This series really broke ingto the American market – and gave British produced shows a lift. The series was very popular in the USA with the first episode transmitted on CBS on 26 September 1955

I must admit that Richard Greene was a very good choice to play Robin Hood – he just looked the part

The first 39 episodes were followed quickly by another 39 and had been sold to American and Canadian TV networks for a handsome profit – there were also plans to sell to Australia or so it was reported at the time. I wonder a bit on this because Australian Television had only just started at that time beginning on 16 September 1956

Each half hour episode was completed in 4 and half days – which seems incredible to me. The person in charge of production was Peter Proud who was a well know Art Director on British Films. He had devised a unique and speedy way to erect the large sets needed.

He had used a real hollow tree trunk about 20 ft high planted on a fake grassy bank and mounted on wheels and each time it was moved – and used – it was made to look different. Then another wood and plaster tree was made with an overhanging branch to match the other one – both trees then wheeled into place to provide a most realistic forest glade

Richard Greene in action ABOVE

Alexander Gauge who plays Friar Tuck is a well known English character actor who first appeared on the New York stage in 1945. He was born in a Methodist Mission school in China and went to school in California before coming to England. He has don much Shakespearean acting and in British films has often played sinister parts. Many consider he is best in comedy – he did very well in the London stage production of ‘The Seven Year Itch’

Rufus Cruikshank, a Scottish actor plays Little John. At 6’5” he is well suited to this role. He has been in films, repertory theatre productions and on BBC Television

Bernadette O Farrell who plays Maid Marian is a 30 year old Irish actress who originally worked in a solicitor’s office – but she was spotted by Carol Reed when he was making a film in Ireland and he offered her a small part – after which the Rank Organisation offered her a contract. She turned it down in order to gain more experience and then join. What an intersting charactered the Liverpool Repertory Company. Later on she made a number of films

PETER PROUD – Art Director

I did not know and had never heard of Peter Proud but in fact he was a very crucial to the production of ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ with his instinctive ability to shape impressive sets for this successful series. I came across him after researching this TV series – researching not from the internet but from old film books and annuals of the fifties. What an interesting character !!

Born Ralph Priestman Proud in Glasgow in 1913, Peter Proud was educated at Hillhead High School, as, coincidentally, was Alexander Mackendrick at the same time. On leaving school at 15, he applied for a job as a sound recordist at the BIP studios at Elstree, inspired by a schoolboy interest in scientific equipment. However, sound was not his strong point and he soon moved to the art department where he assisted numerous art directors and set dressers. Within a couple of years he found himself working as assistant art director under Alfred Hitchcock on films such as Murder! (1930) and Rich and Strange (1932).

In 1932 Proud joined Alfred Junge’s art department at Gaumont-British Picture Corporation in Islington, where he co-art directed The Man Who Knew Too Much (d. Hitchcock, 1934) and assisted on several others. After two years at Gaumont he joined Warner Brothers First International as a fully-fledged art director, working on films like Something Always Happens (d. Michael Powell, 1934), Educated Evans (d. William Beaudine, 1936), Perfect Crime (d. Ralph Ince, 1937) and They Drive By Night (d. Arthur Woods 1939). By now he was head of the art department and when he left to go to a new facility at Teddington Studios, he took his whole team from Gaumont with him.

At Teddington, Proud worked on a series of ‘quota quickies’ and became renowned for his ability to make the sets look like they were designed on lavish production budgets.

During the Second World War he joined the army and became second-in command of camouflage in the Middle East. He is credited with the invention of battle camouflage, a new system of concealed entrenchment. His proudest and most ingenious achievement was to ‘hide’ a number of ships in harbour at the siege of Tobruk in North Africa.

After the war, Proud joined Independent Producers as production designer on Green For Danger (d. Sidney Gilliat, 1946). He produced and co-directed Esther Waters (co-d. Ian Dalrymple, 1948) and co-wrote the script for The Planter’s Wife (d. Ken Annakin, 1952).

However, in the 1950s he was lured to independent television production, where he used a new system for set design based on interchangeable modules.

He designed the sets for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-1957), The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956) and The Buccaneers (1956 – 1958).

In the 1960s, Proud continued to freelance as a film industry art director, working with directors such as Basil Dearden (The League of Gentlemen, 1960), Silvio Narizzano (Fanatic, 1965) and Sidney J. Furie (The Naked Runner, 1967).