The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-1959): Richard Greene's Sherwood

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955–1959) was a British TV series that ran 143 half-hour episodes across four seasons. Richard Greene starred as Robin of Locksley — the outlaw who took to Sherwood Forest after returning from the Crusades to find his lands stolen and his peasants oppressed by the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John. The series was filmed at Nettlefold Studios in Walton-on-Thames, England, and ran simultaneously in Britain (on ITV) and the United States (on CBS) throughout its four-season run.

The production context

The series was produced by Sapphire Films for the new commercial-broadcasting market that emerged with the launch of ITV in 1955. Sapphire was also producing The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, The Buccaneers, and The Adventures of William Tell during the same period — all part of the British adventure-television production boom of the mid-1950s. Robin Hood was the most successful of the group, anchored by Greene's appealing lead performance and a strong supporting cast.

The Hannah Weinstein and the blacklisted writers

Producer Hannah Weinstein — an American who had moved to Britain partly to escape McCarthy-era anti-Communist persecution — hired a number of American writers who had been blacklisted by Hollywood. The Robin Hood writers' room included Ring Lardner Jr., Howard Koch, Waldo Salt, and other Hollywood Ten-era writers who couldn't find American work because of their political affiliations. The British production was a haven for these writers, and Robin Hood's politically engaged storylines — the rich oppressing the poor, the corrupt nobility exploiting the peasantry, the necessity of standing against unjust authority — reflected the blacklisted writers' progressive sensibilities.

Most American viewers in 1955-59 had no idea the show they were enjoying was largely written by professionally-banned American writers. The political subtext of the series — Robin's resistance to the corrupt Sheriff and Prince John reading easily as resistance to McCarthyite political authority — was substantial but mostly invisible to contemporary audiences.

Richard Greene's Robin

Richard Greene was 36 when cast as Robin and brought polished British stage and film experience to the role. He had been a leading man in 1930s and 1940s Hollywood (The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1939, as Sir Henry Baskerville; Forever Amber, 1947) before returning to Britain in the early 1950s. Greene's Robin was charming, intelligent, and physically capable without being either too aggressive or too theatrical. His interpretation became the canonical screen Robin Hood for an entire generation of British and American children.

The Merry Men casting

The Merry Men ensemble featured several distinctive supporting performances:

Alexander Gauge as Friar Tuck — Plump, jovial, and reliable. Gauge's Friar Tuck appeared in nearly every episode and provided much of the series's comic relief.

Archie Duncan as Little John — Physically imposing, loyal, and emotionally generous. Duncan was the only supporting cast member to appear in all 143 episodes.

Bernadette O'Farrell as Maid Marian (Seasons 1-2) and later Patricia Driscoll (Seasons 3-4) — The romantic-interest character whose involvement varied across episodes.

Alan Wheatley as the Sheriff of Nottingham — One of the most beloved villain performances in 1950s TV. Wheatley played the Sheriff as petty, vain, and perpetually outsmarted — but never as cartoonish villain. The character had genuine psychological grounding.

The format

Each episode was a self-contained adventure: Robin and his Merry Men would encounter some new injustice (a tax collector oppressing a village, a corrupt nobleman threatening a peasant family, a captured prisoner needing rescue), would investigate, and would resolve the situation through some combination of disguise, swordplay, archery, and clever planning. The episodes typically resolved with the Merry Men celebrating around a Sherwood Forest campfire.

The legacy

The 1955 Adventures of Robin Hood established the Sherwood Forest visual template that every subsequent Robin Hood production has either followed or deliberately departed from. The 1973 Disney animated version, the 1991 Kevin Costner feature (Prince of Thieves), the 2010 Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe production, and dozens of subsequent productions all reckon with the Greene-era visual conventions.

Essential episodes

The Coming Of Robin Hood (S1E1) — The series opener. Establishes Robin's return from the Crusades, his discovery of his stolen lands, and his transformation into the Sherwood Forest outlaw.

Moneylender (S1E2) — Early-season episode addressing economic oppression of the peasantry. One of the most politically engaged Season 1 entries.

Checkmate (S1E9) — Strategic-thinking episode that showcases Robin's intellectual range beyond pure action.

The Challenge (S1E7) — Personal-confrontation episode addressing Robin's leadership of the Merry Men.

Public-domain status

A portion of the 143-episode run has lapsed into the public domain through complicated post-Sapphire-Films rights handling. Our archive collects 7 of the canonical early entries.

Where to start

Start with The Coming Of Robin Hood (S1E1) for the series's introduction and Richard Greene's character establishment. Then move through the early Season 1 episodes for the cleanest expression of the show's format. The Adventures of Robin Hood is one of the most enjoyable forgotten gems of 1950s transatlantic television.