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 online source

11/ 9/2006

TAKE a bow Jonas Armstrong, riding to the rescue as folk hero Robin Hood in a new '8m drama series.

There are no green tights in sight when the Lancashire-raised actor arrives on screen next month in one of the biggest TV roles of the year.

Robin's aim is true as he returns home from war to find his people terrorised by a new Sheriff of Nottingham in the first episode of the 13-part BBC1 Saturday night series. TV bosses hope Robin Hood will repeat the success of Doctor Who, score a bullseye in the ratings and draw a new generation into the "pastoral fantasy" of Sherwood Forest.

Although Jonas, 25, has appeared in Ghost Squad and Teachers, he's a relative unknown and accepts the pressure that comes with the high profile part.

"Of course there's pressure," he smiles. "It's the first lead role I've had. To be given an opportunity like this, it was a big deal. But you just take it on wholeheartedly."

Born in Dublin, Jonas moved to Lytham St Annes with his Irish parents at the age of six and is now based in north London, when he's not filming Robin Hood on location in Budapest.

Is he prepared for the fame and female attention the role will bring him?

"No," he laughs. "If and when it happens, then I suppose I'll see what it's like then. But for a red-blooded male of 25 years, I can't complain about it.

"I have thought about it. You know when you accept a role like this - I was told that they were going to push it as a big show for the BBC, and you realise that your face is going to be known and things are going to be different.

"But you just try and take it as it comes."

The series has been filmed in high definition over the past six months but hit trouble when thieves stole tapes vital to the production.

Police in Hungary recovered the tapes on Friday. The theft meant that the cast and crew had to re-shoot a number of scenes and missed the series launch in London last week because they were still working in Hungary.

Jonas was on a flying trip home and had to be back on set within hours of talking to the press. Despite all the action and stunts, he's so far escaped unscathed.

"I've been very lucky. I've had bumps and bruises and when I woke up today my body was very sore. We had a big fight scene in the forest yesterday where the gang made their last stand against the Sheriff in episode 13, so it was very physical."

Although this is a family show, the scripts do draw parallels, for those who want to find them, between Robin returning home from the Crusades in the Middle East and the war in Iraq, as well as the more general war on terror.

"Robin is a trained killer. He was part of the King's personal protection. So he's a very able fighter. And he has got a temper and can lose it. So he has got menace and a dark side.

"He's gone against the Sheriff and Prince John. So he's cast out as an outlaw and has to totally re-adjust to this life in the forest."

Our first sight of Jonas is as Robin Hoodie - but that doesn't last.

"I have got a hoodie but I wear it maybe three times in the whole series because they say you can't see my face."

As well as the bow and arrows, the new series also features stylised, slow motion, sword-fighting sequences.

How was Jonas with the swashbuckling? "I was OK. I've got a certificate for stage combat. I trained when I was at drama school. We had to have examinations and it was quite thorough. So I didn't go in as a novice. I think that paid off."

The jury is, of course, still out on this new version of Robin Hood but Jonas is signed up to star in two more series over the next two years if it's a success.

Filming for series two would begin next March. He's following in the forest steps of actors like Errol Flynn, Richard Greene, Michael Praed, Jason Connery and Kevin Costner, who have all played Robin in the past.

"It's exciting and at the same time nerve-wracking," confesses Jonas."

 online source

Acting's a tough career to break into. When did you realise it was the life for you?

I'm not sure if this is a common thing for actors, but back at school I was always the loud and usually obnoxious extrovert. Instead of knuckling down to my studies, I was the kid who larked about in the back of the class, annoying the teachers. So I think the performance bug was there in me from the start.

That said, it wasn't till I was 17 that I gave acting any serious thought. Everyone was applying to university and I had to make a decision about what to do with my life. I realised then that acting was the only thing that held any attraction for me, so I applied to Rada. Which actually turned out to be a friendly place full of people from all backgrounds – not just a bunch of posh types as I'd originally feared.

You appeared in shows like Teachers before Robin Hood changed your life. How did you bag this plum role?

Believe it or not, I almost didn't bother going to the audition. My agent had worked hard to get me on the longlist to play Robin, but I basically thought it was pointless. I knew they were looking at better-known actors, and I didn't fancy wasting my time – particularly as I was due to fly out to India for another project a few days later.

But thankfully I did end up auditioning, and it was about a week or so later, while I was out in India, that I got the call saying I'd won the role. I was over the moon, and immediately started training to buff up a bit. The gym in India was OK, but I had a bit of trouble finding a horse to practice riding on. At one point I found myself on a donkey led by a boy with a piece of string. Some Errol Flynn, eh!

What was your approach to playing such a globally recognised character?

He's a total legend, which is why it was so amazing to get the role. Like everyone else, I came to the part with images of other Robins in my head. You know, the Kevin Costner film and the like. But I also had some firm ideas about how I wanted to play him.

There's always been this thing about showing Robin Hood as a kind of superhero. A pure, heroic, invincible kind of guy. Whereas I wanted to play him as more of an everyman, a bit awkward sometimes, not a show-off. And he's also really socially conscious. He doesn't just rob from the rich and give to the poor, he's angered by corruption. Which is why he's at war with the Sheriff.

Robin Hood is one of the most action-packed shows we've seen in a long time. Was that hard going for you?

Well, I already had a certificate for stage combat, which I got while training at Rada. So I knew a thing or two about making myself appear pretty deadly on screen. The trouble was I wasn't allowed to do certain things, like walking across narrow beams or whatever. They had to get a stunt double to do that. Which I found frustrating, but it was all down to insurance reasons and couldn't be helped.

On the plus side, I did get to do all my own horse riding, and that was a blast. I was literally galloping along, bow in hand, shouting orders at my men. I was Robin Hood in those scenes, I can tell you. The one snag was I'd wake up some mornings feeling really raw from all the bumps and bruises I'd got from filming the day before.

]What was the most memorable part of filming for you?

Well, I saw a ghost in the woods! I say "saw", but actually I didn't notice anything at the time. The producer and I were trudging around the forest in Hungary doing an evening shoot, and the lighting guy decided to take a photo of us.

Looking at the photo later, we saw a shape behind us in the trees, with a really distinct face and musket helmet. Sort of tubby looking, like Mel Smith! It really freaked me out actually, even some of the crew members insisted it was just the lighting. I've since learnt that part of the forest was once used by thieves to stash their swag, so maybe it's the ghost of an old outlaw. Would be fitting, wouldn't it?

 
ROBIN NOT THROBBIN'
Star can't find love in real life
Nicola Methven And Polly Hudson

HE'S the hot heart-throb in BBC1's new hit Robin Hood but - gasp - Jonas Armstrong can't find a real-life Marian.

Now he's hoping that his swashbuckling role in Sherwood Forest will help him to bag a bird.

It turns out that despite looking like a boyband hunk, Jonas hasn't had a girlfriend for yonks.

In fact, the most love action he's had of late was when he filmed a scene with a slave girl last month.

He tells us: "Afterwards I told her 'Yours is the only arse I've felt in the last couple of months'." Blimey!

And when it came to watching last weekend's opening episode, he didn't snuggle up on the sofa with a special lady - he went home to Lancashire to watch it with his parents. Ahhh.

But now he's on screen, he's hoping that his luck is going to change.

Jonas tells us: "If doing this means more women come up to me to have a chat then hey, who am I to complain?

"I'm a red-blooded male and I'm single, so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts." However the actor, who starred in Teachers before landing his latest plum role, draws the line at launching himself into cheesy celebrity haunts like the Chinawhite nightclub in London.

"I'm not that desperate," he sniffs.

And what about if women decide to start posting him saucy tokens of their affection?

"If it's not sent by nutters, then bring it on."

In the show, Robin of Locksley is consumed with trying to win back Marian's affections.

Jonas says: "He pretends that he doesn't love her - but he does. The romance is very important, that's the reason why he cares so much about what happens."

Now he just needs to fall in love for real - so let's hope the only arrows heading for Jonas are fired by Cupid...

 online source

When Jonas Armstrong was collecting his BASSC Certificate in Stage Combat at drama school, little did he know that those skills would one day come in handy to land him his biggest role yet.

As legendary English folk hero Robin Hood, Jonas battles the evil Sheriff of Nottingham and his cronies in action-packed scenes of scintillating sword fighting and breathtaking archery. But with a mere whirlwind week to prepare for filming, he was thankful he'd paid attention to his combat lessons at RADA.

"When I got the job I was over in India filming," Jonas reveals to Judy Leighton, adding that he almost didn't bother going to the audition as he was due to leave for India just a few days later – and he didn't think he stood a chance anyway! Luckily his agent convinced him to turn up and his low expectations even helped.

"I wasn't as nervy as at some auditions and I think that put me into a good mindset because I didn't have the pressure. Then when I got the part I was amazed – gob smacked even – but ecstatic because it's such a well-known and well-loved character, everybody knows Robin Hood."

But being fully occupied in India, there weren't many opportunities for Jonas to brush up his archery and sword-fighting skills, although he was able to do some training.

"I was in the gym every day – I have quite a slight build anyway so I was trying to eat a lot more and go to the gym and go swimming," says the six-foot-tall actor. "Once I got to Budapest [where Robin Hood is filmed] we just had a week until filming started. We were on the horses every day and practising archery and sword fighting and unarmed combat every day, so it was quite difficult. Then at the end of the week they threw me a sword and said, 'Right, now look amazing with it!'"

And it's not just any old sword, either. "It's a Saracen sword from the Middle East, so there's a very specific way of fighting with it," Jonas explains. "I think I've really come on with it over the series."

The 25-year-old, who was born in Ireland but grew up in St Annes in Lancashire, is also now a bit of an expert horseman too. "It's a really good buzz when you're stuck on a horse and told to fly around one-handed with a bow in one hand, shouting orders – that's brilliant and I really enjoy that," he grins engagingly. "They give me free rein on a horse now because I have got to be on them a lot more, so they gave me more time to learn and paid extra attention to me. I'm the only one who is allowed to gallop on a horse!"

That's the special status reserved for the hero – though Jonas says that in this version of the robbing-from-the-rich-to-give-to-the-poor legend, Robin isn't always in the right.

"He's a flawed character and he has got downsides to his personality," admits Jonas. "He's not just this do-gooder who hasn't got a bad bone in his body – he does have some bad aspects to his personality. He can be sidetracked and become clouded by his own agenda and his personal issues, which can strain his relationships with the outlaws. He's quite an arrogant character, rather vain and he can be self-centred – but overall the rounded Robin is essentially a very decent, good, good-spirited person."

Jonas, whose previous TV roles include student Anthony in Teachers and thrill-seeker Pete in gritty cop drama Ghost Squad, both for C4, admits he likes Robin's flaws and that they make him a more interesting character.

"He has to have these darker moments – it makes him human. People may say he's supposed to be this dashing, swashbuckling hero and he has got that, but there's another side to him too so hopefully that will come across as well. It also makes him different to previous Robin Hoods who have been more out-and-out heroes."

Another surprising aspect of this Robin is that he's also a bit of a womaniser...

"He does think he's got a way with the ladies!" laughs Jonas, hastily adding that his old flame, Marian, would certainly not agree.

"She just sees right through it. She says in the first episode, 'Seven years and you're still peddling the same old drivel – does it ever work?!' So she's not interested. Their relationship is frosty..."

It seems Marian still hasn't forgiven Robin for deserting her to go and fight for King Richard.

"They were sweethearts and then Robin went off to fight for King and country in the Holy Land," Jonas explains. "Obviously Marian was a bit miffed when he decided to go, going off there for glory rather than staying with her. He comes back and just thinks he can pick up where he left off and get her to fall back into his arms but it isn't that easy. Which makes it all the better! It's about him trying to woo her."

Jonas picks out this storyline as his favourite of the series.

"I think it is a love story," he says adamantly. "There's also the battle between the good and the bad, the tyrant and the hero, which is obviously Robin and the Sheriff, and there's loads of action that will engage an audience – action sequences and fighting and stunts and everything else; but the love triangle between Sir Guy of Gisborne, Marian and Robin is the most obvious through line of the whole thing, I think, and the one I tried to concentrate more on."

And it's not just a straightforward choice between hero and villain for Marian.

"Gisborne is a better prospect because he has security and wealth. Robin would have had that but he decided to become an outlaw when he came back," explains Jonas. "But hopefully the viewers will go, yes Gisborne has got all that but he hasn't got the thing that Robin has got, which is the excitement that he can give her and also, of course, the love – she doesn't love Gisborne, she just sees him as a breadwinner."

Back in the actual time of the story, though, Marian wouldn't have had much of a choice – in those days it was the men who decided. But the legend has been updated to appeal to today's more sophisticated audience and, says Jonas, is quite modern in its feel. Its contemporary slant has led to it being dubbed Robin Hoody – much to Jonas's amusement.

"People have been on about this but I thought it was obvious to have Robin Hood in a hood – that's his name!" he says wryly. "I always thought that he would have a disguise, and that's the hood."

But while the series threatens to make the hoody trendy again, this may not yet be rehabilitation for the much-maligned garment. As Jonas adds with a twinkle, "Don't forget, he is an outlaw!"

 online source


Strong Bow
Newcomer Jonas Armstrong Is On Target In BBC America's "Robin Hood."
By Ryan A. Berenz

When I met British actor Jonas Armstrong at a Los Angeles-area hotel, he had just celebrated his birthday on New Year's Day (he was reportedly the first child born in Ireland in 1981). "I took my little brother away on holiday. We went to Egypt," he says of his birthday celebration. "I have to say that I was a bit pissed off, because I just turned 26, my brother's 19. So you kind of have a short list of what you want on a holiday, and on that that short list of what there was, we didn't manage to check any boxes. There was just nothing there. There were no women, there were no bars, there was no sun, the beach was full of rocks, the water was cold, it was cloudy and it was expensive and the food was crap. So all and all it was a bit of a downer."

Hopefully Armstrong's first trip to the U.S. for BBC America's Robin Hood presentation at the winter cable press tour was more fun than the Egyptian excursion. On the flight over, he met British comedy queen Jennifer Saunders, and later in the evening there was a party with buxom wenches serving mead and TV writers being coaxed into reluctantly dancing what must've been Shakespeare's version of the Electric Slide. Huzzah!

BBC America's Robin Hood is a modern take on the legend of Robin Hood (Armstrong) and his Merry Men, who go about righting wrongs and subverting the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham. In this adaptation, Robin, Earl of Huntingdon, returns from battling in the Crusades, only to find England fraught with greed and poverty, and the peasantry oppressed by taxation and unscrupulous lawmen. Robin and his band, with the lovely Maid Marian (newcomer Lucy Griffiths), try to fix England's ills -- with plenty of action, adventure, romance and even some cheekiness along the way.

One might think that landing a the starring role as a legendary English figure in a BBC series would inflate an ego, but Armstrong is charming, humble and committed, understanding how hard he's worked to get this opportunity. Upon finishing work on a series called The Ghost Squad in 2005, Armstrong struggled to find steady work as an actor. "I spoke to my agent and said, 'I'm getting a bit worried. I'm having meetings but I'm not hitting them. I'm not getting them. I've lost a bit of confidence.' And I'd just been in a meeting for this thing called Losing Gemma. And I said, 'It was crap. They hate me. It was awful. I felt really embarrassed. I didn't perform properly.'" But a week later, he was offered the part in the film. It was about the same time that the BBC was casting Robin Hood. "I got a call saying I've got a meeting for Robin Hood. I knew the BBC were doing it, so I went along. My agent said, 'It's for Robin.' I said, 'That's ridiculous. I'm never going to get cast as Robin Hood. Never.' She goes, 'Well, go in and see them. They want to see you.' So I went in and I wasn't nervous because I didn't think I was going to get it. And I just went in, read, and I think because I was that relaxed, that probably put me in a good state of mind. I was quite pleased with what I did. And of course, I got that [part] as well. So that was in a month and a half I got two jobs which I didn't think I would ever get. And that just pulled me out of the depths of despair, and so I was off working for eight months solid. It was great."

After going to India to film Losing Gemma, Armstrong was off to Budapest, Hungary, to attend "Hood Academy" -- a two-week training regimen in archery, fencing, horseback riding and unarmed combat. Armstrong studied stage combat in drama school, but playing a legendary archer convincingly would take considerably more training. "When we arrived, we were hopeless because none of us had ever done it before," he says of the cast's lack of skill with a bow and arrow. "We'd go off if we had a spare 15 minutes ... and we'd try to hit the trees and stuff. And we started to get better and better, and we could actually hit the tree." Armstrong was a novice on a horse, too, but became a pretty good horseman with practice. "I'm quite able now. They don't get worried when I'm on the horse," he says. "I'm able to kind of get him up on two hind legs and turn around and kick him, and off we go. That is probably my favorite aspect of the show, is getting on my horse."

With all the running around in Sherwood Forest, clanging swords and throwing punches, there were plenty of chances for the cast to do some damage during filming. "Thank God, I was OK," Armstrong says, relieved. "A few of the other guys didn't fare so well. Keith Allen -- he plays the Sheriff -- he came off a horse and damaged himself. I'm not going to say where he damaged himself but it was right kind of in the midsection. [laughs] So he damaged himself. And Sam Troughton, who plays Much -- he was forever falling over. And that's just simple things like running around, which you'd think any able-bodied male below the age of 50 would be able to do, but obviously he wasn't able to do it, bless him. And, hits wise, you do get the odd knock. You do get the sword smacks around your knuckles, which hurts. You're with these hard men, these Hungarian stuntmen, and you try to show no pain because you don't want them to see you as a wimp. And they were all that much bigger than us, and we felt a bit inferior to them in terms of physical status, so you have to just get by the by. And I didn't have any serious injuries. I had bruises and bumps and knocks. It's a bit painful now and again, but that comes with it. That comes with the job. And it's a great job to have running around fighting. I just enjoy it."

This month finds Armstrong and the Robin Hood cast and crew back in Budapest filming the series' second season, and Armstrong will take what he's learned about surviving a six-month shoot in Hungary to good use. "I've learned not to wear undergarments underneath the costume," he says. "Because it gets baking. It gets that hot. Middle of Europe, once you get past April, the temperature just soars." He'll also eat more to keep up his weight and strength, and drink less to keep up ... well, to keep up. "It's hard to do that when you're a young, single male with loads of other lads around. You want to go out and you want to drink. You have to allow yourself that now and again, but you have to discipline yourself, because the late nights and the early mornings will take its toll. You have to be disciplined. I was disciplined, but I'll be more so this time."

Season 1 of Robin Hood premieres March 3 on BBC America.

 online source

The Herald Sun - 09/05/07

JONAS Armstrong loves the fact the latest TV version of Robin Hood was filmed in Hungary.

Not only did the cast and crew get to experience life in the European country during the six months of production, but it kept them away from the media.

After the BBC said it was going to make a modern version with Armstrong, a Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate, playing the lead, media interest was intense.

"It was the first time it had been done on TV since the '80s. It's a story everyone loves, so people were very interested," Armstrong says. "One of the last Robin Hoods was Kevin Costner and the British people felt cheated because he was an American. That whole production felt and sounded so American."

The 13-part series is now on the ABC and Armstrong says the locations added to the atmosphere.

"We did a lot of filming in a forest that was so beautiful," he says.

"It gave us all a feeling that we were doing something special. I don't think I would have felt the same way if we were shooting near London."

Robin Hood also stars Lucy Griffiths as Marion, Gordon Kennedy as Little John, Harry Lloyd as Will Scarlet and Keith Allen as the Sheriff of Nottingham. It is best described as a modern take on an old story.

"The characters have a modern outlook on life and Marion is feisty. She is a modern woman. She gets into a few fights of her own," Armstrong says of Robin Hood.

"The costumes have modern bits with modern footwear, such as biker boots, mixed with the old materials, the leather and the thick hides.

"The way it has been shot is very stylistic. It's pacy and energetic.

"The whole thing comes together to look really way-out without being cheesy."

online source

Robin Hood goes all Britpop

ROBIN HOOD is a lot like James Bond. Everyone has their favourite and it's usually the one they grew up watching. So when television's latest incarnation of Nottingham's most famous son describes the character as "Robin Hood for the PlayStation generation" you can see where he's coming from.

Indeed, when the publicity stills of relatively unknown actor Jonas Armstrong, 26, in his hooded leather jacket were revealed in Britain last year, the newspapers immediately dubbed him "Robin Hoodie". There's also, he admits, a resemblance to Noel Gallagher of the band Oasis - a Britpop Robin Hood.

The British certainly took the new-look man from Sherwood Forest to their hearts. The 13-part series debuted in the Saturday evening slot vacated by the newly resurgent and hugely successful Doctor Who. They were big shoes to fill and fill them it did. Most of the critics went wild and the BBC quickly decided to make another series.

On the telephone from his parents' home in Lytham St Anne's, Lancashire, Armstrong is pleased that a second series is going ahead but not particularly looking forward to flying to Hungary where, for six months, the countryside outside Budapest doubles as Sherwood Forest.

"It's going to be f---ing freezing," he says, laughing. "It's a whole different place when you first arrive to when you finish filming. The weather goes from Eastern Bloc weather - as you'd imagine it to be - very harsh to baking hot and there's no breeze coming off the sea or anything like that. So, yeah, we'll be taking the thermals and then we'll burn them after a month or so."

Born in Dublin but raised in Lancashire from the age of six, Armstrong graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2003 and his acting credits include a few stage roles and parts in the TV series Teachers and Ghost Squad.

He's not, however, what he'd always imagined Robin Hood to be like. "I'd heard through the grapevine that the BBC were doing Robin Hood and I was sitting in the pub with a few mates in the business talking about who we thought were going to get cast and coming up with all these established names. I remember thinking, 'F---ing hell. Imagine if I got an audition for Robin Hood.'

"Lo and behold, I get this call not long before I was due to go to India for work and my agent said I'd got a meeting for Robin Hood. I said, 'Oh, great. For what part?' She said, 'Robin Hood.' I just laughed down the phone. 'Don't be daft,' I said. 'There's no way in hell.' I mean, I'm quite a slight guy and they're going to be looking for some six-foot-three guy, chisel-featured, blonde, golden wavy hair down to his shoulders. You know, a massive meaty fella."

Which was exactly what they didn't want. Armstrong got the script, familiarised himself with the scenes and went along to the audition with no expectations. "I didn't think I had any chance of getting it so I went in very relaxed. I remember going out for a drink the night before and thinking, 'I'm going to feel stupid and embarrassed. I'm going to feel as though I'm just making up the numbers.'

"I usually go into auditions with nerves but I was totally relaxed. There was no (in luvvy actor accent), 'How would I play the hero part of Robin Hood? What would I bring to the role?' It was just go along, read and see what happens. I read two scenes three times and that was it.

"So I went off to India and eventually got a call to say I had the part. It all happened in about 10 days. It was unreal. I didn't know what had hit me."

So did he celebrate? "Damn right I did. I think I drank the whole of my mini-bar dry. It was about midnight in India and I had no one to celebrate with so I celebrated with myself."

As for the show's look, Armstrong never worried he was going to end up in green tights. This Robin Hood has a more modern, gritty feel. Think medieval combat trousers and plenty of leather. The Merry Men are no longer quite so merry (they're a gang now), Maid Marian is just Marian and Friar Tuck is missing altogether but the old staples of comedy, derring-do and romance remain.

With scripts written by (among others) executive producer Dominic Minghella (brother of Oscar-winner Anthony), the creator of the British series Doc Martin, the new-look Robin Hood is "pacey and raw and intense", Armstrong says.

"There are great battle sequences, chase sequences, horse sequences. It's a modern take on an ancient tale. I think people will be eager to see how they've updated it and if it's still relevant in today's world. There are also hints of what's happening today without shoving it down your throat."

There are standout performances from Richard Armitage, as the villainous, black-clad Guy of Gisbourne, and Keith Allen, in over-the-top, budgie-crushing form as the Sheriff of Nottingham, the best since Alan Rickman's bravura performance in the otherwise woeful big-screen version starring Kevin Costner.

Allen, Armstrong says, is one of the best things about the new show. "It's one of the best parts, if not the best part. You've got so much to go off and Keith just goes for it, hell-for-leather. He's got a bit of a reputation in England as a hell-raiser but he's very pleasant, sound. He's got a mouth on him and everything but he's brilliant. He's great to work opposite and he's a fantastic sheriff. The show wouldn't be the same without him as sheriff. And he loves it."

Finally, Armstrong reveals that the show is also set for the US, though what they will make of the northern English accents is anybody's guess.

"I had a mate ring me from America. He tells me he's sitting in a cafe in Times Square with his missus when who goes past on a bus? Me! I'm, like, get ta f---! My mug is flying around on the side of buses in New York . . . and if they can't deal with the accents let them make their own Robin Hood!"

Robin Hood begins Sunday at 8.30pm on the ABC.

online source


Robin Hoodie raises merrie hell

12th April 2007, 7:45 WST

Robin Hood is a lot like James Bond. Everyone has their favourite and it’s usually the one they grew up watching. So when television’s latest Merry Man describes the new incarnation of Nottingham’s most famous son as “Robin Hood for the PlayStation generation”, you can see where he’s coming from.

Indeed, when the publicity stills of relatively unknown actor Jonas Armstrong, 26, in his hooded leather jacket were revealed in Britain last year the newspapers immediately dubbed him “Robin Hoodie”. There’s also, he admits himself, a resemblance to Noel Gallagher of the band Oasis (with a bit of Blur’s Damon Albarn thrown in) — a Britpop Robin Hood.

Whatever the reason, the British certainly took the new-look man from Sherwood Forest to their hearts. The 13-part series was launched in the Saturday evening slot vacated by the newly resurgent and hugely successful Doctor Who. They were big shoes to fill, and fill them it did. The majority of the critics went wild and the BBC quickly decided to make another series.

On the telephone from his parents’ home in Lytham St Anne’s, Lancashire, Armstrong is pleased a second series is going ahead but not particularly looking forward to flying to Hungary where, for six months, the countryside outside Budapest doubles as Sherwood Forest.

“It’s going to be f…ing freezing,” he laughs. “It’s a whole different place when you first arrive to when you finish filming. The weather goes from eastern bloc weather as you’d imagine it to be, very harsh, to baking hot, and there’s no breeze coming off the sea or anything like that. So, yeah, we’ll be taking the thermals and then we’ll burn them after a month or so.”

Born in Dublin but raised in Lancashire from the age of six, Armstrong graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2003 and his acting credits so far include a few stage roles and parts in the TV series Teachers and Ghost Squad. But the new series is not what he always imagined Robin Hood to be like. “I’d heard through the grapevine that the BBC were doing Robin Hood and I was sitting in the pub with a few mates in the business talking about who we thought were going to get cast and coming up with all these established names. I remember thinking, ‘F…ing hell, imagine if I got an audition for Robin Hood’.

“Lo and behold, I get this call not long before I was due to go to India for work and my agent said I’d got a meeting for Robin Hood. I said, ‘Oh great, for what part?’ She said, ‘Robin Hood’. I just laughed down the phone. ‘Don’t be daft,’ I said. ‘There’s no way in hell. I mean, I’m quite a slight guy and they’re going to be looking for some six foot three guy, chisel-featured, blond, golden wavy hair down to his shoulders, you know, a massive meaty fella’.”

Which was exactly what they didn’t want.

“I didn’t think I had any chance of getting it so I went in very relaxed. I remember going out for a drink the night before and thinking, ‘I’m going to feel stupid and embarrassed. I’m going to feel as though I’m just making up the numbers’.

“I usually go in to auditions with nerves but I was totally relaxed. There was no [in luvvy actor accent], ‘How would I play the hero part of Robin Hood? What would I bring to the role?’ It was just go along, read and see what happens. I read two scenes three times and that was it.

“So I went off to India and eventually got a call to say I had the part. It all happened in about 10 days. It was unreal. I didn’t know what had hit me.”

So did he celebrate? “Damn right I did. I think I drank the whole of my minibar dry. It was about midnight in India and I had no one to celebrate with so I celebrated with myself.”

As for the look of the show, Armstrong was never worried that he was going to end up in green tights.

This Robin Hood has a more modern, gritty feel. Think medieval combat trousers and plenty of leather. But while the Merry Men are no longer quite so merry (they’re a gang now), Maid Marian is just Marian and Friar Tuck is missing altogether, many of the old staples of comedy, derring-do and romance remain.

There are standout performances from Richard Armitage as the villainous, black-clad Guy of Gisbourne, and Keith Allen, in over-the-top, budgie-crushing form as the Sheriff of Nottingham, the best since Alan Rickman’s bravura performance in the otherwise woeful big-screen version starring Kevin Costner.

online source

Right on target
By Sarah Nicholson
April 11, 2007 12:00

Jonas Armstrong is the latest actor to play Robin Hood, that legendary archer who robbed the rich to pay the poor.

 And when the newest incarnation was in production, there was intense British media interest. The fact it was filmed in Hungary and not Hood's home of Sherwood Forest made life a little easier.

The cast and crew got to experience life in the European countryside during the six months of production and it kept the press away.

After the BBC announced it was going to make a modern-day version of the fable, with Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate Armstrong playing the lead character, the media was intensely interested in the project.

"It was the first time it had been done on TV since the '80s, and it's a story that everyone loves, because it's part of our folklore, so people were very interested," Armstrong says.

That interest made the series a hit when it aired there last year.

"One of the last Robin Hoods was played by Kevin Costner and the British people felt cheated because he was an American, and that whole production felt and sounded so American," Armstrong continues.

"So the people at home were really interested in the production and there would have been more photographers around the set if we had been filming in England."

The Irish-born Armstrong, who played Anthony Millington in Teachers before landing the role as Robin in the 13-part series, says the Hungarian locations also added to the atmosphere.

"We did a lot of filming in a forest that was so beautiful," he says. "It gave us all a feeling that we were doing something special. It didn't make us feel like we were producing something that had been done time and time again. We were only two or three miles outside of the city, but I don't think I would have felt the same way about the scenes if we were shooting that close to London."

Robin Hood, which also stars Lucy Griffiths as Marian, Gordon Kennedy as Little John, Harry Lloyd as Will Scarlett and Keith Allen as the Sheriff of Nottingham, is a modern take on an old story.

There are more females, the language is modern, and the costumes have also taken on a contemporary interpretation. "The characters have a modern outlook on life and Marian is feisty, she is a modern woman, she gets into a few fights of her own," Armstrong says of Robin Hood.

"The costumes have got modern bits with modern footwear, like biker boots, that are mixed with the old materials, the leather and the thick hides.

"The way it has been shot is very stylistic, it's pacey and energetic, and the whole thing comes together to look way out, without being cheesy."

Robin Hood is Armstrong's first experience at playing a series lead and the 26-year-old actor says he was chuffed to be offered the chance to play a legend.

"It's a historical part in a way, and it was a huge honour for me to be offered the role when I was just 25," he says. "I can remember watching another production of Robin Hood with my dad when I was younger, and the chance to bring it to another generation was just amazing.

"He is a legend, a leader of men, and he was a talented outlaw who was good with weaponry, so I just tried to think about what would be the equivalent today."

* Robin Hood, Sunday, ABC, 7.30pm

online source

Robin Hood puts on funky boots for a new generation's take on the outlaw tale

JONAS Armstrong loves the fact that the most recent television version of Robin Hood was filmed in Hungary.

Not only did the cast and crew get to experience life in the European country during the six months of production, but it kept them away from the prying eyes of the British media while the series was still a work in progress.

After the BBC announced it was going to make a modern-day version of the fable, with Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate Armstrong playing the lead character, the media was intensely interested in the project.

"It was the first time it had been done on TV since the '80s, and it's a story that everyone loves because it's part of our folklore, so people were very interested," Armstrong says.

"One of the last Robin Hoods was played by Kevin Costner, and the British people felt cheated because he was an American, and that whole production felt and sounded so American.

"So the people at home were really interested in the production and there would have been more photographers around the set if we had been filming in England."

Armstrong, who played Anthony Millington in Teachers before landing the role as Robin in the 13-part series which is set to premiere on the ABC this week, says the Hungarian locations also added to the atmosphere during filming.

"We did a lot of filming in a forest that was so beautiful," he says.

"It gave us all a feeling that we were doing something special; it didn't make us feel like we were producing something that had been done time and time again.

"We were only two or three miles outside of the city but I don't think I would have felt the same way about the scenes if we were shooting that close to London."

Robin Hood – which also stars Lucy Griffiths as Marion, Gordon Kennedy as Little John, Harry Lloyd as Will Scarlet and Keith Allen as the Sheriff of Nottingham – is best described as a modern take on an old story.

There are more females in the story, the characters have a modern edge in language and behaviour, and their costumes also have taken on a contemporary interpretation.

"The characters have a modern outlook on life and Marion is feisty, she is a modern woman, she gets into a few fights of her own," Armstrong says. "The costumes have got modern bits with modern footwear, like biker boots, that are mixed with the old materials, the leather and the thick hides.

"The way it has been shot is very stylistic, it's pacey and energetic, and the whole thing comes together to look way-out without being cheesy."

Robin Hood is Armstrong's first experience at playing the lead in a series and the 26-year-old actor says he was chuffed to be offered the chance to play a bona fide legend.

"It's a historical part in a way and it was a huge honour for me to be offered the role when I was just 25," he says. "I can remember watching another production of Robin Hood with my dad when I was younger, and the chance to bring it to another generation was just amazing."

Robin Hood, ABC, Sunday 7.30pm

online source

Jonas Armstrong stars in 'Robin Hood' on BBC TV
people and celebrities
By TERRY MORROW
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Don't try to get rising star Jonas Armstrong to smile because he's having none of it.

"My New Year's resolution is to be happy," says the 26-year-old Dublin, Ireland, native, the star in "Robin Hood," (9 p.m. Saturdays, BBC America).

"My mom thinks it's something spiritual with me. She says, 'You've got the money. You're able to go and meet girls and all that. You're doing well.' But sometimes I just sit here, and I get so angry."

The revelation comes 20 minutes into an interview in which Armstrong has been nothing but pleasant, jovial and smiling.

A bachelor who is not dating anyone at the moment, Armstrong talks about how he enjoys playing the swashbuckling Robin Hood and how it's been a boon to his career.

"Robin Hood" was an enormous hit for the BBC in England. Now the period-piece adventure, with some comic elements, is coming to American audiences.

So the world seems to be Armstrong's oyster. Is his nice-guy demeanor during an interview all an act?

"I don't know what it is," he says.

"I just spent a bit of time in Egypt, where I was doing a bit of reflecting, and I thought: 'You're doing well. You've got a job. Just be happy.' I'm learning to just (expletive) enjoy myself."

And that he is.

While he's virtually unknown in the United States, he's highly popular in the United Kingdom _ so much so that he's ducking from paparazzi and being smeared over magazine covers. In the United States, he probably would be well-suited for the CW audience, with his chiseled looks and boyish charm.

Early on, though, his show-business-friendly dimples and quick grin got him nowhere in the real world.

While he has found consistent work as an actor since age 19, he hasn't had such luck in other careers, like washing cars or working the front desk of a hotel.

"I've been sacked from every job I had," he says with a laugh. "I never smiled while I was at work. I don't know why."

Growing up, he had the reputation as the class clown, for better or worse.

"I liked getting people to laugh. I liked doing it in a classroom, making fun of the teachers and that sort of thing," he says. "I made school a fun place for me. I did do the work. I was able, but I could have concentrated a lot more than I did."

Armstrong didn't get into acting until he was 17, when his parents thought it might be the kind of thing in which he could redirect his energy.

After school, he studied acting for three years at the Royal Academy in London. When his time there was done, he got an agent and has had steady work since.

But the former grade-school funnyman has found his bread and butter in more serious roles. He snared stage work and small TV roles in Great Britain initially.

A year ago he got the lead in "Robin Hood," and his star took off. The U.S. premiere of the show could open doors for him in Hollywood, which is what he is aiming for.

Is he happy now?

"I am so far," he deadpans. "It's not that far into the new year. Check back with me later."

What magazine covers??

Jonas is flighting fit

Robin Hood
Saturday 7 October Time to be confirmed BBC ONE
www.bbc.co.uk/robinhood
 Who's who in Robin Hood's gang
 Programme copy

When Jonas Armstrong was collecting his BASSC Certificate in Stage Combat at drama school, little did he know that those skills would one day come in handy to land him his biggest role yet.

As legendary English folk hero Robin Hood, Jonas battles the evil Sheriff of Nottingham and his cronies in action-packed scenes of scintillating sword fighting and breathtaking archery. But with a mere whirlwind week to prepare for filming, he was thankful he'd paid attention to his combat lessons at RADA.

"When I got the job I was over in India filming," Jonas reveals to Judy Leighton, adding that he almost didn't bother going to the audition as he was due to leave for India just a few days later – and he didn't think he stood a chance anyway! Luckily his agent convinced him to turn up and his low expectations even helped.

"I wasn't as nervy as at some auditions and I think that put me into a good mindset because I didn't have the pressure. Then when I got the part I was amazed – gob smacked even – but ecstatic because it's such a well-known and well-loved character, everybody knows Robin Hood."

But being fully occupied in India, there weren't many opportunities for Jonas to brush up his archery and sword-fighting skills, although he was able to do some training.

"I was in the gym every day – I have quite a slight build anyway so I was trying to eat a lot more and go to the gym and go swimming," says the six-foot-tall actor. "Once I got to Budapest [where Robin Hood is filmed] we just had a week until filming started. We were on the horses every day and practising archery and sword fighting and unarmed combat every day, so it was quite difficult. Then at the end of the week they threw me a sword and said, 'Right, now look amazing with it!'"

And it's not just any old sword, either. "It's a Saracen sword from the Middle East, so there's a very specific way of fighting with it," Jonas explains. "I think I've really come on with it over the series."

The 25-year-old, who was born in Ireland but grew up in St Annes in Lancashire, is also now a bit of an expert horseman too. "It's a really good buzz when you're stuck on a horse and told to fly around one-handed with a bow in one hand, shouting orders – that's brilliant and I really enjoy that," he grins engagingly. "They give me free rein on a horse now because I have got to be on them a lot more, so they gave me more time to learn and paid extra attention to me. I'm the only one who is allowed to gallop on a horse!"

That's the special status reserved for the hero – though Jonas says that in this version of the robbing-from-the-rich-to-give-to-the-poor legend, Robin isn't always in the right.

"He's a flawed character and he has got downsides to his personality," admits Jonas. "He's not just this do-gooder who hasn't got a bad bone in his body – he does have some bad aspects to his personality. He can be sidetracked and become clouded by his own agenda and his personal issues, which can strain his relationships with the outlaws. He's quite an arrogant character, rather vain and he can be self-centred – but overall the rounded Robin is essentially a very decent, good, good-spirited person."

Jonas, whose previous TV roles include student Anthony in Teachers and thrill-seeker Pete in gritty cop drama Ghost Squad, both for C4, admits he likes Robin's flaws and that they make him a more interesting character.

"He has to have these darker moments – it makes him human. People may say he's supposed to be this dashing, swashbuckling hero and he has got that, but there's another side to him too so hopefully that will come across as well. It also makes him different to previous Robin Hoods who have been more out-and-out heroes."

Another surprising aspect of this Robin is that he's also a bit of a womaniser...

"He does think he's got a way with the ladies!" laughs Jonas, hastily adding that his old flame, Marian, would certainly not agree.

"She just sees right through it. She says in the first episode, 'Seven years and you're still peddling the same old drivel – does it ever work?!' So she's not interested. Their relationship is frosty..."

It seems Marian still hasn't forgiven Robin for deserting her to go and fight for King Richard.

"They were sweethearts and then Robin went off to fight for King and country in the Holy Land," Jonas explains. "Obviously Marian was a bit miffed when he decided to go, going off there for glory rather than staying with her. He comes back and just thinks he can pick up where he left off and get her to fall back into his arms but it isn't that easy. Which makes it all the better! It's about him trying to woo her."

Jonas picks out this storyline as his favourite of the series.

"I think it is a love story," he says adamantly. "There's also the battle between the good and the bad, the tyrant and the hero, which is obviously Robin and the Sheriff, and there's loads of action that will engage an audience – action sequences and fighting and stunts and everything else; but the love triangle between Sir Guy of Gisborne, Marian and Robin is the most obvious through line of the whole thing, I think, and the one I tried to concentrate more on."

And it's not just a straightforward choice between hero and villain for Marian.

"Gisborne is a better prospect because he has security and wealth. Robin would have had that but he decided to become an outlaw when he came back," explains Jonas. "But hopefully the viewers will go, yes Gisborne has got all that but he hasn't got the thing that Robin has got, which is the excitement that he can give her and also, of course, the love – she doesn't love Gisborne, she just sees him as a breadwinner."

Back in the actual time of the story, though, Marian wouldn't have had much of a choice – in those days it was the men who decided. But the legend has been updated to appeal to today's more sophisticated audience and, says Jonas, is quite modern in its feel. Its contemporary slant has led to it being dubbed Robin Hoody – much to Jonas's amusement.

"People have been on about this but I thought it was obvious to have Robin Hood in a hood – that's his name!" he says wryly. "I always thought that he would have a disguise, and that's the hood."

But while the series threatens to make the hoody trendy again, this may not yet be rehabilitation for the much-maligned garment. As Jonas adds with a twinkle, "Don't forget, he is an outlaw!"

online source

New boy in the hood

11/ 9/2006

TAKE a bow Jonas Armstrong, riding to the rescue as folk hero Robin Hood in a new '8m drama series.

There are no green tights in sight when the Lancashire-raised actor arrives on screen next month in one of the biggest TV roles of the year.

Robin's aim is true as he returns home from war to find his people terrorised by a new Sheriff of Nottingham in the first episode of the 13-part BBC1 Saturday night series. TV bosses hope Robin Hood will repeat the success of Doctor Who, score a bullseye in the ratings and draw a new generation into the "pastoral fantasy" of Sherwood Forest.

Although Jonas, 25, has appeared in Ghost Squad and Teachers, he's a relative unknown and accepts the pressure that comes with the high profile part.

"Of course there's pressure," he smiles. "It's the first lead role I've had. To be given an opportunity like this, it was a big deal. But you just take it on wholeheartedly."

Born in Dublin, Jonas moved to Lytham St Annes with his Irish parents at the age of six and is now based in north London, when he's not filming Robin Hood on location in Budapest.

Is he prepared for the fame and female attention the role will bring him?

"No," he laughs. "If and when it happens, then I suppose I'll see what it's like then. But for a red-blooded male of 25 years, I can't complain about it.

"I have thought about it. You know when you accept a role like this - I was told that they were going to push it as a big show for the BBC, and you realise that your face is going to be known and things are going to be different.

"But you just try and take it as it comes."

The series has been filmed in high definition over the past six months but hit trouble when thieves stole tapes vital to the production.

Police in Hungary recovered the tapes on Friday. The theft meant that the cast and crew had to re-shoot a number of scenes and missed the series launch in London last week because they were still working in Hungary.

Jonas was on a flying trip home and had to be back on set within hours of talking to the press. Despite all the action and stunts, he's so far escaped unscathed.

"I've been very lucky. I've had bumps and bruises and when I woke up today my body was very sore. We had a big fight scene in the forest yesterday where the gang made their last stand against the Sheriff in episode 13, so it was very physical."

Although this is a family show, the scripts do draw parallels, for those who want to find them, between Robin returning home from the Crusades in the Middle East and the war in Iraq, as well as the more general war on terror.

"Robin is a trained killer. He was part of the King's personal protection. So he's a very able fighter. And he has got a temper and can lose it. So he has got menace and a dark side.

"He's gone against the Sheriff and Prince John. So he's cast out as an outlaw and has to totally re-adjust to this life in the forest."

Our first sight of Jonas is as Robin Hoodie - but that doesn't last.

"I have got a hoodie but I wear it maybe three times in the whole series because they say you can't see my face."

As well as the bow and arrows, the new series also features stylised, slow motion, sword-fighting sequences.

How was Jonas with the swashbuckling? "I was OK. I've got a certificate for stage combat. I trained when I was at drama school. We had to have examinations and it was quite thorough. So I didn't go in as a novice. I think that paid off."

The jury is, of course, still out on this new version of Robin Hood but Jonas is signed up to star in two more series over the next two years if it's a success.

Filming for series two would begin next March. He's following in the forest steps of actors like Errol Flynn, Richard Greene, Michael Praed, Jason Connery and Kevin Costner, who have all played Robin in the past.

"It's exciting and at the same time nerve-wracking," confesses Jonas.

Robin Hood – Jonas Armstrong Interview 

In autumn 2006, the BBC officially unveiled an Irish-born TV newcomer – relatively unknown 25 year old Jonas Armstrong to tackle his first major role, as the legendary infamous Nottinghamshire outlaw Robin Hood.
   
With Dominic Minghella’s script, the series has been updated to appeal to today’s more sophisticated audience 
“There’s green. But there’s no tights. I’ve got a leather hooded top. The costumes have got a very modern feel to them… Alan-a-Dale wears combat trousers. Very modern”.

Its contemporary slant has led to it being dubbed Robin Hoody – much to Jonas amusement – “I think we’ve come up with something cool that’s both modern and medieval, with a bit of street, I’ve even a hoodie!”

Where there are differences in costume in our modern Robin Hood compared to the original Robin Hood, is there any common ground between Jonas and Robin Hood we may ask? “Apart from being dab hand with a sword I’ve only been to Nottingham once. And the closest I’ve come to living in a forest was when I went to the Glastonbury Festival. The only time I’ve robbed from the rich and given to the poor was coming home from the pub one night when I nicked a bike from a posh garden and gave it away to my poor, drunken mate!”

The series has comedy as well as the expected swordsmanship, archery, fast-paced action, goodies and baddies and of course some romance with Marian, played as a raven-haired, red-lipped beauty by actress Lucy Griffiths, who says her character is “feisty” and “kick arse”.  At the time of the interview, Jonas hadn't filmed any sex scenes, but was certainly looking forward to them, [b]“I’ve had sex scenes in every TV job I’ve done apart from as Robin… But it will be nice when we do because she’s gorgeous.”  [/b]

Jonas tells us it's not all about the sex appeal though;

[b]“I think it is a love story. There’s also a battle between the good and the bad, the tyrant and the hero, which is obviously Robin and the Sheriff, and there’s loads of action that will engage an audience – action sequences and fighting and stunts and everything else; but the love triangle between Gisborne, Marian and Robin is the most obvious through line of the whole thing, I think, and the one I tried to concentrate more on”.[/b]

The filming of the new series actually took place in Hungary, with the woods around Budapest standing in for Sherwood Forest – the traditional home of Robin Hood. Jonas adds [b]"We have not been disappointed by the scenes though as the “landscape is quite spectacular. It’s amazing to look at”[/b]

The essence of a timeless legend filled with adventure, action, bravery and romance have been the key ingredients that has made Robin Hood a hit for contemporary audiences.

[b]“He’s a total legend, I’m privileged to play a character that is known and loved by millions”.[/b]

And indeed he is – with ratings often toppling ITV's saturday night offering, it seems that Jonas is the one with the real X-Factor.

Words: Katie Ots / BBC

online source

JW: … Other Robin Hood’s in the past, you’ve had Kevin Costner obviously, Prince of Thieves, um, there was Maid Marian and her Merry Men and Robin of Sherwood which was, I dunno, on ITV in the eighties. It’s now going to be on BBC, Saturday nights, 5 past 7. So this is where we say welcome...
Radio 1 Jo Whiley jingle.
JW: … to this Robin Hood. It’s Jonas Armstrong. Hello.
JA: Hello, how you doing?
JW: I’m alright, thank you. So congratulations, I’ve seen a couple of episodes of Robin Hood, it’s very impressive.
JA: Thank you very much.
JW: And very, very high tech as well isn’t it.
JA: Yeah it is, it’s a lot different from ones they’ve done in the past, so they’ve really pulled everything out and gone for it on this one.
JW: How d’you get the job then? You went to auditions, did all that?
JA: I did. I had, I had a meeting for it, would have been at the beginning of February this year.
JW: Right.
JA: and, you know, one of my agents told me that I had a meeting.
JW: So what did you think? Did you think, ‘well I don’t stand a chance’, or were you really excited …
JA: Well, exactly, I didn’t think I had a chance at all and I went in and just, I did what I did.
JW: What did you have to do?
JA: I had to read. There were two scenes, one was with the Sheriff, who Keith plays, and the other one was with Lucy. And I just went through them a few times with the director, left, spoke to my mate who said ‘How did it go’? and I said ‘Yeah, it was fine’, and we worked through the things. And then a week later I got a call saying they were interested, and a bit after that they said ‘Yeah, you got the job’. So I was gob smacked.
JW: Wow. Was the story about Robbie Williams, that he was up for it, was there any truth in that?
JA: Well, do you reckon its true?
JW: Yeah, absolutely I do, Laughter
JW: Just like I believe David Hasselhoff will go to number one.
JA: Yeah, yeah, well Robbie Williams, I mean, you know, he’s a world wide megastar, so, maybe he did, maybe didn’t.
JW: No, he needs the work obviously.
JA: Yeah, well, yeah.
JW: Right, so tell me about your first encounter with Keith Allan. Can you remember the first thing he said to you?
JA: Erm, I do remember, it was ‘Alright lad’, that was the first thing he said to me.
JW: Alright. JA: But I’d met him before once in Leeds, I was up doing a job last year, and he was up there filming ‘Bodies’, and er, I know a friend of his and I met him in a bar, and he was really friendly. I was a bit scared of him at first because of his reputation.
JW: and were you right to be scared of him?
JA: No,
JW: You were!
JA: No! He’s not. No, no, no. He’s actually a really gentle man.
JW: He’s mischievous character.
Laughter
JA: No, he’s grand.
JW: He does bad very good indeed. Right, I don’t know so much about you, but I don’t think people do, so lets try find out a bit more about you. First of all acting, stuff that you’ve done acting-wise in the past.
JA: Yeah, um, I did a series last year like I was just saying, called ‘the Ghost squad’ for Channel four, which was about undercover police. I was with Elaine Cassidy and an actress called Helen Fielding, and erm, another series I did before that was ‘Teachers’ and that was two years ago, but I’ve also done a bit of stage work as well, so, been doing it for three years.
JW: Have you ever been in a band.
JA: I’ve never been in a band.
JW: You look like you should be in, I dunno.
JA: I had a bit of a go, kind of, in sixth form, singing and we did, actually nothing but, you know.
JW: Go on, what did you do? Did you do covers?
JA: We did a few covers.
JW: What of?
JA: Like, *something I can’t make out*, Supersonic by Oasis.
JW: I knew it.
JA: That kind of thing, and also we did a Finley Quay track as well, which was a good laugh.
JW: Oh, he’s good. What were the band called? JA: They were called … you know I can’t remember. There were two, one was called *something pronounced Soh-moo-lay* and one was called …
JW: Now you see, yeah, the band members are going to text or email in now.
JA: Exactly. One was called Exit, so there were two of them.
JW: Okay. What’s your favourite current record, single at the moment?
JA: Well, because I’ve been out the country for kind of eight months, so I’m out of the loop so I can’t say a single as such …
JW: Okay, or album or band?
JA: Erm, album or band, er, I suppose, well before I left the Artic Monkeys were, you know, right in the middle of it. But also the last Routes Manoeuvre album I was listening to a lot while I was away. So, yeah.
JW: Okay. What’s the moment of your life you’re least proud of? Is there a time where you did something bad a school, or in your love life?
JA: Erm, I can’t say, I can’t mention it.
JW: I’m going to have to press you on that later. What band names did you have written on your bag at school?
JA: Always, Oasis, it was always Oasis. That was the band when we were growing up.
JW: Okay. What three items are always in your fridge?
JA: Chocolate mousse.
JW: No-ones ever said that before.
JA: Chocolate mousse.
JW: The skinny version or full fat?
JA: Full fat. Philadelphia, and Herta frankfurters.
JW: They’re revolting! You can hit people over the head with those and kill them.
JA: They’re great, all you have to do is stick them in the microwave for twenty seconds and you get a great hot-dog, so, used to love them.
JW: Right, stay there for me Jonas Armstrong, I’ll come back to you after this.

Musical break + Radio 1 jingle.
JW: That was Rouge Traders and ‘Watching you’. You were just about to tell me a story, was it about Oasis related.
JA: Oh, no.
JW: You’re not going to do it on air.
JA: No, no, no.
Laughter
JW: It was going to be gold then. We’ve got Jonas Armstrong here, who is Robin Hood. Lets talk about Robin Hood. What’s going to be the differences between this Robin Hood that we’re going to see and ones that people have seen in the past.
JA: Do you mean the character or the show in general?
JW: Yeah, the show.
JA: I think they’ve just tried to make it a lot more action packed I think.
JW: It does look a bit like the Matrix a bit, where they’ve slowed things down.
JA: Yeah, and they’ve put a lot into production, they’ve spent a lot on that, so I think it looks, looks extremely modern, and the technology obviously is a lot more advanced now, so I think that’s something people notice as well, and that’s right from the offset, from the first episode, so I think that’s the main thing.
JW: And what about the characters?
JA: Yeah, what used to be the ‘Merry Men’ are now called ‘The Gang’ or ‘the Outlaws’, and they’re a lot more kind of, ruthless and much more intimidating than your jovial guys in the forest. They are because they’re thieves and they’re outlaws, so,
JW: So they’re a bit more true to life.
JA: Yeah, exactly. It’s not kind of fairy-tale-esque, its more real.
JW: Gritty.
JA: Yeah.
JW: I like Much, the guy who plays Much. Much is a good character.
JA: Yeah, yeah, he’s a brilliant character and he brings a real sense of humour to the show and lightens it a lot. Because Robin isn’t really a jokey character.
JW: How would you describe your character then, your Robin Hood?
JA: I think he’s, he’s supposed to be a bit, erm, he’s a guy who essentially wants to put the world right, because there’s this, kind of this tyrant who’s doing all these terrible things to the country basically, and Robin’s just trying to rectify the situation. But also he can be, he is a cheeky lad and he is quite cocky, and he’s arrogant, he’s vain, but essentially he, he’s a good fellow, he’s a good guy. JW: Okay, he’s got a good heart. But Friar Tuck’s not in there, why?
JA: No, Friar Tuck isn’t in there, I don’t know. I haven’t got a clue. We questioned, we questioned our producers and executive producers and they wouldn’t really tell us, but what they did say, is that people have been asking to play him in the next series, so if they do, do it again, there’s going to be a cameo role, maybe. This is just hearsay, I don’t know. So maybe there is going to be a fight up for the role next year.
JW: Okay, and Marian, who’s not called Maid Marian anymore, she’s just Marian, lets talk about the spark then between the two of you.
JA: Yeah, well, Robin comes back after he’s been fighting away in the Holy Land for seven years, and they were kind of an item before he left, and he comes back, and he left her, to go away and fight for King and Country, for glory and all that.
JW: So she’s a bit hacked off.
JA: Yeah, she is hacked off. And he comes back and he just turns on the charm and thinks he can win her away straight away because he does very well with the ladies while he’s away, as you hear about, and she just kind of snubs him completely. So this kind of drives him on to go and get her.
JW: Good tactic that.
JA: Yeah, so it’s good because it gives it, because if she just fell into his arms it would be a bit boring, so he’s always chasing her and she’s, she’s quite a feisty character.
JW: Okay. But lets talk about the spark between you.
JA: What, between us?
JW: Yeah, when she was talking, we heard her talking in the Entertainment News.
JA: Well what did she say?
JW: She said that there was a bit of a spark between you.
JA: Oh is that what she said. I didn’t feel it at all. Only joking, I’m joking.
Laughter
JA: I’m joking, no, she’s great, she’s great to act with. But we do, we get on very well and everything.
JW: So there was a bit of chemistry. JA: Yeah, no, it was great.
JW: I can’t wait till the next time you have a conversation. Um, Doctor Who was quite scary its obviously occupying the same sort of time slot.
JA: Yeah.
JW: That was quite scary, is this going to be the same, is it quite kind of gory?
JA: Yeah, of course! Um, yeah it is because there’s a lot of battle sequences, a lot of action sequences, and the Sheriff is a nasty, ruthless … git, you know.
JW: You so wanted to swear on so many occasions during this interview.
JA: I did, Mum, see, I didn’t do it. But, um, yeah.
JW: So there’s a lot of sword fighting and sort of, decapitating.
JA: Yeah, it’s great, its action packed, you know. Its real lads action.
JW: So you had to learn to ride horses I guess.
JA: Yeah I did.
JW: You’d never done that before?
JA: No I’d never done that before.
JW: Scott Mills says it’s easy.
JA: No, its not. But I was doing a job in India before this and my agent was phoning up and saying she’d told everyone that I’ve been on horses everyday, and I was in the middle of Deli, which isn’t a big horse riding place. I managed to find this place it said they taught horse riding, and all it consisted of was a donkey and me sat on the top of it, and this lad who was about fourteen taking me round on a piece of string. And here was me on the back of it thinking ‘Yeah I’m Robin Hood, oh great’.
JW: And there are pictures of this, yeah?
JA: No pictures.
JW: Shame. And sword fighting as well, that must have been …
JA: Yeah, it was great. We all went out a week before, some of the lads turned up two weeks before, and it was, you know, on the horses everyday, which kind of really rips your backside up a bit, and then sword fighting and archery and unarmed combat, so really got thrown right into the middle of it. But if we hadn’t have had that then we wouldn’t have looked right. JW: You had to know what you were doing.
JA: Exactly, exactly. And we could have done with more, but the time space we had wouldn’t allow.
JW: Any injuries, anyone get any great injuries. Anyone get nicked by the sword.
JA: We all got a few bumps and bruises, thank God there were no serious injuries, Harry my mate who’s out there, plays Will Scarlett, he got a bit of a bump, had to go and have his eye stitched up. Keith fell off a horse, which you’ve probably heard all about.
JW: I’m sure he was thrown off.
Laughter
JA: Yeah, so that’s about it, but we all kind of bumps and stuff.
JW: Okay. Just one more thing, with the thirteen episodes, is there a story within each episode or does it run through.
JA: There is. There’s a story within each one. Apart from the first two which is kind of setting it, and the last two which is kind of a continual story in episodes twelve and thirteen. But there is a story within each episode.
JW: And your favourite moment of the whole series.
JA: I reckon my favourite moment to do, which we did in the last two weeks was the fight in episode thirteen, kind of the last battle.
JW: You just want people to watch each and every episode, to get right through to the end so you have a job for next series.
JA: Yeah, okay.
Laughter
JW: Right, Robin Hood is on Saturday night, 5 past 7. Jonas thank you very much for coming in to talk to us

online source

I'VE ROBBED FROM THE RICH TO GIVE TO THE POOR IN REAL LIFE
BUT I HAVEN'T MADE MARIAN YET SAYS NEW HEART THROB
By Lara Gould Tv Reporter 17/09/2006

THE handsome star of TV's new Robin Hood series has admitted robbing the rich to give to the poor OFF screen as well as on.

But Jonas Armstrong admits he was a VERY merry man when he stole a bicycle for a penniless pal after a night on the tiles.

He says: "I was coming home from the pub and I nicked a bike from a posh garden and gave it away to my poor, drunken mate." Jonas, 25, says that he has little else in common with Robin. "Apart from being a dab hand with the sword, I've only been to Nottingham once. And the closest I've come to a forest was when I went to the Glastonbury Festival."

Jonas first hit our screens in 2004 in Channel 4 drama Teachers. Now he is tipped for superstardom in Robin Hood, the BBC's multi-million-pound Saturday night drama this autumn. The series, which also stars Keith Allen as the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham, took six months to film in Budapest.

And it was hit by real-life crime last month when master tapes were stolen. They were found dumped in bushes in the Hungarian capital nine days ago - after the crew had already re-shot hours of footage. Jonas - who was born in Dublin but raised in St Annes, Lancs - admits the experience has been more draining than he ever imagined.

He says: "There isn't much time for socialising. If you've had a hard day in the forest, all you want to do is to chill out. You think, 'I'm 25. of course I can work six months solid without a break'. But I had to take a couple of days off. And I've learned that, as tempting as it is to stay up until stupid o'clock with your cast mates, it will catch up with you."

There have been showbiz rumours linking the handsome actor to his beautiful co-star Lucy Griffiths, who plays love interest Marian. But Jonas is adamant he is single and that he and Lucy are not an item.
"No, I'm afraid not," he said. "We haven't even had a screen kiss yet. But it will be nice when we do because she's gorgeous

Lancashire Evening Post Article 7/10/06

Many were surprised when the BBC signed up relatively unknown actor Jonas Armstrong, who was brought up in Lytham St Annes, to play the iconic hero in their lavish £8 million series.

The former Arnold schoolboy admits he feels some burden to do the part justice.

"Of course there is pressure being a newcomer in a primetime show like this. It's the first lead role I've had," he confides.

"When I got the part I sat down and thought to myself, 'Do I think about the pressure of this part, how I'm going to play it and are people going to like it? Or do I just take it wholeheartedly and go with it?' Now I feel really excited about the show going out.

"But it is also very nerve-wracking. My parents came down for the first screening of the show and I could barely speak to them, but I was really happy - and relieved - when I saw the final product."

It was only a decade ago that Jonas was learning his craft in school productions at Arnold School in Blackpool.

His parents, Eva and Harold Armstrong, St Annes, said they were over the moon he had landed the role. Eva admits her son did not think he had any hope of getting it when he auditioned, particularly as he was up against actors such as Shameless star James McAvoy.

Jonas has appeared in Channel 4's Teachers and The Ghost Squad, and had a role in Rutherford & Son at Manchester's Royal Exchange last year.

He was born in Ireland, but the family moved to St Annes when he was six.

His mum maintains he has a "great affinity" with the area: "He loves coming back home for Christmas."

When he does he likes catching up with friends at the pub and has been known to play at St Annes Tennis Club.

It also helps that Robin Hood - leader of the famous band of merry men - was one of his heroes as a child.

Of course, he has a lot to live up to. Many famous actors have played the role of the outlaw who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, including Richard Greene and Errol Flynn. While Jonas, at 25, is too young to remember those performances, he says he did enjoy Hollywood's 1991 take on the story.

"I think every boy is a fan of Robin Hood. I was only five or six when Robin Of Sherwood was being broadcast, but I can remember the images from the show, and of course I remember the Kevin Costner film really well.

"Lads always play bow and arrows when they are young and pretend they're Robin Hood in the forest, so I was gobsmacked when I got the part."

And it wasn't just the bow and arrows Jonas got to play with - Robin's other weapon of choice is an impressive Saracen sword. Luckily, the actor is a dab hand at sword-fighting.

"I've got a certificate for stage combat. I trained when I was at Rada, so I didn't go into it as a novice. I think that paid off.

"If there was anything too risky though, for instance walking across a beam, I had a stunt double that stood in. I got really annoyed they wouldn't let me do that - it was only eight foot tall," he laughs. "I think it was for insurance reasons."

One thing they did let Jonas do was the horse-riding.

"They gave me free rein on the horses. I'm the only one who was allowed to gallop. It's a really good buzz when you're stuck on a horse and told to fly around one-handed with a bow in one hand, shouting orders - that's brilliant and I really enjoyed that."

But don't be fooled, it's not all about the action. At the centre of the story is Robin's romance with Marian.

"They were sweethearts and then Robin went off to fight for king and country in the Holy Land," Jonas explains. "Obviously Marian was a bit miffed when he decided to go off there for glory rather than staying with her.

"He comes back and thinks he can pick up where he left off and get her to fall back into his arms, but it isn't that easy. That makes it all the better! It's about him trying to woo her – I think it is a love story."

Because of Marian, we get to see a darker side of Robin's character. In the first episode, Robin seems amiable and cheeky, but things change.

"He so wanted to come back from the war and rekindle himself with society and get his position sorted, but that goes totally out of the window. He has to completely readjust to life in the forest with a bunch of unscrupulous strangers. His personality does adjust, because it has to.

"His personality gets darker. This guy is a trained killer - he was in the king's guard, part of his personal protection, so he's a very able fighter. He has got a temper and while he can usually control himself, he can also lose it.

"As the series goes on you do see snippets of that coming out, especially in episode eight. I can't say exactly why, but it's to do with Gisbourne and Marian. He goes to a dark place then. He is capable of having a menacing side."

And that is not the only flaw in Robin's character, Jonas reveals. "He's quite arrogant, rather vain, and can be self-centred. But overall the rounded Robin is essentially a very decent, good-spirited person."

Fans of previous films and series of Robin Hood may be surprised by the costumes in this latest offering. The green tights have been banished - instead, the outlaws wear clothes with a modern twist.

"Some of the characters have Diesel boots and combats, and I've got a hoodie," Jonas laughs. "The costumes are really cool."

Having already signed on for a further two seasons if the programme proves successful, there is no doubt the show is set to catapult Jonas into the public eye. His unkempt good looks are bound to get a few hearts racing, but is he ready for his life to change?

"You know when you accept a role like this that they are going to really push it, and you have to realise your face is going to be known. Until it starts to happen, I won't know how I'll react."

And what about the almost guaranteed attention from the female of the species?

"If that happens, I'll see what it is like then.

''But as a red-blooded male, I won't be complaining!"
07 October 2006

Jonas leads new band of merry men
By Elaine Sheridan

A REAL-LIFE Irish Robin Hood will soon set television screens alight across Britain.

The star of TV’s new Robin Hood series has admitted robbing the rich to give to the poor off screen as well as on.

But Dublin-born Jonas Armstrong admits he was a very merry man when he stole a bicycle for a penniless pal after a night on the tiles.

He said: “I was coming home from the pub and I nicked a bike from a posh garden and gave it away to my poor, drunken mate.”

Jonas, aged 25, said that he has little else in common with Robin. “Apart from being a dab hand with the sword, I’ve only been to Nottingham once.

“And the closest I’ve come to a forest was when I went to the Glastonbury Festival.”

Jonas first hit our screens in 2004 in Channel 4’s hit drama Teachers.

Now he is tipped for superstardom in Robin Hood — the BBC’s multi-million-pound 13-part drama which begins on Saturday night.

The series — which also stars Keith Allen as the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham — took six months to film in Budapest, which is the traditional home of Robin Hood.

But the drama nearly didn’t make it to our screens when the master tapes were stolen last month.

They were found dumped in bushes in the Hungarian capital nine days ago after the crew had already re-shot hours of footage.

Despite being a relatively unknown actor to date, the Irishman is not at all fazed by the prospect of fame that the Robin Hood series is set to bring.

He said: “We’ll just have to see. The cast keep on taking the mickey saying it’s all going to change. But we’ll see.”

He also admits that filming has been more draining than he ever imagined.

He said: “There isn’t much time for socialising. If you’ve had a hard day in the forest all you want to do is to chill out. You think, ‘I’m 25, of course I can work six months solid without a break’.

“But I had to take a couple of days off. And I’ve learned that, as tempting as it is to stay up until stupid o’clock with your cast mates, it will catch up with you.”

THE HOODED MAN

New BBC Robin Hood fantasy television series prepares to hit the small screen in the UK. In this SFcrowsnest.com feature, actor Jonas Armstrong is interviewed about his role as the proto-hoodie.

When Jonas Armstrong was collecting his BASSC Certificate in Stage Combat at drama school, little did he know that those skills would one day come in handy to land him his biggest role yet.

As legendary English folk hero Robin Hood, Jonas battles the evil Sheriff of Nottingham and his cronies in action-packed scenes of scintillating sword fighting and breathtaking archery. But with a mere whirlwind week to prepare for filming, he was thankful he'd paid attention to his combat lessons at RADA.

"When I got the job I was over in India filming," Jonas reveals to Judy Leighton, adding that he almost didn't bother going to the audition as he was due to leave for India just a few days later - and he didn't think he stood a chance anyway! Luckily his agent convinced him to turn up and his low expectations even helped.

"I wasn't as nervy as at some auditions and I think that put me into a good mindset because I didn't have the pressure. Then when I got the part I was amazed - gob smacked even - but ecstatic because it's such a well-known and well-loved character, everybody knows Robin Hood."

But being fully occupied in India, there weren't many opportunities for Jonas to brush up his archery and sword-fighting skills, although he was able to do some training.

"I was in the gym every day - I have quite a slight build anyway so I was trying to eat a lot more and go to the gym and go swimming," says the six-foot-tall actor. "Once I got to Budapest [where Robin Hood is filmed] we just had a week until filming started. We were on the horses every day and practising archery and sword fighting and unarmed combat every day, so it was quite difficult. Then at the end of the week they threw me a sword and said, 'Right, now look amazing with it!'"

And it's not just any old sword, either. "It's a Saracen sword from the Middle East, so there's a very specific way of fighting with it," Jonas explains. "I think I've really come on with it over the series."

The 25-year-old, who was born in Ireland but grew up in St Annes in Lancashire, is also now a bit of an expert horseman too. "It's a really good buzz when you're stuck on a horse and told to fly around one-handed with a bow in one hand, shouting orders - that's brilliant and I really enjoy that," he grins engagingly. "They give me free rein on a horse now because I have got to be on them a lot more, so they gave me more time to learn and paid extra attention to me. I'm the only one who is allowed to gallop on a horse!"

That's the special status reserved for the hero - though Jonas says that in this version of the robbing-from-the-rich-to-give-to-the-poor legend, Robin isn't always in the right.

"He's a flawed character and he has got downsides to his personality," admits Jonas. "He's not just this do-gooder who hasn't got a bad bone in his body - he does have some bad aspects to his personality. He can be sidetracked and become clouded by his own agenda and his personal issues, which can strain his relationships with the outlaws. He's quite an arrogant character, rather vain and he can be self-centred - but overall the rounded Robin is essentially a very decent, good, good-spirited person."

Jonas, whose previous TV roles include student Anthony in Teachers and thrill-seeker Pete in gritty cop drama Ghost Squad, both for C4, admits he likes Robin's flaws and that they make him a more interesting character.

"He has to have these darker moments - it makes him human. People may say he's supposed to be this dashing, swashbuckling hero and he has got that, but there's another side to him too so hopefully that will come across as well. It also makes him different to previous Robin Hoods who have been more out-and-out heroes."

Another surprising aspect of this Robin is that he's also a bit of a womaniser...

"He does think he's got a way with the ladies!" laughs Jonas, hastily adding that his old flame, Marian, would certainly not agree.

"She just sees right through it. She says in the first episode, 'Seven years and you're still peddling the same old drivel - does it ever work?!' So she's not interested. Their relationship is frosty..."

It seems Marian still hasn't forgiven Robin for deserting her to go and fight for King Richard.

"They were sweethearts and then Robin went off to fight for King and country in the Holy Land," Jonas explains. "Obviously Marian was a bit miffed when he decided to go, going off there for glory rather than staying with her. He comes back and just thinks he can pick up where he left off and get her to fall back into his arms but it isn't that easy. Which makes it all the better! It's about him trying to woo her."

Jonas picks out this storyline as his favourite of the series.

"I think it is a love story," he says adamantly. "There's also the battle between the good and the bad, the tyrant and the hero, which is obviously Robin and the Sheriff, and there's loads of action that will engage an audience - action sequences and fighting and stunts and everything else; but the love triangle between Sir Guy of Gisborne, Marian and Robin is the most obvious through line of the whole thing, I think, and the one I tried to concentrate more on."

And it's not just a straightforward choice between hero and villain for Marian.

"Gisborne is a better prospect because he has security and wealth. Robin would have had that but he decided to become an outlaw when he came back," explains Jonas. "But hopefully the viewers will go, yes Gisborne has got all that but he hasn't got the thing that Robin has got, which is the excitement that he can give her and also, of course, the love - she doesn't love Gisborne, she just sees him as a breadwinner."

Back in the actual time of the story, though, Marian wouldn't have had much of a choice - in those days it was the men who decided. But the legend has been updated to appeal to today's more sophisticated audience and, says Jonas, is quite modern in its feel. Its contemporary slant has led to it being dubbed Robin Hoody - much to Jonas's amusement.

"People have been on about this but I thought it was obvious to have Robin Hood in a hood - that's his name!" he says wryly. "I always thought that he would have a disguise, and that's the hood."

But while the series threatens to make the hoody trendy again, this may not yet be rehabilitation for the much-maligned garment. As Jonas adds with a twinkle, "Don't forget, he is an outlaw!"

Jessica Martin

Robin Hoodie (telegraph) 16.09.06

ROBIN HOODIE

In the BBC's new Saturday night TV show, Robin Hood is 'a bit of a geezer'. Helen Brown meets its writer, and its star
    
Man of peace: Jonas Armstrong as Robin Hood
The Hungarian stuntman curls my novice fingers round the tip of the arrow, presses a calloused palm into my shoulder blades and points at my feet. "He's telling you that it's all in the balance," says the translator. The arch of the old-fashioned wooden bow is tense with possibility, the large target feels embarrassingly easy to strike. But, like the television drama being shot through the trees, this could go one of two ways. It's hit or miss this afternoon in the forests of Budapest.

Robin Hood is the BBC's new Saturday night extravaganza, filling the prime-time slot left by Doctor Who. The series made headlines last month when it was claimed that tapes of several key episodes had been stolen. Rumours circulated about eastern European gangs. A million-pound ransom had been demanded, reported the tabloids. A £40,000 reward was offered. And then a thrilling eleventh hour recovery. If the "merry men" had been real, this would have been the sort of stunt that would have had them chortling until their tights wrinkled.

Only, on this set, the phrase "merry men" has been banned. In this 21st-century take on the legend of 12th-century Sherwood Forest, Robin of Loxley's associates are called the "gang", and there's not a stocking in sight.

The show's writer, Dominic Minghella, says he struggled to shake the staleness from the ancient and often-filmed tales. "A whole generation hasn't seen Robin Hood. And I felt we had to have a take," says Anthony Minghella's younger brother as we drink coffee by the Danube. "You know, it's Robin Hood – but he's not that good with a bow. Or it's Robin Hood but he can do all kinds of other things too. For a long time it was 'Robin Hood but…'

"Finally, without having to mess with the DNA of it, I found ways to make it contemporary. There are some really obvious parallels with our world, and subtler things that bleed through. It's about a guy coming back from a foreign war he doesn't believe in to find that all is not well – he's come home to a country that doesn't know how to distribute its wealth fairly. Those are current themes. The thing that is different about our Robin Hood is that he's essentially a pacifist."

Minghella's inspiration on this front was Colonel Tim Collins, the soldier whose motivational speech to the troops in Basra was said to have been tacked up in the Oval Office for a time. The same soldier who later resigned from the Army over issues of under-funding, bureaucracy and mistreatment, and was himself accused of war crimes.

"He came out to see us," says the writer, "and we asked him how he got going in his Army career. He said: 'Well, I was always just a bit good at violence.' It was chilling. He had killed people. And I think our Robin has that – he is a bit good at violence, but he has realised that's not what he wants to do. I was keen to explore what it would be like to have a talent for killing, but to check it. A guy who goes around killing everyone who gets in his way isn't a hero to me."

Although Robin of Loxley is traditionally a landed gent whose estate is usurped in the king's absence by the sheriff's creature, Guy of Gisborne, there's little of the old-school officer class in the way young Mancunian-accented actor, Jonas Armstrong, approaches the role. "He's a bit street isn't he," laughs Minghella. "One of our touchstones was Jamie Oliver – a bit of a geezer. I mean, maybe it's a bit faux, but he says 'Hands up who thinks we should have better meals in schools?' Well, everybody. But nobody else did anything about it. Robin Hood's a bit like that – affecting change."

Armstrong is a winning, rather shy character when I meet him in the imposing Great Hall of the Sheriff's castle. He confides that he saw a tubby ghost – "just like Mel Smith" – in the forest on a night shoot, and laughs about Robin being the original "hoodie". "I like his idealism," says Armstrong. "But he's also arrogant, vain – he thinks he's the nuts. Marion's always picking him up on that."

So far in the shooting schedule, he admits, he hasn't got very far with the fair maiden, played by 19-year-old English rose Lucy Griffiths who has a sharp modern take on Marion's dilemma. "There's no 'maid' in this Marion," she grins, "so that aspect of her is open to interpretation. And she's a bit conniving. Her choice is difficult. She could either go live in the forest with a bunch of outlaws and a man who left her for five years or, love aside, she could consider living in comfort and safety – as everybody wants her too – with Guy of Gisborne."

Gisborne is an unusually tempting option in this version, played by Richard Armitage – the actor who shot to period drama heart-throb status playing Thornton in the BBC adaptation of North and South. If Armstrong is in the show to win over the teenage girls, then cool-eyed Armitage is there to woo the mums. "It was always our ambition to play out the love triangle between Robin, Guy and Marian," says Minghella. "Armitage captures so brilliantly the way that Guy is so consumed by his own ambition and desire for status and credibility which focuses itself on this poor girl."

Armitage has his own take on the characters. "There are no complete families in this story," he says. "Marion has no mother, Robin has no father, Guy has no father. Nobody's position is stable. And they're locked into an almost familial relationship with each other. It's almost in the bad guys' interests to keep Robin alive – like the modern situation with terrorists. Guy and the Sheriff need him as a scapegoat, to keep fear in the hearts of the people."

"Oh the Sheriff!" laughs Minghella, of the villain played by Keith Allen. "We've made him shockingly amoral. We wanted to create a character who, if drugs had been invented then, would have been a Class A boy."

Allen himself is fairly frightening in person. He hurls a banana skin across the set's banqueting table and says he based his character on Gordon Brown: "The sheriff is a sociopath, utterly asexual, devilishly charming and very politically ambitious."

In a week when al-Qa'eda-sympathising Pakistanis have been reported as describing Osama Bin Laden as "our Robin Hood", the political references are zinging through this prime-time Saturday night entertainment. Whether the BBC's £8 million show will hit home with its target audience remains to be seen.

Robin's Return (ichuddersfield) 4.10.06

Oct 4 2006
By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner
 
BBC1's new take on the legend of Robin Hood begins on Saturday - and will be closely watched by those who insist the hero of old originated in West Yorkshire. Legend has it that his grave is in Kirklees estate. GEMMA QUADE meets the man who plays Robin

ROBIN HOOD is back. And Lancashire lad Jonas Armstrong portrays him very differently to the traditional man in tights.

For a start the BBBC's lavish £8m series which begins on Saturday at 7pm, sees the iconic hero and his outlaw band wearing clothes with a modern twist.

"Some of the characters have Diesel boots and combats, and I've got a hoodie," Jonas laughs. "The costumes are really cool."

Of course, Jonas has a lot to live up to. Many famous actors have played the role of the outlaw who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, including Richard Greene and Errol Flynn. While Jonas, at just 25 years old, is far too young to remember those performances, he admits he did enjoy Hollywood's 1991 take on the story.

"I think every boy is a fan of Robin Hood. I was only five or six when Robin Of Sherwood was being broadcast, but I can remember the images from the show, and of course I remember the Kevin Costner film really well.

"Lads always play bow and arrows when they are young and pretend they're Robin Hood in the forest, so I was gobsmacked when I got the part."

And it wasn't just the bow and arrows Jonas got to play with on set - Robin's other weapon of choice is an impressive Saracen sword. Luckily, the slight actor is a dab hand at sword-fighting.

"I've got a certificate for stage combat. I trained when I was at Rada, so I didn't go into it as a novice. I think that paid off.

"If there was anything too risky though, for instance walking across a beam, I had a stunt double that stood in. I got really annoyed they wouldn't let me do that - it was only eight foot tall," he laughs. "I think it was for insurance reasons."

One thing they did let Jonas do was the horse riding.

"They gave me free rein on the horses. I'm the only one who was allowed to gallop," he grins. "It's a really good buzz when you're stuck on a horse and told to fly around one-handed with a bow in one hand, shouting orders - that's brilliant and I really enjoyed that."

But don't be fooled, it's not all about the action. At the centre of the story is Robin's romance with Marian.

"They were sweethearts and then Robin went off to fight for King and Country in the Holy Land," Jonas explains. "Obviously Marian was a bit miffed when he decided to go off there for glory rather than staying with her.

"He comes back and thinks he can pick up where he left off and get her to fall back into his arms, but it isn't that easy. That makes it all the better! It's about him trying to woo her - I think it is a love story."

It is because of Marian we get to see a darker side of Robin's character too. In the first episode, Robin seems amiable and cheeky, but things soon change.

"He so wanted to come back from the war and rekindle himself with society and get his position sorted, but that goes totally out of the window. He has to completely readjust to life in the forest with a bunch of unscrupulous strangers. His personality does adjust, because it has to," Jonas explains.

"His personality gets darker. This guy is a trained killer, he was in the King's guard, part of his personal protection, so he's a very able fighter. He has got a temper and while he can usually control himself, he can also lose it.

"As the series goes on you do see snippets of that coming out, especially in episode eight, I can't say exactly why, but it's to do with Gisbourne and Marian," he says teasingly. "He goes to a dark place then. He is capable of having a menacing side."

And that is not the only flaw in Robin's character, Jonas reveals.

"He's quite arrogant, rather vain, and can be self-centred. But overall the rounded Robin is essentially a very decent, good, good-spirited person," he insists.

Having already signed on for a further two seasons if the programme proves successful, there is no doubt that the show is set to catapult the down to earth, aesthetically pleasing Mr Armstrong - who has previously starred in Teachers and The Ghost Squad - into the public eye.

* No amount of research seems to be able to identify an historical Robin Hood of heroic, rob-the-rich, help-the-poor qualities.

* He is linked with pre-Christian religion and is thought by some to be Robin or Hob Wood, a spirit of the forest.

* A Robyn Hode was convicted of forestry offences in the Nottingham area in 1230. And a Robyn Hode, brigand, is alleged to have operated out of Barnsdale Forest, near Doncaster.

* The `hero' is said to have been born about 1260 in Outwood, near Wakefield. He would thus have been an outlaw in Edward II's time, not Richard the Lionheart's reign (1157-1199).

* Stories about his exploits began circulating in the early 1500s.

* He has been linked with Nottingham, Sheffield and Lincoln, but there is a strong case for locating the legends in West Yorkshire.

* One of the strongest legends is about his death - on January 14 or December 14, 1347, aged 87, at Kirklees Priory, near Clifton.

* He is said to have been bled to death by his cousin, the Prioress of Kirklees, and to have chosen his unconsecrated burial spot by firing his last arrow from the priory window.

* His grave is on private land near the Three Nuns Inn, Leeds Road, and is marked by an early Victorian headstone with a mock-medieval inscription. In 2004 ghostbusters rid it of `malevolent forces'.

THE  METRO

60 SECONDS: Jonas Armstrong
Andrew Williams - Thursday, October 5, 2006

Actor Jonas Armstrong has appeared in TV programmes including Teachers and Ghost Squad but now he's got his largest role yet, starring as Robin Hood in the BBC's new big-budget version of the bow-slinging saga. Armstrong makes his much-hyped debut in the first show, which can be seen tomorrow at 7pm on BBC1.

Robin Hood is in the Dr Who slot. Do you feel under pressure to live up to that show’s success?

Dr Who has rejuvenated that slot. It’s done very well, so there is a pressure to emulate that success. You’ve just got to look at it positively.

Why did you get the part??

I’m always polite in auditions but I wasn’t like Oh, please give me the job’ for Robin Hood because I didn’t think I’d get it. I got told about the audition just a few days before I went to India to film something else. I must have been a bit cocky with it. I went into the casting room and perched myself on the desk rather than standing there nodding. I didn’t think I had a chance in hell but there you go.

Why did you go into acting??

I was always doing impressions of teachers at school. I was never one to knuckle down -I was always the one who was more interested in being the dickhead at the back of the room. I was always interested in films and thought that was the path I should go down but I didn’t start pursuing acting until I was 17. All my friends were choosing university courses but I had no interest in anything other than acting, so I applied to go to Rada. It’s got a reputation for having a certain type of posh students but that image was smashed when I got there -everyone was from different backgrounds and I made some really close friends.

What training did you get for playing Robin Hood??

I got there a week before filming started and, as soon as I arrived, I was out on the horses, then doing unarmed combat, archery and sword fighting every day. It was an ongoing process. We practised every minute we got because we’re all supposed to look very capable with the weapons.

How good are you at shooting arrows??

Pretty damn good now. I’ve been doing it for quite a bit. I’m all right.

Can you shoot an apple off someone’s head??

No, but I can hit a tree from a bit of a distance -that’s about it.

How good are you now at beating up people??

Much better. The Hungarian stuntmen are as hard as nails and want you to hit them. They’ve got the padding on but they want you to actually hit them so they can react properly. Sometimes you’re worried they’ll smack you back but they never do.

When was the last time you had real-life fisticuffs??

In my early 20s, about five years ago.

]Who came off best??

I can’t remember [laughs].

But I guess you’re pretty confident now?

I’m not going to start shouting my mouth off, inviting people to ‘Come and have a go’. No. I’m not answering these questions any more [laughs].

Robin Hood robs from the rich. What have you nicked??

I’m a clean liver, I’m no thief. Kids go through phases of nicking stuff. I’ve nicked stuff -most people have but I haven’t nicked anything of significance.

Colonel Tim Collins, the former Army commander, visited the set. What tips did he give you??

He came over because some of the producers were concerned about how they wanted us to behave with our body language, and so on. Robin Hood is often seen as the hands-on-hips, archetypal, tally-ho hero. But, realistically, the one calling the shots wouldn’t be at the front shouting about it. He’d be the one you don’t expect. Tim told us about that and I wanted Robin to be a more believable understated leader because you’d have to be. And he told us all about killing people [laughs].

Did you really see a ghost while making the series? ?

Sort of. We were in a forest on a night shoot. It used to be used by thieves to stash their goods -which we didn’t know about. It was dark and the lighting guy took a picture. In the picture, about four trees behind us, there was some kind of shape with quite a distinct face and musket helmet. That freaked out me and the producer because we were the only ones there. But when the others saw the picture, they said it was the lighting. It didn’t look like lighting to us.

There was a story the film tapes were stolen by Hungarian thieves. Was it true or a publicity stunt?

It really did happen because we started reshooting some of the scenes. It’s hard to go back and try to do stuff if you think you’ve done it well the first time -but thank God it got sorted out. The people got caught and the tapes were recovered.

This is the highest profile thing you’ve done. Are you ready to become a sex symbol like previous Robin Hoods??

I’m a 25-year-old single guy -I’m not going to complain if that happens. I’m not saying it’s going to happen but if it does, I don’t think that’s going to be a bad thing [laughs].

What else have you got lined up??

The last play I did was nearly two years ago, so it would be good to get on stage -either that or get a part in a British film.

Jonas takes a bow
Oct 7 2006

By The Evening Chronicle
 
While he naturally has a deadly aim with a bow and arrow, he is slightly different to the traditional man in tights - he has style and wit by the bucketload.

Many were surprised when the BBC signed up relatively unknown actor Jonas Armstrong to play the iconic hero in their lavish £8m series, and he says he feels some burden on his shoulders to do the part justice.

"Of course there is pressure being a newcomer in a primetime show like this. It's the first lead role I've had," he confides.

"When I got the part I sat down and thought to myself, `Do I think about the pressure of this part, how I'm going to play it and are people going to like it? Or do I just take it whole heartedly and go with it?' Now I feel really excited about the show going out.

"But it is also very nerve-wracking," the Lancashire lad adds. "My parents came down for the first screening of the show and I could barely speak to them, but I was really happy - and relieved - when I saw the final product.

"You're always going to be picky about what you see, especially about your own performance, but as a whole, I think the show really works and the supporting cast are great, so I had a smile on my face when I saw the first episode."

Of course, he has a lot to live up to. Many famous actors have played the role of the outlaw who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, including Richard Greene and Errol Flynn. While Jonas, at just 25 years old, is far too young to remember those performances, he admits he did enjoy Hollywood's 1991 take on the story.

"I was only five or six when Robin Of Sherwood was being broadcast, but I can remember the images from the show, and of course I remember the Kevin Costner film really well.

"Lads always play bow and arrows when they are young and pretend they're Robin Hood in the forest, so I was gobsmacked when I got the part."

And it wasn't just the bow and arrows Jonas got to play with on set - Robin's other weapon of choice is an impressive Saracen sword. Luckily, the slight actor is a dab hand at sword-fighting.

"I've got a certificate for stage combat. I trained when I was at Rada, so I didn't go into it as a novice. I think that paid off.

"If there was anything too risky though, for instance walking across a beam, I had a stunt double that stood in. I got really annoyed they wouldn't let me do that - it was only eight foot tall," he laughs. "I think it was for insurance reasons."

One thing they did let Jonas do was the horse riding.

"They gave me free rein on the horses. I'm the only one who was allowed to gallop," he grins. "It's a really good buzz when you're stuck on a horse and told to fly around one-handed with a bow in one hand, shouting orders - that's brilliant and I really enjoyed that."

But don't be fooled, it's not all about the action. At the centre of the story is Robin's romance with Marian.

"They were sweethearts and then Robin went off to fight for King and Country in the Holy Land," Jonas explains. "Obviously Marian was a bit miffed when he decided to go off there for glory rather than staying with her.

"He comes back and thinks he can pick up where he left off and get her to fall back into his arms, but it isn't that easy. That makes it all the better! It's about him trying to woo her."

It is because of Marian we get to see a darker side of Robin's character too. In the first episode, Robin seems amiable and cheeky, but things soon change.

"He so wanted to come back from the war and rekindle himself with society and get his position sorted, but that goes totally out of the window. He has to completely readjust to life in the forest with a bunch of unscrupulous strangers.

"His personality gets darker. This guy is a trained killer, he was in the King's guard, so he's a very able fighter."

Having already signed on for a further two seasons if the programme proves successful, there is no doubt that the show is set to catapult the down to earth, aesthetically pleasing Mr Armstrong - who has previously starred in Teachers and The Ghost Squad - into the public eye.


JONAS FACTFILE[

Name: Jonas Armstrong

BIRTHDATE: 1981

SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Is adamant he is single

CAREER HIGH: Winning the part of Robin Hood ahead of more established actors, rumoured to include former Shameless star James McAvoy

CAREER LOW: Having to re-shoot countless scenes of the show after thieves stole the master copies of the tapes. They have since been recovered

FAMOUS FOR: Bringing Robin Hood bang up to date

WORDS OF WISDOM: "I've learned that, as tempting as it is to stay up until stupid o'clock with your cast mates, it will catch up with you."