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