![]() ![]() In fact both men got their chance, but unlike Carpenter’s Turpin, Butler’s Wolfshead failed to make the cut. “David had always wanted to do Robin Hood,” Carpenter would explain to Starlog, “and I had always wanted to do Dick Turpin.” This was in part thanks to his friendship with British actor David Butler, who shared Carpenter’s belief that the myths and legends which continue to form such a firm part of the English psyche were ripe for re-imagining. ![]() Dick Turpin, staring Richard O’Sullivan, would run for twenty-six episodes over three years, to positive reaction from audiences and critics both at home and abroad.Įven whilst working on Turpin, however, Carpenter’s mind had already started to turn to the idea of bringing Robin Hood to the screen in a more grounded and realistic way. In 1979 he had worked with producer Paul Knight to bring the story of England’s most infamous highwayman to ITV. Robin (played by Michael Praed) and Marion (Judi Trott) Starting with Dick Turpinīefore Robin, Carpenter was a man who had already developed a reputation for bringing semi-mythical figures to the TV screen. For by taking the quasi-mystical world found in the writings of Gildas and others, adding the reality of post-Norman-conquest Britain and inserting characters whose personalities and problems are still familiar today, Carpenter created a series that brought the Robin Hood story to life in a way that has not been bettered before or since. If you are of an age to remember British TV in the eighties, however, then it is Kip Carpenter’s Robin of Sherwood that has probably done more to define your image of the Robin Hood myth than anything else. For many Errol Flynn’s turn as Sherwood Forest’s most famous outlaw remains iconic - it is certainly the reason why all later iterations have, at some point, had to confirm or deny that their version of the hero will wear tights. There have been many attempts to bring the life and legend of Robin Hood to the screen. “We are still a brutal, licentious, greedy animal.” “People haven’t changed, I don’t believe, in the last 2,000 years,” said Richard “Kip” Carpenter, speaking to Starlog magazine back in 1991. And the guilty shall tremble.” - Prophecies of Gildas The Powers of Light and Darkness shall be strong within him. There he will meet Herne the Hunter, Lord of the Trees and be his son and do his bidding. “In the days of the lion spawned of the Devil’s brood, the Hooded Man shall come to the forest.
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