hood

 

by Guy Belleranti
 

Several television programs came to the United States from England in the latter 1950’s and 1960’s. Perhaps the first was The Adventures of Robin Hood.

The program, filmed entirely in England, ran in that country from 1955 to 1960 with 143 black and white episodes being produced

The series was one of many big budget shows commissioned by Lew Grade (an influential show business and television company executive in the United Kingdom) to also be sold in the United States. It paved the way for later England to America programs like The Saint, Danger Man (Secret Agent in the U.S.) and The Prisoner.

Richard Greene played the dashing hero in the series. A few of the other actors and characters of importance included:

Alan Wheatley as the Sheriff of Nottingham
Alexander Gage as Friar Tuck
Donald Pleasance as Prince John
Bernadette O’Farrell as Maid Marion from 1955 to 1957
Patricia Driscoll as Maid Marion from 1957 to 1960
Archie Duncan as Little John (with Rufus Cruikshank briefly replacing Duncan for some episodes when Duncan was injured saving two child actors from a runaway horse).
John Arnatt as Deputy Sheriff of Nottingham

The lyrics of the popular theme song were written by Carl Sigman and sung on the TV program by Dick James. Gary Miller sang the song on a popular 1950’s record. The song’s lyrics went:

 Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen
 Robin Hood, Robin Hood, with his band of men
 Feared by the bad, loved by the good;
 Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood!

The program was produced by Hannah Weinstein. Weinstein had moved to England to escape the anti-Communist persecution and McCarthyism that was sweeping the United States during the 1950’s. Among the program’s writers Weinstein chose were a number of Americans who had also been blacklisted. They included Ring Lardner Jr., Waldo Salt, Robert Lees and Adrian Scott. Each of the blacklisted writers wrote under a pseudonym to avoid the notice of the House of Un-American Activities Committee.

When the blacklist ceased to be Weinstein returned to the U.S. Meanwhile, Lardner and other writers revealed how they had written many of the episodes as indirect comments on current American issues. They pointed out how Robin and his band were often threatened with betrayal to the authorities by friends much the same as they themselves had been.

In any case, The Adventures of Robin Hood became a very popular series in the United States.

 

more articles by  Guy Belleranti

Go to Rewind the Fifties Home