Writing, mostly.

Super-production Robin Hood had its first outing on saturday courtesy of the good old BBC and oh dear oh dear what a mess. Whilst it isn’t difficult to believe that the tapes were returned rather than recovered it is more difficult to see where the £8 million went because none of the show matched any previous incarnations of the grand olde english yarn.

One alarming change, however, was in Robin’s apparent endorsement of Adam Smith and his trickle down economics. Here we had a Robin Hood passionately arguing for the freedom to trade as a means of raising tax based revenue. Where, exactly, is the forced redistribution of wealth ethic in all of this? It will be interesting to see how the modern Hood resolves this contradiction without appearing to be merely getting his own back once the system he supported and profitted from turns its back on him. Well ok, that’s not strictly true – would have been interesting had the acting or writing offered any incentive to watch again.