The Adventures of Robin Hood is a British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes broadcast weekly between 1955 and 1959[2] on ITV.

She had already signed Richard Greene to the project as Robin Hood and been given the backing of US distribution company, Official Films Inc, who were confident of selling it to the US market.

Grade was so impressed by her proposal that he agreed immediately to back the series,[3] hoping to make large profits by selling programmes to the lucrative American market.

In Australia, the show aired on TCN9 in Sydney NSW and HSV7 Melbourne Victoria, actually being the first drama series broadcast by this station and CBC in Canada, and on CBS[7] in the US.

The programme continues to air in the United Kingdom on the Talking Pictures TV channel, shown regularly on Saturday mornings and on Sunday afternoons.

Actors appearing in the series who later became better-known included: Lionel Jeffries, Leslie Phillips, Jane Asher, Anne Reid, Edward Mulhare, Patrick Troughton (who in 1953 had been the first actor to portray Robin Hood on TV in a live BBC series), Irene Handl, Nicholas Parsons, Sam Kydd, Desmond Llewelyn, Sid James, Joan Sims, Bernard Bresslaw, Leo McKern, Alfie Bass, Harry H. Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell (Steptoe and Son), Billie Whitelaw, Paul Eddington, Ronald Allen and Gordon Jackson.

A number of well-known actresses appeared as Saxon or Norman ladies, including Greta Gynt and Brenda de Banzie.

In the forest he meets a peasant (Alfie Bass), who is due to have his hands mutilated for killing his lord's deer, but Robin rescues him.

He is thus forced into the life of an outlaw, dwelling in Sherwood Forest with a band of men who right the wrongs committed by the rich and powerful Normans against the poor and defenceless Saxons.

Robin Hood's enemy in the series is the Sheriff of Nottingham who, with his cohorts, adherents of the tyrant, Prince John, schemes to capture the outlaw by any means possible.

Episodes are punctuated with manly deeds of derring-do, tense escapes and pursuits, princely tournaments, the thundering hoof-beats of powerful steeds, the clattering of flashing swords, and the whizzing of fatally placed arrows.

Two episodes, "Brother Battle" (#84) and "To Be a Student" (#90) emphasized the Catholic Church's struggle to educate commoners, and even the children of the Saxon serfs, despite laws forbidding the practice and in the face of opposition from the Norman nobility.

Most of the time, however, Robin is required to save the day single-handed, following the usual comment that "sending many men would be noticed, only one man going in alone will be overlooked", etc.

Anachronisms abounded: the lipsticked girl with modern hairdo in the "Friar Tuck" episode, for instance; wine cups for each occupant at a table in "Checkmate", when that only became the practice hundreds of years later; the 20th century school implements in "Brother Battle"; the use of Guineas from the 1700s as coinage; written tavern signs when most people were illiterate; and a "bard" in "The Challenge" episode who sings a song to the late 17th-century tune of "Lillibullero" in 12th-century England.

For instance, in one episode, "The Challenge", the plot finished halfway through the show, and the remainder became a comedy as the hapless Richard of the Lea and his wife worried whilst their larder and wine cellar were emptied, during a siege, by Robin, Little John, and Tuck eating and dancing all the day and night.

As an example, Lawrence McClellan is credited as writer of "The Coming of Robin Hood" on US prints, for the UK the pseudonym used is Eric Heath.

In addition to the redistributive themes of a hero who robs from the rich and gives to the poor, many episodes in the programme's first two seasons included the threat that Robin and his band would be betrayed to the authorities by friends or loved ones, much as the blacklisted writers had been.

But the half-hour length episodes and broad-target market precluded any political criticism that went beyond the generalities of 19th century Robin Hood revival books.

In 1956 a replica castle exterior, complete with drawbridge, was built in the grounds of the estate for filming of The Adventures of Sir Lancelot series (it features prominently in title sequence for the colour episodes).

In the first-run CBS-sponsored screenings in the US, an actor portraying the Minstrel would use the same melody before the final fade to black before the end credits, letting viewers know that the sponsor "now begs a word with you".

The episode "The Minstrel" featured two songs, one wishing for the speedy return of King Richard, and one lampooning the sheriff of Nottingham.

He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green They vowed to help the people of the king They handled all the trouble on the English country scene And still found plenty of time to sing [Chorus (1st paragraph) repeat] In 1956 the theme song was released on Parlophone records by Dick James with Stephen James and his chums and Ron Goodwin's Orchestra and reached number 14 in the UK charts (78rpm single:R.4117/45rpm single:MSP6199), and by Pye Records as a 78rpm single by Gary Miller with Tony Osbourne orchestra and the Beryl Stott chorus (PYE N.15020) and reached number 10 on the UK charts.

Other countries to broadcast the series included Canada in 1955–1958 on CBOT, Toronto, and CKCO, Kitchener, Ontario; Australia in 1956–1961 on HSV7 (The Seven Network); Finland in 1964 on NORDEEZE; the Netherlands in 1965/66 on AVRO; and Germany between 1971 and 1974 on ARD.

Art director Peter Proud, an expert at wartime camouflage, hit on the idea of putting many props on wheels to facilitate quick set changes, since one 26-minute episode was shot every four and a half days.

Many licensed products and knockoffs were sold, including books, jigsaw puzzles, iron-on patches, toy bows and arrows, a series of bubble gum cards, and more.

The "Robin Hood" shoe brand sporting Richard Greene's likeness on the interior heel lasted long after the series stopped production.

Three DVD boxsets of the series have also been released in Germany by KNM Home Entertainment as "Die Abenteuer Von Robin Hood" with German-language soundtracks in 2009.

In the early 1990s, in the wake of the Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, three movie-length compilation features (approx.

each) were created from the series by producers Philip May & Joseph Shields, through editing and computer-colourizing parts of the various episodes, though not necessarily in chronological order.