Robin Hood has its tongue firmly in its cheek with tonight's family friendly, light-hearted romp deep in the heart of England.

Keith Allen nicely plays the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham as if he was in Carry On Up Sherwood Forest, while Marian (Lucy Griffins), with all the style of a medieval version of The Devil Wears Prada, catches the eye in her Vivienne Westwood-style costumes, and the hapless Sir Guy of Gisborne (Richard Armitage) plays the ultimate pantomime villain!

Gisborne is the butt of mayhem again in tonight's episode, when a group of children are taken prisoner after stumbling across his secret weapons-testing site.

One child manages to escape and warn Robin (Jonas Armstrong) that Gisborne has developed indestructible 'body armour'.

This leaves Robin and his loyal troupe of outlaws - Much (Sam Troughton), Little John (Gordon Kennedy), Allan A Dale (Joe Armstrong), Will Scarlett (Harry Lloyd) and Djaq (Anjali Jay) - facing a two-fold challenge: save the captive children from a death sentence, and prevent the Sheriff from using his latest invention to dethrone King Richard.

There's an hilarious moment in tonight's episode when Gisborne gets himself into another spot of difficulty and viewers see the Sheriff's reaction - a wonderful pantomime grimace, rolling his eyes to the heavens at the uselessness of everyone around him.

It's the kind of expert mugging Keith Allen is known for and a performance that will be fondly remembered from this fabulous adaptation of an old classic.

This rollicking family drama has lost none of its rollicks!

Sunday, 17 February 2008 07:30PM