Doctor Who: Robot of Sherwood is “practically the Errol Flynn movie” says writer Mark Gatiss
“My one proviso before I embarked on it, I said, ‘I will not do a drab Robin Hood’”
Tonight’s Doctor Who episode Robot of Sherwood promises to be a rip-roaring, green tights-splitting romp according to scriptwriter Mark Gatiss.
Speaking ahead of the airing of the episode which stars Da Vinci's Demons star Tom Riley as Robin Hood, Gatiss says he threw caution to the wind in portraying the legendary outlaw in the much-loved drama.
“I had an initial concern because it’s sort of like a celebrity historical, except of course Robin Hood didn’t exist,” he says. “So it’s slightly different territory for Doctor Who. But then the whole point of it really is that Clara says, ‘There’s someone I’ve always wanted to meet’ and the Doctor says, ‘There’s no such thing as Robin Hood.’ And then, when the arrive, it’s practically the Errol Flynn movie. So that was the central conceit.”
Gatiss also tells Entertainment Weekly that he was determined not to do a “drab Robin Hood”: “I find it so depressing when people try to make it realistic. Robin Hood is a great fairytale and that’s what we tried to do with this. It’s amazingly sun-drenched. Even when I was writing the words on the page I thought, Christ this is a ridiculous hostage to fortune, it’s bound to rain. But it didn’t! It was glorious.”
Also starring is former Death in Paradise star Ben Miller who plays the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham.
He told RadioTimes.com that that filming with Peter Capaldi was so fun that it felt like a few people “messing about."
Miller has also written this exclusive behind-the-scenes diary for us, revealing exactly what it was like on set….
And if that's not enough for you, you can watch the trailer here. Huzzah!
