Nice try, but there's nothing original

I've just finished watching the most over-hyped BBC programme since the re-emergence of Dr Who. Robin Hood is, for me, the Yorkshire hero of legend and so has a special place. Yet none of the authentic-looking sets or stark costumes could cover the fact that the dialogue is this latest Robin Hood re-working was intensely fake (with Shakespearian diction and 'don'ts' replaced with 'do nots' ad nausem) and the show stolen by the Keith Allen Sheriff of Nottingham.

OK, so maybe the villain always gets the good lines, but he didn't (sorry, did not), so plays it for laughs instead as a televisual pantomime villain overacting to his heart's content. And Guy of Gisbourne's burr was something to behold (i.e. very-bad-which-makes-it-comical impersonation of a Sheffield accent). Maybe I've missed the point: this slot, early Saturday evening, is the traditional kids TV placing on the BBC in the UK. But this really was scraping the bottom of the barrel stuff.

I was struggling to find anything original in the piece. Robin running his hand through the hawthorne (in slow-motion) was straight out of Gladiator, the hanging scene pilfered from Plunkett and Macleane / Prince of Thieves / Knights of Cydonia video, pained looks to camera from the BBC's Casanova, and some really over the top music for the soundtrack (which will get the 'silence the background music' lobby up in arms).

In a way, I suppose every generation has its Robin Hood - Errol Flynn, Sean Connery, Michael Praed, Kevin Costner - which means I reach this conclusion biased. But the opening episode, even if it was in HD, lacked any ethereal edge, political satire, sheer escapism or originality of effects / camerawork.

Sadly, despite the hype and lots of advertising on the side of buses, I won't be watching next week.