Director: Roger Goldby
Cast: 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), Mike Kelly (Gisbourne's Man #2), Matthew Horne (The Fool), Zortan Gal (McLellan) & Tamas Varga (Jailer)
Cast: 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), Mike Kelly (Gisbourne's Man #2), Matthew Horne (The Fool), Zortan Gal (McLellan) & Tamas Varga (Jailer)
A messenger from King Richard is killed by the Sheriff's men, but not before he sets in motion a search for the mysterious "Lardner"...Lardner's Ring seems to be another silly episode, although it's surprisingly pertinent to the series as a whole. After a one-legged messenger from King Richard (Zortan Gal) arrives in Sherwood Forest, he is killed by the Sheriff's men before Robin (Jonas Armstrong) arrives and received one word of the message: Lardner.
At Locksley Village, Guy (Richard Armitage) is celebrating his birthday, with the Sheriff (Keith Allen) in attendance. A hired Fool (Matthew Horne) performs a rather weak comedy routine about Richard The Lionheart ("why not Lionclaw?"), before he upsets the Sheriff, makes a series of strange predictions about the future (including mention of "the ring of Lardner"), and is escorted away to be tortured and hung. That Sheriff; what a party-pooper.
Eventually, the episode boils down to a two-pronged attempt to find out exactly what Lardner's ring is. The Fool manages to escape from custody along with a captured Will (Harry Lloyd) and joins Robin's men, while Djak (Anjali Jay) realizes Lardner is actually the name given to the Sultan's best carrier pigeon...
As ridiculous as it sounds, Lardner's Ring does indeed become a mad scramble to find a pigeon. In one dumb moment, the Sheriff even causes head-slaps across the country when he declares: "We must catch the pigeon. Catch the pigeon: now." I'm sure Dick Dastardly & Muttley would be proud of the mention.
To be fair, while the surface level silliness is clear and The Fool character is a clear plot-device, it's still good to see the show actually progressing its overall storyline to warn the King about the Sheriff's machinations back home.
Against expectation, Robin even proposes to Marian (Lucy Griffiths) in the forest, adding another fresh element to the show – although it's constructed as a means to structure the future of the series, as Robin and Marian agree to only marry once the Sheriff is defeated and King Richard returns to give Marian away in church. So, about three to five years time, if the ratings stay strong?
Towards the end, with Lardner found and equipped with a return message to the King (asking him to hot-foot it back to England before he loses his throne), Robin and Marian are forced to hide up a tree from Guy, Allan (Joe Armstrong) and some soldiers...
With Robin cornered and only a small supply of arrows to fend off the waiting goons below, Guy decides to set fire to the tree and kill Robin once and for all. Fortunately, Guy is unaware Marian is up the tree with Robin (or, indeed, that the two are lovers), so Marian forces Robin to use her as a hostage...
By this stage, the gang have been alerted to Robin's predicament and Will comes up with a plan to smokescreen the area and shoot Robin a rope-slide escape route. Marian is left behind in the tree as Robin escapes, meaning she'll soon be back inside Nottingham Castle acting as Robin's eyes and ears.
In a short-lived moment of surprise, once the gang release Lardner back to King Richard with their message of help, the Sheriff arrives with a bird of prey that quickly catches the pigeon in mid-air. For once, it seems the bad guys have won this round... although the story chickens out and reveals the gang had a Lardner decoy (amazingly predicting the Sheriff's clever move!)
Lardner's Ring is a mixed bag. The "catch the pigeon" storyline is clearly a bit daft, the character of The Fool is little more than a plot-crutch that adds texture, and there's a ridiculously-dubbed Jailor character -- but everything is well-paced, the sense of hope given by the returning carrier pigeon works well, and Robin's proposal to Marian was unexpected.
Taken as a single episode, it's nothing special -- but there are some important plot-points to be found, and it's a good example of the show's more cohesive style this year.
1 December 2007
BBC1, 7.15 pm
