Um…. “The Adventures of Robin Hood” was commissioned by Lew Grade, filmed by Sapphire Films Ltd for ITC Entertainment and shown on ATV. Not live or telerecorded, not BBC – shouldn’t be here … However, there was a lot of interest in the signature tune (and so on) on the Tech Ops mailing list …
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Geoff Hawkes, Alan Machin, Roger Bunce, Roger Long, Alec Bray, Martin Kisner
Geoff Hawkes remembered a serial called “The Midnight Men” starring Andrew Keir and Eva Bartok.
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Also among the cast was Alan Wheatley, former Sheriff of Nottingham in ITV’s long running series from the 1950’s, “The Adventures of Robin Hood”, which had the signature tune that anyone who watched it will remember:
“Robin Hood, Robin Hood,
Riding through the glen,
Robin Hood Robin Hood,
With his band of men.
Feared by the bad,
Loved by the good,
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood….”
The Robin Hood signature tune was sung by a small time dance band crooner called Dick James, and backed by the Ron Goodwin orchestra.
The track was recorded impeccably by George Martin for Parlophone, and it is on his “Recorded by George Martin” Box set.
The original theme, as sung by Dick James but with some overdubbing, can be found on this site:
http://www.turnipnet.com/whirligig/index.htm
and going through the menu options “Children’s TV Robin Hood Robin Hood Song”,
Dick James had a house band and a studio in Tin Pan Alley for recording demos. The bass player in the band, Freddy, said that they sacked a piano player called Reg Dwight because he wasn’t good enough.
Dick James’ later claim to fame was as a music publisher. He met Brian Epstein in 1962 and with him formed Northern Songs to publish The Beatles. Martin Kisner worked at EMI Abbey Road Studios in a very junior engineer capacity during the early Beatles era. Dick James was often in Studio 2 whilst the Beatles were recording (note: this picture is duplicated elesewhere on the Tech Ops site):
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In 1967 his Dick James Music signed the unknown Reggie Dwight – Elton John of course. Dick James Music was the label with which Elton started his (and Bernie’s) huge career.
Pat Heigham
I had the Dick James 78, back in the late 1950s, and on entering my new school at 13 years, I was made to go through the then current humiliating initiation for new boys – standing on top of the lockers and singing a song, while everyone threw books at you.
I chose “Robin Hood” and there is a spoken recitatif halfway through, which I was faithfully reproducing. This led to a chorus of “You’re NOT singing!” Whereupon I plonked my hands on hips, and told them that was how it was supposed to be, and that if they didn’t shut up and listen, I was getting down. Oh! yes, I wanted an audience for my performance! (Pity Simon Cowell wasn’t there – he would have been 3!) I was never bullied again, and further got my own back by appearing in the school play that year – it was “Judgement Day” (a departure from Shakespeare). I played a young child testifying in a witness box against his parents in a totalitarian state – got a good write up in the local paper!
Alan Machin
“The Adventures of Robin Hood” was very popular in the US where it was distributed by CBS and the theme song was covered by, among others, Frankie Laine.
Geoff Hawkes
I remember Frankie Lane chiefly for “Champion the Wonder Horse” – another series that I used to watch while having tea at my grandma’s after school. Those were the days…
Pat Heigham
Frankie Laine had a hit song: “Mule Train” with a whip crack effect built in.
I remember working on (it might have been) “Crackerjack”, or some LE show in TVT, and one act was a guy who sang “Mule Train”, and whacked himself on the head with a tin tray for the whip crack. Very funny, but I heard that he did it once too often and managed to kill himself!
Geoff Hawkes, Mike Giles, Alec Bray
Another name to conjure with was Elton Hayes, whose rendering of “The Owl and the Pussy Cat” was often requested on Children’s Favourites, especially when he himself was standing in for Uncle Mac.
See: http://www.yourepeat.com/watch/?v=JLRp37GyMcI
Elton Hayes was in the 1952 Walt Disney film “The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men” (starring Richard Todd) in which he played Alan-a-Dale, and for which he also composed some of the music.
Elton Hayes can be seen very briefly at the start of the film “The Black Knight” (1954, a variation on the King Arthur story produced by Irving Allen and Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and starring Alan Ladd) as a minstrel singing a few bars of “The Whistling Gypsy/The Gypsy Rover”. This echoing through the woods, and with some splendid whistling, impressed Mike most as a young fan: He often find himself whistling it even now, or singing under his breath ” Ah-de-day, ah-de-doo, day day!” They don’t write them like that any more – or perhaps they doowah-diddy-doo.
