Writer: Simon J. Ashford
Director: Matthew EvansCast: Jonas Armstrong (Robin), Lucy Griffiths (Marian), Keith Allen (Sheriff), Richard Armitage (Guy Of Gisbourne), Sam Troughton (Much), Gordon Kennedy (Little John), Harry Lloyd (Will Scarlett), Joe Armstrong (Allan-a-Dale), Anjali Jay (Djak) & Dexter Fletcher (Prince Frederick of Hanheim)
Robin and his gang try to rob the Sheriff's new "Strong Room", just as Prince Frederick of Hanheim arrives in Nottingham to play the Sheriff's new casino...With a title like The Booby And The Beast, there's no sign series 2 of Robin Hood is aiming any higher than last year. It's resolutely suck in family-friendly, silly, undemanding adventure mode. It's not going to offend or challenge anything, it's just going to go about its business: entertaining young kids, boring teenagers and frustrating adults.
After those awful opening titles (which visually trot as the music gallops), we're soon introduced to the Sheriff's "Strong Room", an impregnable chamber inside Nottingham Castle containing silver to aide the plot to assassinate King Richard upon his return. Of course, accessing the Castle is a daily occurrence for Robin's outlaws, but the Room's array of Indiana Jones-style booby-traps, proves difficult to negotiate...
So Robin (Jonas Armstrong) retreats to Sherwood Forest to find the Strong Room's designer, a blind man called Steven, who explains the Room's complex assortment of mechanical death traps. It's essentially Ocean's 1200 A.D.
This merging of olde and new continues with the opening of a casino, where the Sheriff (Keith Allen) intends to fleece visiting moneybags Prince Frederick of Hanheim (Hotel Babylon's Dexter Fletcher, complete with comedy German accent). As usual, the Sheriff makes the fatal mistake of entrusting Marian (Lucy Griffiths) with something -- as she escorts Frederick around and reports everything back to Robin. Still, it's easier to accept Marian will do the Sheriff's bidding in series 2, as he has her elderly father's life to threaten...
Episode 2 boils down to a climactic casino heist, after not-so-dumb Frederick discovers the Sheriff's plot to cheat him, and takes sides with Marian to turn the tables. Simultaneously, directly below the casino in the Strong Room, Robin plays a deadly game of The Crystal Maze, becoming a medieval Lara Croft to dodge CGI darts and avoid falling down crumbling flagstones that cover fiery pits! Erk!
To be honest, I had some fun with this episode. If you accept Dominic Minghella's Robin Hood has modest intentions, try to overlook the awful anachronisms, and generally lower expectations, The Booby And The Beast is light-hearted fun. The problems are so ingrained in Robin Hood's overall style and bad casting that it'll never really improve. You just have to find whatever enjoyment you can.
I'm sure kids will love the Strong Room (with its Tomb Raider-tyle booby traps), won't snigger at the sight of a "medieval casino", or consider how boring the outlaws are (Little John's performance extends to saying "This, I do not like" before hitting someone with a stick!), or notice the repetitive musical cues. Seriously, I swear there are only four tracks that get played over and over: track 1, rousing action music; track 2, romantic music; track 3, Sheriff's evil music; and track 4, Guy of Gisbourne's devious tune...
Overall, Simon J. Ashford's episode is silly and cartoony (we even get "clunk" sounds when fleshy hands punch metal helmets), but it should please the kids. The sets and landscapes look great, despite the distractingly modern camera style, but you have to watch it with the mindset of an 8-year-old. It's a big-budget Maid Marian & Her Merry Men -- without the laughs.
13 October 2007
BBC1, 7.30 pm
