The Adventures Of Robin Hood was made for the American market and was one of Lew Grade’s first big money-spinners.
Shown from the very first week of ITV in London, it flew into the TV Top Ten, and in two-channel London households, it was #1 for January 1956 with a staggering 78% audience share. The series also sold well in America.
Richard Greene played the title role – robbing the rich and saving the poor for 143 episodes – though Robin was now a foppish, Brylcreemed matinee idol whose Lincoln greens appeared dry-cleaned despite his living rough in Sherwood Forest.
Greene was ably supported in the series by Alexander Gauge as Friar Tuck, Archie Duncan as Little John, Paul Eddington as Will Scarlett, Alan Wheatley as the Sheriff of Nottingham and, first Bernadette O’Farrell then Patricia Driscoll (the Pickturen Book presenter) as Maid Marion.