Maid Marian and her Merry Men: the Blackadder for kids that subverted a legend Subversive TV is sometimes found in the least likely of places. Who would have thought that a children’s sitcom from […]

Subversive TV is sometimes found in the least likely of places.

Who would have thought that a children’s sitcom from 1989 would upend the legend of Robin Hood so adeptly, casting Maid Marian as the hero and Robin as the thick, vain idiot?

That’s exactly what Tony Robinson’s creation Maid Marian And Her Merry Men did, re-imagining Hood as a cowardly chump and making Marian (Kate Lonergan) the brains of the group – complete with wonderful, refreshingly unpatronising humour and plenty of musical interludes.

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A cunning plan

Pitting Marian and her faithful Worksop followers against the scheming Sheriff of Nottingham, the show – broadcast on BBC One between 1989 and 1994 – struck a chord with both the children it was primarily aimed at, and older viewers too.

That perhaps had something to do with the fact that it was very much Blackadder for kids, a witty, slightly surreal historical sitcom which lampooned the customs of the time in which it was set.

It even came armed with withering put-downs that would put Blackadder himself to shame.

Many members of the show’s cast appeared alongside Robinson in episodes of Blackadder, and Richard Curtis even provided uncredited script editing work in Maid Marian’s early days.

This set up the show as something of a spiritual successor.

As the Sheriff, however, Robinson was finally able to sink his teeth into a role as a delicious nemesis – concocting plenty of cunning plans along the way.

Clad in a wig and fake goatee, he was eager to portray a villain after “years of playing sweet, lovable Baldrick”, he explains in the show’s DVD commentary.

Beloved characters

On the opposite side of the equation, the constant thorn in Nottingham’s side were Marian’s titular Merry Men.

Plucky sidekick Rabies remains one of the more fondly remembered characters of the ensemble, which is why news of actor Howard Lew Lewis’ death this week at the age of 76 came as a shock to so many fans.

Among the band of Merry Men, Rabies was far and away the least intelligent. But what he lacked in smarts he made up for in his loyalty to the cause.

Flanked by Barrington (Red Dwarf’s Danny John-Jules), who would rap during songs, hardened warrior Little Ron and Wayne Morris’ Robin of Kensington – a coward exiled from the rag trade – the foursome embarked on adventures alongside Marian to right social wrongs in Worksop.

Anarchic spirit

Robinson had seen the success of alternative comedy shows like The Young Ones, and wanted to create a similar feeling show for kids.

“I was writing for children,” he explained in an interview. “But I had that alternative, young, anarchic sensibility as part of how I wrote.

“If I could create a children’s series that had the same anarchic spirit and was as solidly written as those series – without the willy and botty jokes – I thought it would be really successful on British television.”

And of course, there were its gender subverting roles.

A subversive take on a classic myth

Inspired by his 10-year old daughter – who had become a striker in the school football team – Robinson set to work on the series.

“She was rubbish at football but somehow inveigled herself in,” he explained. “I’d watch her in the playground with the team following after her; berating them for their incompetence, yet every time she tried to pass the ball it went sideways.

“I remember thinking ‘if Robin Hood was around it wouldn’t have been him running the gang if my Laura had anything to do with it!'”

Robinson’s show had other clever ideas. The kind of things that were then more typical of an adult sitcom or movie spoof.

Lampooning popular culture became a frequent highlight of the series.

The show’s best episodes were often ones centered around poking fun at contemporary films and television shows, such as Jurassic Park and The Crystal Maze.

The other Robin Hood

Maid Marian And Her Merry Men arguably hit its meta peak when it aimed a barbed arrow the way of 1991 blockbuster Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (which also, coincidentally, featured Lewis in its cast).

A line in the episode ‘They Came from Outer Space’ brilliantly sent up that film’s casting of Kevin Costner (complete with blatant American accent) as the lead:

“Robin, do stop talking in that silly voice. One of these days we’re going to be famous, and our story will be told all over the world in moving picture galleries. It’s going to look really stupid if we’re all nicely spoken and you’re gibbering on like a posey cowboy, isn’t it?”

Returning to it almost 25 years later, the show remains a zany, anarchic and subversive take on the Robin Hood legend.

A surreal, historical romp that’s hilarious to kids (and pretty funny to adults too), it’s worth travelling back to Worksop.