Robin Of Sherwood - The Complete Series 2 (DVD)

...have to say it was Robin of Sherwood. I don't know if it was the fantastic mix of drama, action, romance and comedy, the gritty realism or just the fact I fancied the pants off a couple of the stars, but I've never seen a better portrayal of the Robin Hood legend. For almost twenty years the only way I could relive these memories was by renting the videos from the library as they weren't available on DVD (and I don't buy VHS). But quite recently ...
...Herne the Hunter is advising Robin of a prophesy he has divined, there's a mysterious prisoner who needs Robin's help. Meanwhile, Little John has managed to get himself captured and is languishing in the Sheriff's dungeon and his namesake, Prince John is paying the castle a surprise visit…..That's it, you'll get no more of the storyline out of me, because what I enjoyed so much (both as a teen and now) was watching the story and characters develop.
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If I was asked which was my favourite television series from my teenage years, I would have to say it was Robin of Sherwood. I don't know if it was the fantastic mix of drama, action, romance and comedy, the gritty realism or just the fact I fancied the pants off a couple of the stars, but I've never seen a better portrayal of the Robin Hood legend. For almost twenty years the only way I could relive these memories was by renting the videos from the library as they weren't available on DVD (and I don't buy VHS). But quite recently I discovered that all three seasons were now available on DVD, so I bought myself the DVDs and have watched them many, many times over the last few months and now I'm going to tell you what I love so much about this, the second season….

---The Programme---

In a cave in the middle of Sherwood forest, Herne the Hunter is advising Robin of a prophesy he has divined, there's a mysterious prisoner who needs Robin's help. Meanwhile, Little John has managed to get himself captured and is languishing in the Sheriff's dungeon and his namesake, Prince John is paying the castle a surprise visit…..That's it, you'll get no more of the storyline out of me, because what I enjoyed so much (both as a teen and now) was watching the story and characters develop.

So the question is, why do I think this version of Robin Hood so much better than the others? And the answer?, well it's a number of factors, not least being the fabulous performances given by both the regular and special guest stars. Most notable of the special guests is Rula Lenska in her role as the evil abbess in the Swords Of Wayland. Another factor in the series' success, is the gritty realism, there's no over-romanatasing the era, the filth and squalor that everybody lived in is shown in graphic detail. The final two factors are the added mystic flavour, and the haunting music, provided by Clannad, both of which leave the programme so atmospheric.

---The Boxset---

As with the other seasons, season 2 is presented over two discs which are each housed in their own very nicely printed standard DVD case. These cases are then stored in a sturdy cardboard slipcase, which features a very yummy picture of Michael Praed in the title role. The actual printing on the DVDs is a bit of a disappointment, being of a poor quality and I swear I could have done a better job myself with my own DVD printer.

One thing I do have a gripe with, is the menu system, which is fine if you just want to play all the episodes in sequence, navigate to the special features or find a scene in an episode. But if you decide to leave an episode to watch later, then you'll have to navigate to the opening scene of the episode. OK, it's not such a big gripe, but it can get annoying, especially as it surely couldn't have be that hard to include an option to navigate straight to an individual episode.

While not perfect, the picture quality is at least as good as when it was shown on the television all those years ago (possibly even better). The addition of the choice between full or wide screen (depending on your DVD player set up) is a nice touch. This means if you have a widescreen TV then you can benefit from the superior format, but if you don't then you don't need to put up with those horrible black lines at the top and bottom of your screen.

The standard audio quality isn't the best available (2.0 surround), but it is clear without any hissing or popping and sounds brilliant when using a quasi-5.1 system (almost as if you were in the middle of the action). As well as the standard option there is the chance to watch the series using the original mono track, although I'm not exactly sure why you would want to do that as it sounds very flat in comparison to the surround sound. If you so desire you could also watch the first four episodes with a music only track, which is very atmospheric and shows how perfect and dramatic the score really is.

As far as special features goes, there's a reasonable selection the highlight of which is the out-takes reel, which is hilarious and also shows the great rapport and camaraderie among both the regular stars and special guests. Out of the seven episodes only The Swords Of Wayland (double episode) features a commentary, and to tell you the truth I found it very dry and boring. The voice-over by the director (Robert Young) and producer (Paul Knight) dealt very much with the technical side of things and I personally preferred the actor's commentaries that appeared on season three.

Among the other features there's a pair of title sequences that were prepared for the French and American audiences, but (apart from in the French one where the writing was obviously French) I really couldn't tell the difference between these and the one that started every episode. There is also a picture gallery which is fairly well organised and features 156 pictures of scenes from the episodes spread over the two discs. The pictures themselves were reasonable quality, but if you think that they'll make good desktop wallpapers then think again.

The final featurette is the obligatory "making of", which is actually pretty interesting with the main focus being on the stars themselves. It was nice to watch them reminisce and dish the dirt on each other. But the most amazing thing, was how old all the stars look not, where they used to be young and sexy (well some of them anyway) the grey hairs are now showing (well with some of them anyway). Considering they played peasants, "they don't 'alf talk posh" though.

---My Opinion---

While I cannot say this is my favourite season of Robin of Sherwood, for the simple reason that I love all three seasons equally, I can say that this season did have the strongest (and saddest) ending. The characters all progress well, and each separate episode is a mini-masterpiece of television drama, I really can't find any fault in the actual programme and will happily watch it again and again.

The actual boxset is very reasonable for the asking price, with plenty of special features to keep the fan happy, along with excellent picture and sound quality. The actual presentation is perhaps a little on the amateurish side, but again, for the price how much more can I ask. I am therefore recommending this boxset not only to all those who remember watching (and loving) this when it was first aired, but also to anybody who has enjoyed watching such programmes as Sharpe, or has watched Prince of Thieves and felt it was a little unrealistic and could have been done better.

---Technical Bits---

Rating : PG
Feature Running Time : 5 hours 50 mins
Region : 0 (PAL)
Picture : 4:3 / 16:9
Sound : Dolby Digital 2.0 (stereo)/mono
Languages : English
Subtitles : None

Price : £8.99 Delivered (from Play.com) 

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