RoS Bloopers

We were reknowned in England for being the only company that spent more money on its outtakes than we had done on an episode. Those outtakes are worth about 1 million pounds or something! The amount of actual screen time that we burnt up playing stupid jokes on each other! At one time, that video was the number one black market video! It's true!

Thanks to Rache, here is a description of the contents of the tapes:

Tape I

Season 1

• Clive Mantle, Ray Winstone and Mark Ryan singing the theme to "The Professionals" (I know the theme doesn't have any words, they're just singing "duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh")
• As sort of heroic TV music plays (it's a theme to some other show, not RoS): Phil Rose in his Friar Tuck outfit squatting as though he's got to relieve himself, then flipping up the back of his robes. The camera zooms in on what he's wearing under the robes and we read the words "Not Robin of Sherwood."
• Michael Praed slipping on a bridge.
• Nickolas Grace and Michael Praed sword-fighting -- Nickolas Grace suddenly kisses Michael Praed.
• Judi Trott tries to fire an arrow; it falls out of the bottom of her bow.
• Judi Trott and Michael Praed are standing very near a horse in "Witch of Elsdon" -- the horse moves its head and knocks Judi Trott into Michael Praed.
• Nickolas Grace and Robert Addie are riding along with soldiers behind them (I think this is either "Witch of Elsdon" or "Seven Poor Knights") and Nickolas Grace keeps making clicking noises to get the horse to move along during his dialogue. (I'm pretty sure something that's not obvious to us -- well, to me - -- went wrong at the beginning of the take and Nickolas Grace just decided to go with it.)
• Michael Praed tries to pass his bow to Mark Ryan and it sort of falls between them.
• From "King's Fool" -- Gisburne confronts Robin and Marion and the outlaws in the Nottingham Castle courtyard and suddenly there's a ringing sound, like a phone. Robert Addie grins and says, "That'll be for you."
• Mark Ryan and I *think* Ray Winstone (could be Peter Llewellyn Williams, not sure) in camouflage, fall out of the bushes, laughing hysterically.
• From "Witch of Elsdon" -- Robin and Marion are lying down together -- *Robin* suddenly sits up and says, "I'm pregnant."
• Phil Rose trudges a very long way up a hill to the priory gate. When it opens, he tells the "nun" "I'm knackered."
• Nickolas Grace as the Sheriff is in a bathtub with a rubber duckie.
• One of the knights in "Seven Poor Knights" falls off his horse.
• Nickolas Grace as the Sheriff in "Seven Poor Knights" goes to bed and finds three people dressed as soldiers in the bed.
• A horse breaks wind during a take (very loudly).
• Ray Winstone turns to camera and says, "My name is Bond, James Bond."
• The quarterstaff fight between Robin and Little John -- the staff accidentally goes between Michael Praed's legs. (Apparently, very painfully!)
• Everybody sings "You Are My Sunshine" in a downpour.
• Director Ian Sharp toasts the director of photography (I think), who's leaving to work on "Master of Ballantrae."
• Michael Praed, Ray Winstone, Mark Ryan and Clive Mantle play with the clapper.
• Everybody (in the cast) sings a funny, a cappella version of the Richard Greene "Robin Hood" theme.

Season 2

• Michael Praed's "We Make Excitement." I should probably explain about "We Make Excitement," because there are a *lot* of these bloopers (especially with Nickolas Grace.) "We Make Excitement" was an ad campaign for the American cable channel Showtime. They used the music to the Pointer Sisters song, "I'm So Excited," and had a sound-alike group sing, "We make excitement/Showtime excitement ... " Showtime had all of the actors on their regular shows at that time -- "RoS," "Paper Chase," "Brothers," etc. do little commercials where they said, "I'm (name of character). We make excitement." Michael Praed actually does say, "I'm Robin Hood. We make excitement" with a straight face -- then bursts into hysterical laughter.
• Guy and the Brabancons (from "Lord of the Trees") pop out of the bushes waving rolls of toilet paper singing, "Edgeware, Edgeware" barbershop-quartet-style. (No description will do this justice.)
• John Nettles as Peter de Leon in "Prophecy" messing up a line and swearing abruptly.
• Intercutting the Sheriff in his tub bursting into a Gilbert and Sullivan song with Gisburne yelling at him from the dais at Nottingham Castle.
• Nickolas Grace's first "We Make Excitement" -- he starts to laugh and walks away from the camera.
• Anthony Valentine as Belleme falling back against the pentacle and starting to sing.
• Robert Addie and Nickolas Grace with Anthony Valentine, as the Sheriff confronts Belleme. Guy holds a Sheriff's star up to the Sheriff's collar as the Sheriff looks at Belleme with dread and says with horror, "You're ... wearing a Helena Rubinstein headband."
• From "Children of Israel": Clive Mantle, Phil Rose, Mark Ryan and Ray Winstone. Will says, "I don't give a damn what Robin says!" Clive Mantle says, "Frankly, my dear Scarlet -- " and the others chime in "You don't give a damn!" They all burst into the theme from "Gone With the Wind."
• Mark Ryan, Ray Winstone and Michael Praed singing "If I Were a Rich Man."
• Robert Addie in "The Enchantment" dumps Belleme's jewels on table and says, "That settles it! I will do the third series!"
• Terry Walsh dressed as a nun in "Swords of Wayland" doing a veeeerrrryyy lloooongg fall down the cathedral steps.
• Nickolas Grace struggling to get into his robes in "Greatest Enemy."
• Ray Winstone falls in "Enchantment," other Merries behind him trip over him, then everybody (including crew people) runs into shot and pretends to kick him.
• Robert Addie and Nickolas Grace fighting an overactive wind machine from "Enchantment."
• Nickolas Grace and Robert Addie start singing "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho."
• Food fight.
• Michael Praed tries to jump on a horse and misses.
• Judi Trott as Marion beating on Philip Jackson as Abbot Hugo -- he forgets his line halfway through.
• Michael Praed as Robin telling Gemma Craven as Lilith, "Nothing could ever part us." She says, "Nothing?" The rest of the merries troop into the room singing, "Give My Regard to Broadway" and Praed collapses back on the bed, laughing.

Tape II

Season 3

• It starts with Nickolas Grace in front of the Fenris wolf head from "Time of the Wolf" doing a long monologue about "Wolfshead Revisited," which is a parody of a speech from "Brideshead Revisited." NG does this in his "Brideshead" accent as Anthony Blanche, complete with stammer.
• There is a montage of Jason Connery catching arrows being fired at him.
• There's a shot of Clive Mantle and Jason Connery -- maybe others as well? -- in plastic rain bonnets over their costumes in fairly pouring rain.
• From "Herne's Son" -- as the de Rainault brothers and Gisburne are introduced, they all start singing, "Sisters, sisters, there have never been such lovely sisters."
• In the scene from "Cross of St. Ciricus," where Will and Much are naked and find the others, Ray Winstone launches into screaming, "We're lepers!" when one of the trees falls over. Without skipping a beat, he adds, "F****** tree fell over!"
• Jeremy Bulloch, Peter Llewellyn Williams and Clive Mantle sort of do a routine from "Airplane!" -- "Do you like films about gladiators?"
• King John starts to scream at the Sheriff and Gisburne, with De Carnac watching, from "The Betrayal," when Nickolas Grace, Robert Addie and Matt Frewer burst into a chorus of "Stop In the Name of Love" complete with hand signs.
• Mark Ryan tries unsuccessfully to pull out some arrows stuck in a tree.
• Jason Connery's screen test -- which apparently is still shown on outtakes specials in England -- where he tries to shoot a bow and the arrow simply drops out of the bottom.
• Robert Addie trying to do a "We Make Excitement" ad and starting to laugh.
• Nickolas Grace and Robert Addie on their hands and knees, delivering dialogue while pretending to be dogs in "Sheriff of Nottingham."
• Nickolas Grace leading a donkey and singing what sounds like a Christmas carol about a donkey before starting his dialogue with Jason Connery in "Adam Bell."
• Scene from "Power of Albion" where the Sheriff is questioning Marion, demanding: "Tell me his name!" Marion says, "Never!" Nickolas Grace then says (completely in character): "Then you will never, never leave 'Robin of Sherwood'!"
• A bit part player, rather caught up in the moment, announces, "Robin of Huntingdon is here, my lord." NG catches the mistake: " *Robin* of Huntingdon???"
• Jason Connery displaying his goofy "Time of the Wolf" teeth.
• Will threatening the Sheriff, and Nickolas Grace tripping over his lines, going into, "Where there's a will, there's a way, Will Scarlet!"
• Mark Ryan twirling the swords and accidentally cutting his microphone cord.
• Ray Winstone continually failing to get the jug to break over Jason Connery's head in "Herne's Son."
• A lot of Nickolas Grace "We Make Excitement" attempts (he never actually laughs, but he's doing everything he can not to crack up).
• Nickolas Grace and Robert Addie, in a scene where they're both on horseback, having their dialogue interrupted by a farting horse.
• Jason Connery having problems trying to say his dialogue around the "Wolf" teeth.
• The Sons of Fenris uttering their battle cry and being followed by a small, cute, yapping fox terrier.
• King John threatening to cut off the Sheriff and Gisburne's heads. Matt Frewer whips out a hacksaw and Robert Addie whips out a tube of superglue.
• The outlaws run through town, clapping coconuts together a la "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Robert Addie yells after them.
• Lewis Collins gets his costume stuck in the camera track.
• Phil Rose sits in a tub and suggests that everyone come to Blackpool while on holiday.
• Someone puts their finger in the mouth of the Cromm Cruac monster.

RoS Bloopers on-line

There are a couple of RoS bloopers available on-line at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-nTB2ocmqs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVoVChBfhlM

RoS on-screen bloopers

• Continuity errors:
  • In Robin Hood and the Sorceror during the scene where Gisburne and his men discover the "enchanted" sword, Gisburne throws away Albion, yet in the next scene where Robin is up a tree with Marion, he has Albion back!
  • In The Witch of Elsdon Gisburne is riding through the gate of Nottingham followed by his men. Marion is visible behind him on a white horse, while at that moment she should have been somewhere in Sherwood.
  • In Lord of the Trees, in one of the dancing scenes in Sherwood, Nasir is sitting under a tree with the Merries and two girls. Cut to dancing, cut back to Nasir: no girls. Cut to dancing, cut back to Nasir: the two girls are back again.
  • The ornate Silver Arrow box that appears in Herne's cave in The Enchantment was last seen in the Sheriff's possesion during the Archery Contest in Robin Hood and the Sorceror. How did it get from there to the cave???
  • When Guy of Gisburne chops the corner of the chair off during his fight with Robert of Huntingdon at the end of The Power of Albion, the other corner is already gone.
  • When the Merries are looking for Caerleon Castle in The Inheritance, Marion gets the water skin (made of animal skin) for a drink only to find it empty. When she goes to the river to fill it, the water skin has changed colour from brown to black and is made of a different type of material (a sort of waterproofed fabric).
  • In Adam Bell Much is evidently astrally projecting himself out of captivity into Sherwood to teach archery to Martin de Rainault and play the blindfold game while he's supposed to be languishing in Nottingham dungeon waiting to be traded for Martin.
  • In Adam Bell, the outlaws are sitting around the campfire and decide to send Tuck into Nottingham. When he leaves the outlaws Tuck is wearing the dark brown cassock with the beige hood. Heading through the forest, after he's rounded a tree, he is suddenly wearing the dark brown cassock with a dark brown hood.
  • In Adam Bell there's trees in full leaf and then trees with bare branches; Robert with neatly trimmed hair and Robert with bouffant; Little John shaving his beard at the start of the episode and Little John with mutant beard at the end and and trying to hide it with his hand!
  • Talking of a change of seasons...
    In Robin Hood and the Sorceror, before Robin takes Marion to Kirklees the trees are all lovely and leafy but when they get there they're completely bare!
    In The Greatest Enemy (Season Two) Sherwood is still nice and green. But when a few hours later, Robert is arguing with Herne in Herne's Son (Season Three), the trees have lost most of their leaves (but when he is fighting Tuck the forest for a short time is full of green lucious vegitation). Oh well... maybe even the trees were mourning Loxley...
  • Marion's blue dress and cloak in The Betrayal must be a magical, for she takes it off to wear the little silk number that King John gives her (though you could fit Much and Robin in there with her!!!) and returns to the forest where it's magically back on her in The Pretenter. Was it full of homing pigeons sewn in to the hem so it could fly back to her or did she ask Robin to stop off and get it before they jumped out the window in the castle?
  • At the beginning of The Pretender when Arthur is running from the Duke of Gloucester's men he has no sword in his belt but when he lands in the hole it's suddenly there..
  • Arthur of Brittany's mysteriously appearing sword probably came from the same armourer as Nasir's bow in Children of Israel.
  • In Rutterkin the Merries throw their weapons clear as they jump into the river, only to find them really quickly again (as in instantly) in order to fight the soldiers.
  • In Seven Knights from Acre, how do the knights set up camp when they have only their horses and their swords with them, there is no hit of camping equipment when we first see them. And when they get to the village their banners are already up?
• In The Betrayal both King John and Robert tell Marion that the blue dress matches her eyes -- her eyes are hazel!
• During the fight between Robert and Gulnar's golem at the Ring of the Nine Maidens (while they were rolling around on the ground) in The Time of the Wolf one of the sword tips is bent at a right angle for one shot.

• Nasir gives his full name twice in the series: once in The Swords of Wayland and once in The Cross of St. Ciricus. Both are similarly long, but they are not identical. In The Swords of Wayland it is "Nasir Malik Kemal Inal Ibrahim Shams Ad Dualla Wattab ibn Mahmud" and in The Cross of St. Ciricus it is "Nasir Malik Kemal Inal Shams ad-Dualla Wattab ibn Mahmud". Mark Ryan had trouble remembering lines, especially his long Arabic name - he had to have prompt boards with the name written on.
• Michael Praed/Robin of Loxley, as he is dropping the burning bow in Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, says something that I am not sure is permissible to transmit in writing. Suffice to say it is a word of one syllable beginning with the letter F. (The story I heard was that they'd been having such trouble getting the bow to ignite that they weren't sure it would work; when it did work, it came as a bit of a surprise.)
• Morgwyn of Ravenscar accidentally said 'Earl of Godwin' rather than 'Earl Godwin' or 'Earl of Gwydion' in The Swords of Wayland.
• Bum sightings:
  • If you watch the fight scene in the barn at the end of The King's Fool where Marion jumps from the hay loft to the floor, the back of her dress flares up very briefly revealing her little white bum!
  • During the cliff climbing scene in The Cross of St. Ciricus, where Will Scarlet is chasing Sir Guy of Gisburne (when he leaps to a rock), we get a quick flash of Will's bare buttocks. (A few minutes later in the same scene, the same type of black undies that Gisburne was sporting appear on Will.)
• The same voice-over is used for young Robin running to Ailric in Robin Hood and the Sorcerer as that which is used in Lord of the Tree when Matthew runs into Wickham to announce the arrival of Gisburne and the Brabancons. Both boys call 'Father, father... soldiers, soldiers!'
• In The Power of Albion Robert is claiming that he's just been robbed by the outlaws but he is stil wearing gold broaches...
• Modernisms creeping in:
  • Much's father in Robin Hood and the Sorceror has a gold front tooth.
  • In Robin Hood and the Sorcerer when Robin and Marion are on horseback riding through the sand dunes, you can see a huge oil tanker like ship in the background.
  • Tuck mentions in The Children of Israel that his head feels like a "pumpkin." Pumpkins were not around in England in those days, not until the later half of Elizabeth I's reign. Neither were sausages, famously mentioned by Little John in his "salt, soot and sausages" line in The Swords of Wayland.
  • The bloodhounds the Sheriff uses to track the Merries down in The Greatest Enemy are completely the wrong breed for that period in history.
  • During the sword fight in Wickham at the beginning of The Greatest Enemy you can see a train going past behind the trees.
  • In The Greatest Enemy when Marion is holding Albion (after she and Much escaped from the Sheriff's soldiers and the rest of the Merries are standing around her), her nails look like they have some clear polish on them.
  • Whilst healing Robert in The Power of Albion Herne is wearing a bandaid at the base of his left thumb at one point.
  • In The Power of Albion there is white styrofoam cup on the table in front of Robert and the Sheriff.
  • In The Inheritance, as Will Scarlet is climbing over the wall of the castle, we have a lovely view of his very modern rubber-soled climbing boot.
  • There is a white car in The Sheriff of Nottingham.
  • If you look hard enough during the desert (beach) scene between Nasir and Sarak in The Sheriff of Nottingham, you can see what appears to be a modern pier in the background.
  • In the execution scene in Rutterkin, at the end where Will Scarlet is addressing King John, you can spot two or three cars drive by behind him beyond the pair of wooden gates at the back.
  • Gisburne's NASTY Knight Page has a Guy Glitches section that lists a number of historical bloopers specifically related to Guy of Gisburne.
  • At the start of The Inheritance, when they are all lazing in the sun, John asks them if they want to lay in the sun all day, and they reply "yes". Look behind Nasir and Marion to the top left hand of the screen, just over the brook, and there is a small clearing with a person wearing a white t shirt and blue trousers.
  • There's a very similiar slip-up in The Lord of the Trees where Bertrand and Gisburne are talking in the forest by the river. A man can be seen briefly in the background.
• In The Cross of St. Ciricus, how did Robert know that the lepers whose food Scarlet and Much had eaten were the same lepers who'd turned up at Croxton?
• The "bees" in Alan a Dale are visibly not bees at all, but black spots on the film.
• When King John 'invites' Marion into his bed in The Betrayal, he tears the bed curtains open - and actually tears them off completely!
• Filming equipment appearing:
  • In The Lord of the Trees where Loxley and Betrand are fighting at the end, if you look to the floor you can see the shadow of the camera rig pass by.
  • If you look carefully, you can see that during the fight between Little John and King Richard in The King's Fool Clive Mantle is attached to a wire so John Rhys-Davies can lift him easily.
  • There is a spotlight visible in The Pretender, up in the trees underneath where Robert and the Merries are sitting discussing where to attack Queen Isabella - behind Robert's head just over his shoulder when they jump up and run past the tree.
  • In The Prentender there is a shot of Robert jumping from a tree - well, he goes up the tree outside but jumps from the tree with a safety cable into a studio shot. (Actually, it was probably Graeme Crowther, who was Jason's stunt stand in, who did the jump.)
  • In The Prophecy when Prince John arrives in Nottingham and they are all in the court yard and start running to greet him, you can see the sound boom in shadow on the castle wall.
• In Season One the Sheriff says he'll have no Jews in Nottingham, but he's got rather a lot of them by the time of The Children of Israel.
• When Robin enters Ravenscar Abbey to rescue his friends in The Swords of Wayland, he comes across two Hounds of Lucifer dressed as nuns who are guarding the gate and he kills them both in one stroke, as if he's having two swords. However, he is only holding the longbow given to him by the mad old man on the cliff...
• They've just got the harvest in in The Time of the Wolf, yet Robert says: 'It was spring in Sherwood.'
• Cromm Cruac is taking place during Samhain (Halloween, Oct 31/Nov 1, the start of winter), while the village is bedecked with May blossom and other spring-like things!
• When Robin is pulling the Silver Arrow from Belleme's body in Robin and the Sorceror there is a popping sound.
• At the end of Adam Bell, when the Merries rescue Martin, the Sheriff's nephew, and run off into the woods, Little John is carrying the boy through a ditch as he runs, trips and practically squashes him! The poor kid was lucky to survive.
• In Cromm Cruac the Leabhar Laighean (the book of the King of Leinster, a book of Irish histories) is written in German, not Irish. (BTW, the book they used was just a prop with a few illuminated pages, not the actual real book.)
• In Robin Hood and the Sorcerer when Robin cuts the rope on Marion's right hand (after he has stabbed the Baron) something flies down and hits Judi Trott right in the face, and you can see her recoil.
• In The witch of Elsdon, when the outlaws are leaving Wickham and John brings the two young lads Martin and James, they are talking about robbing a bishop who was on his way to Leicester. Robin says there are too many of the bishop's men as there's only 7 of them, and Marion counters "8" meaning including herself. So who are the 7? There is Robin, Will, John, Much, Tuck, Nasir - that's 6. If we count Martin and James - that makes 8. With Marion, it would be either 7 or 9, but not 8. Perhaps Robin meant 7 including Marion but excluding Martin and James and Marion was too hasty assuming that Robin had counted her out. (BTW, in the novelisation Robin says "8" and Marion says "9".)
• In the mud scene in Alan a Dale there's a pathetic twig which was thrown to break the water surface like a crossbow bolt. You also see this in The Greatest Enemy where a guard shoots at Loxley and John in Wickham: the bolt hits the wooden shelving unit with pots on and just lands on the shelf miserably.
• If you look closely into the crowd scene when the merries go to Nottingham Castle in Alan-A-Dale, there's a recycled scene from Robin Hood and The Sorcerer. You can clearly see Will Scarlet in his first episode disguise (hat and cape) amongst the crowd, while he should in fact be disguised as a monk with Robin going in to marry the Sheriff!
• At the end of Lord of the Trees, when Robin is in the ale house and the mercenaries start on him, Betrand says: "The ape can talk". It is doubtful if Flemish mercenaries would have known about apes. They might have seen or heard about them on their travels, but not very likely.
• In The Sheriff of Nottingham Nasir and Sarak are fighting with samurai swords. It is possible that Saracens somehow got hold of samurai swords, but there were no clear trade agreements between the Middle East and Japan at the time. Maybe roving mercenaries had acquired them, but... (Terry Walsh was absent the day that scene was shot and was not pleased with the choice of weaponry.)