Post by Dennis of Ravenscar on May 23, 2014 17:07:00 GMT
Convention Review on Greenwood IV
Date: 27th - 29th August 1993
Venue: Shepperton Moat House Hotel, Staines, Surrey
By: Dennis of Ravenscar
The Greenwood convention was a Robin of Sherwood convention running over the weekend of 27th-29th August 1993. It was the 4th official British RoS Convention. It was run for the benefit of the Woodland Trust Charity. Our main reason for attending was to get some more signatures on our piece of artwork gained from the Excalibur Convention two weeks previously. Also we heard that most of the cast and crew would be there to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the start of pre-production on the series leading to the dedicated fandom of today.
The convention had a pretty impressive guest list including Richard (Kip) Carpenter, Annabel Lee (Mad Mab in Rutterkin and also Kip’s wife), Michael Praed, Nickolas Grace, Mark Ryan, Phil Rose, Judi Trott, Stuart Linden (the Old Man in Cell), Terry Walsh, the stunt arranger for the series and Gabe Cronnelly, an archery expert. Unfortunately Clive Mantle, Jason Connery and Richard O'Brien couldn’t attend due to work commitments but there were still more than enough guests to entertain the attendees with their memories of the series.
Lucy and I weren’t able to attend on the Saturday (because we were already booked to see the musical Robin - Prince of Sherwood!) and missed the guests who were there only for that day, Michael Praed, Nickolas Grace and Judi Trott, who attended the opening ceremony and cut the special birthday cake for RoS. We didn’t mind too much as we had only just seen Michael and Nickolas two weeks previously, but it was a pity that we missed Judi though, who had just had a baby. Purchasing the con video enabled us to hear (we couldn’t see much to the very poor quality of the video) the guest panel on the Saturday and the following is an extract from the dialogue with a few ums, ahhs and repetitions edited for space. On the panel were Kip, Phil Rose, Mark Ryan, Michael Praed, Nickolas Grace, Terry Walsh and Judi Trott. Before starting the panel they spent ages sorting out their seating arrangements, but they finally settled down. They then had to debate upon who should have the honour (or burden) of being chair! Kip was eventually “volunteered” and asked for the first question.
Q (to Judi) - What’s your child’s name?
Judi - Alana Louise
Q (to all) - If you didn’t play the part you played, what part would you have liked to play?
Phil - I would like to be Robin, cast as a good looking lean hero!
Mark - I quite like Belleme actually. I rather like all that dark moods, black magic and robes. He’s got a good voice that Anthony Valentine, which is why he does all those voice overs.
Judi - A rat (loads of laughter), it makes an impression, doesn’t do much!
Michael - I would like to be the Earl of Huntingdon as I always wanted James Bond as my dad!
Nickolas - Well I’ve always wanted to be the Sheriff of Nottingham. I had to get on bended knee to Kip and Paul Knight and plead for the part. I got it! And I was so happy with that. But if they said, “No!” and I had to take another role then it would have to be Herne the Hunter, as I always wanted to have a deer on my head! I’m a animal lover!
Terry - I would have been Paul Knight, the Producer, because the series would still be going. (roars of approval and cheers)
Kip - I would have liked to be Paul Knight as well (Terry interrupts, 'But you weren’t old enough!'), as it was really Paul Knight who made the series happen!
Q - Is there going to be a comeback series?
Kip - I don’t know. At the moment it is very dormant (like Paul Knight really), very unlikely, but you never know! They have brought other series back, we thought of doing the geriatric Merries! Having everyone in wheelchairs! (more roars of laughter)
Q - If the series was brought back , would Michael come back as Robin?
Nickolas - Ahh! A loaded question!
Michael - Yeah, sure, absolutely. I’d love to come back as Robin.
Q (To Kip) - If that were so how would you write the script?
Kip - With difficulty!
Mark - It would have to be magic bringing him back from the dead.
(The panel then joke about reappearing in the shower a la Dallas and the return of Bobby Ewing!)
Q - What was the worst moment, filming an episode where you thought, “I want to go home now!”
Judi - Many times!
Nickolas - Day One?
Judi - Firing those flaming arrows! Time was running out for us and the crew, but I got it right eventually.
Someone in the crowd mentions that he saw the instance on the infamous blooper tape.
Nickolas - How come everyone has seen this illegal tape? Was it you Kip?
Kip - No I didn’t, I didn’t let the Blooper reel out, I don’t know who did, but somebody did it and I think they are sitting two places away from me (indicating Mark!)
Mark - Nothing to do with me! I only said 32 lines in 26 bleeding episodes!
(the panel returns back to the original question)
Michael - I didn’t have a worst moment! They were all like that!
Nickolas - Not even the famous sword fight with the Sheriff of Nottingham?
Michael - I liked that one! You and me? It went very well!
There was a worst moment when I was about to drown after the sword fight with Robert Addie in the mud. I was fighting with Robert Addie, and Ian Sharpe had this bright idea of Robin swimming out into the lake and to have a shot of the Normans firing their crossbows at you. Now these crossbows were practical, they worked, firing these wooden projectiles that would kill a rhino! And I thought that this sounded like a pretty good idea! Thinking, stupidly, that the arrows would go whizzing over my head, which they did, but only about an inch above it. But the most frightening thing, as we had been doing this fight scene all day (having lost the entire film of the first take and having had to redo the scene right from the start!) and being weighed down by my costume and everything swimming, that suddenly I lost my strength and if it wasn’t for Billy, one of Terry’s stunt men, I would have been in trouble! It’s a very frightening thing, and when they tell you that when you’re drowning that it’s all peaceful and tranquil, it’s complete bullshit! (loads of laughter)
Terry - I can’t tell you my worst moment as the director is still alive!
Q - What did you think of Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves?
Kip - I think it had a very good title.
Phil - Well, it was all right if you wanted a fairy tale to make lots of money. I would ask if the director had ever done any medieval geography or history. When Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman arrive at the white cliffs of Dover and say they’ll be in Nottingham tonight, there is no way... and on the next shot they’re up by Hadrian’s Wall and not a tree in sight. Whereas in fact it would have been covered in trees. It was all right, but really, was it the true story or just a gimmick to make money? Not my cup of tea.
Mark - To be quite honest, I quite liked the film. The weird irony of it all was that Kip, myself and Clive were flying to a convention and it was being shown on the flight. There was no escape, and we sat and watched it and it was quite enjoyable. A lot of the cast and crew were consulted before the film was made and Clive was giving advice on the actual history of Little John of Hathersage. The director said this was just a fairy story, right? But Clive said, no, he was a real man, that’s his grave, etc. But the director shook his head, saying no. They tried to take the Nasir concept, however that was Kip’s and my copyright and not public domain, and so they had to change the name from Nazeem to Azeem. But basically in the end, they made the film and we didn’t. We should have, but that’s the way it goes.
Judi - I went and enjoyed it. I didn’t think much of Costner. He looked tired and old. He’d just done Dances with Wolves and it showed. I thought Marion did a good fight. I enjoyed it, maybe it’s just the story!
Michael - I can’t remember where Winston Churchill lived... (laughter)
Mark - (Jokes and tells Michael that they’re at a RoS convention.)
Michael - Chartwell? In his spare time he liked to garden and started to build this wall around it, taking him years before it was completed, and it was a place he would go to find solace and to think about various problems, and would sometimes take cabinet and junior ministers with him to discuss the problems of the day. He said to one, one day, “What do you think of the wall?” Now the wall was barely upright and not very straight. “Well, you know, that’s not very plumb, and you got the wrong bricks there...” and so on. But Winston said, “Well, any fool can tell what’s wrong, can you tell what’s right?” I mention this only to show it’s foolish to compare things like our Robin Hood to Costner’s Robin Hood because they’re completely different beasts. Unlike my friends, some of my friends, I don’t have problems with a movie that’s out to make a lot of money. It’s part of the industry to make money, not to make art. It would have been nice if we could have done a film, but bearing in mind it’s got to sell, and the script rewrites, would it have been any better? They’re trying to make a feature film that everyone would enjoy and I think they succeeded. I rather enjoyed the film. I could quibble and say Costner’s accent was dreadful, etc, etc, but generally I rather enjoyed it.
Nickolas - So did I! Well you know, when Charles de Gaulle in his spare time went into his back garden.......
I loved the film as well as being very jealous that we hadn’t done it. It was really enjoyable and they were all marvellous with one notable exception because he’d taken so many leaves out of my book and taken it twenty times further, that I was even more jealous, but I thought that it was terrific.
Terry (who was Swordmaster on the film) - I thought it was magnificent because the fights were so good. All I would say is that if I was a starving refugee in Sherwood and Costner said, “Follow me”, I just would have laughed.
Nickolas - You traitor!
Q (To Kip) - What made you put Herne the Hunter into the stories?
Kip - I don’t really know! I wanted to put a little magic into the story and he needed a mentor/guide. There’s a road in my village called Herne, so that name stuck and we had Herne the Hunter!
Phil - In English mythology, Herne the Hunter is supposedly to be seen in Windsor Great Park.
When questioned about dealing with the cold, Nickolas and others said they sang songs to lift their spirits. According to Mark the cast were also given a caravan to sit in when it got too cold. When filming the first episode of the third series Jason almost drowned, suffering from the cold when fighting Tuck in the stream!
Q - If you could play any part in TV/Film/Theatre, what part would you play?
Mark - Nicky - you’re a thespian, you’re a real thespian.
Nickolas - That’s unkind! Doesn’t make you a bad person! What’s a thespian? A lesbian with a lisp!
I’d like to play the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Maybe I’m him already.
Kip - I’ll tell Andrew Lloyd Webber to write it.
Q - What career did you originally want to do as a child?
Kip - Train driver.
Phil - Astronaut or pilot.
Mark - I wanted to go into show business - film, TV, stage, musical, anything creative.
Judi - Teacher or hairdresser. Later I wanted to be a dancer.
Michael - I went to one of those third rate public schools so I almost went into the army.
Nickolas - Train driver because of Thomas the Tank Engine. Then I saw a pantomime and wanted to be Buttons.
Terry - I wanted a job that was easy and paid loads of money!
Q (To Michael) - How did you feel Jason Connery did as your replacement?
Michael - I think that it is a bugger when you take over from someone because no matter how good you are, a comparison is made to your predecessor. It’s stupid, Jason’s blonde, we’re not remotely alike. But if there was a person to replace me you couldn’t find anyone better than Jason. He had to be sufficiently different from me because if you are going to have a change you might as well have a big change, and that’s what he brought and he’s got a different quality to me. He’s really good and did a good job.
Q (To Michael) - What were your final thoughts in your last scene on the mound in Greatest Enemy?
Michael - Well, I think I’m right in saying that was the last filmed shot of me in the series and it’s very emotional because anytime you say goodbye to something that has touched you there is a feeling, well for me of, “Christ, have I made the right decision?” Which later proved to be “No!” Of all the memories of RoS, that is my most memorable. I remember that job - the show - with great fondness.
Nickolas - We were emotionally involved as we all knew that Michael would leave.
Q - Which episode did you enjoy making most?
Terry - The first one, because it was the hardest! When we all went up to Alnwick to start shooting and had something to prove, I had nine or ten stunt men and lots and lots to do, if I screwed it up then I would be out on my ear.
Nickolas - The first episode was very exciting. Also The Greatest Enemy when I killed Robin Hood, and The Sheriff of Nottingham when I was captured by the Merries.
Michael - The first one. After viewing a rough cut of a fight scene, I thought, “By Christ, I think we’ve got it.”
Judi - The first one. Getting to know everyone, it was very exciting. Also the Hounds of Lucifer one for the costumes.
Mark - The first one, very magical. Also The Swords of Wayland when the episode was transposed onto the big screen - very impressive. The Greatest Enemy as we thought it was the end and gave the best final shot. Ray Winstone and I had a competition to kill the most extras! It was a very moving final episode.
Phil - RoS was the best TV of its type ever done. I enjoyed Cromm Cruac and The Greatest Enemy, running around with those bloody dogs!
Q - When will you change the straw?
This question was asked by Stuart Linden (Old Man in Cell), who appeared unexpectedly. When he first heard about the part he was very nervous about the rats, and had a few sleepless nights before he started. Apparently the rats got progressively smaller and smaller and smaller until one day he was handed a white mouse!
Stuart - I was delighted with the programme, and for me RoS will always be the most magical time of my life.
The Saturday ended with the fancy dress competition, which looked pretty good fun from what we could see on the video.
On the Sunday when we arrived, everyone seemed rather hung over from the night before, but the day kicked off with the Charity Auction, with Phil Rose as the Auctioneer (and very funny he was too). Most of the stuff was going for prices that were way out of our league. Even paperbacks from Richard Carpenter series’ like Dick Turpin that you could buy from a charity shop for 20p were going for upwards of £12! An original script went for £250 which Kip was very pleased about as I believe he’d chosen the charity.
It was lucky that it was a beautiful summer’s day (unusual for a Bank Holiday) because later that morning there was a falconry display, which was very enjoyable. This, and the archery display which was on in the afternoon, really added to the atmosphere. We managed to catch Phil Rose outside, and he had a little audience of attendees listening to his anecdotes about the making of the series. I’m afraid I can’t remember the details of what he said, but the guy is a real natural comedian. The aforementioned archery display was excellent, especially as Mark Ryan joined in. It was quite bizarre really, as all the other archers were in costume, whereas Mark was wearing jeans and a shirt, and had his arrows stuck in his back pocket! The funniest bit was when one of the archers put on a helmet and held a large shield, and the others had to try and shoot an apple off the top of his head. One of the female archers shot straight between his legs, and it turned out she was his wife!
Later that afternoon there was another guest panel, with Mark, Terry and Gabe Cronnelly, an archery expert who worked as an advisor on RoS and Prince of Thieves.
Q (To Gabe) - What kind of wood was used for the arrows, and what would be right for the period?
Gabe - They would have used twelve different types of wood for the arrows, but ash is generally the favourite, because it’s flexible. Because we used so many arrows we often just used dowelling. For shots into wood we used arrows very similar to those of the time, except that they used what are called Bodkin Piles which are chiselled along the head ending in a point. These were ideal for cutting armour, and in fact, they can’t improve on this technology even now. They didn’t use hunting arrows, they were for animals. The ones they used for humans were far more lethal.
Q (To Mark) - How did you manage to miss Ray Winstone in the episode Children of Israel?
Mark - It was actually Micky Polvey (sp?), who was the prop guy and was actually the eighth Merry Man, because he was always with us.
The best archery story is when Ray actually shot the camera. We were doing a promo for the new series, after we’d been down to the pub. They put the camera behind the target, which was foolish, thinking that no-one would get anywhere near it. And it was whoever could hit the camera gets free booze all night! Winstone went whoosh, straight down the lens from sixty yards, doing £25K of damage! He turned round, going, “Mark, what’ve you done?” But seeing it on the promo film, it’s amazing how fast an arrow can travel, one minute it was leaving the bow and the next minute the camera’s gone.
By now Annabel Lee and Kip have turned up, trying to sneak in quietly to avoid disrupting the panel, and get accused of looking like a naked pantomime horse by Terry!
Q - Have you got any good horse stories?
Terry - I know somebody whose buttocks looked remarkably like two fried eggs, who’s sitting not a million miles away (indicates Mark). He practised too long for a particular shot.
Mark - My trousers had become part of me!
Mark mentioned that the horses were real professionals, and always knew when it was 6.30pm, knocking off time. He once had a shot to do with a horse, and it was nearly 6.30pm. It went wrong and the horse refused to do it again and instead went straight into his horse box and put his head in his nose-bag, with Mark still on his back!
Terry went on to talk about Michael, who was rather accident prone at the start of filming. If there was anything to trip over, he’d trip over it. While they were filming the scene from the first episode where Robin is being chased through the courtyard of Nottingham Castle by Gisburne, Michael tripped over a wheelbarrow and fell flat on his back. In the silence, when everyone was wondering if he was all right, Ian Sharp said, “You know Terry, he’s the only actor I’ve ever seen with a cauliflower arse!”
Q - Did you have any problems with the pigs in Rutterkin ?
Annabel - I didn’t have any problems with the pigs.
Mark - We did!
Annabel - No, I didn’t. I love pigs. I liked the little pig that I had.
Mark - As I recall, that litter had just been born. What happens, pigs are very protective with their young ones and pigs are quite big animals and are capable of giving quite a nasty nip, and that one happily had a go at Winstone and took a lump out off his rear end. Ray was getting quite nervous and was trying to get out of the pig’s way. All the Merries were frightened of the big mother pig, reluctant to go in first.
Terry - I’ve never seen so many wimps, going, “You go first”, “No you”! The brave Merry Men, faced down by a pig!
Q (To Annabel) - When you were first offered the part of Mab how was she described to you?
Annabel - A mad old woman, living in the woods with pigs!
Q (To Annabel) - Did you know anything more about her than the viewers? Because she’s a great mystery in the show.
Annabel - Not really - it’s just what you see in the show, her husband was killed in front of her and whatever else happened, and she just went mad and took to the hills or woods.
Terry jokingly accuses Kip of nepotism
Kip - It was very awkward. I didn’t actually write the part for Annie, I just wrote it. Esta Charkham said, “How about Annie for the part?” and I said, “What a good idea!” It was written as a part before casting was done. It was obviously improved a bit when Annie got it. It grew a bit!
Q (To Gabe) - Were the bows authentic?
Gabe - The bows looked authentic for the time, the originals were made of yew with nocks. The string was different, we used Dacron while the outlaws would have used hemp. Apart from that, Mark’s bow was of Turkish design. Bow making at the time was a very refined art.
Q - Why did Albion change?
Kip - The worst curse of modern TV is the VCR, because people can watch again and again and again and continuity is not always perfect, even in feature films. Albion probably got lost or broken and they made a different handle for it, but whatever, it was taking a lot of battering.
Terry - It was broken or stolen, an alternative was found. It was the best that could be done in time.
Mark - We had two or three “fighting” Albions and one that wasn’t to be fought about with.
Kip and Terry complain about the know-it-all director who demanded “flying horses” in The Swords of Wayland. Ordering stunts that are impossible to do.
Q - Who were your childhood heroes?
Gabe - Rolof (sp?) the Viking, a very wild character. A typical Viking.
Terry - John Wayne - the parts he played in Westerns.
Mark - Funnily enough it was Robin Hood. Being born in Doncaster I knew that part of the country very well, I stood in the Major Oak when I was a child. Being a bit of a strange child I also admired Winston Churchill (roars of laughter due to Michael’s long-winded story the day before).
Terry - Do you know about his wall?!
Kip - William Shakespeare was my boyhood hero and still is.
Annabel - Black Beauty! (roars of laughter.) I read that book over and over again. I still read it again every year, and I still cry in the same places.
There was more to this guest talk than was on the video, as I distinctly remember Mark telling stories of the Merries’ antics “after hours”. He told us how they had all been banned from one chain of hotels, Holiday Inn I think it was, because they got one of the cameramen, who was normally very respectable, very drunk, and he dived through a glass table. After that they had to go out to night clubs in the evenings and then get checked into their rooms one by one. I’m not sure if it was at the same hotel, but one time they decided to remove all the furniture from somebody’s room. They took everything out and put it in other rooms, right down to the fixtures and fittings which they unscrewed from the walls. They had a bit of a problem with the double bed though, as it wouldn’t fit into another room. They wanted to hide it, so they took it outside and pushed it over a low wall. Unfortunately, behind the wall was a steep drop down to a river, and the bed went floating off into the distance!
That was about it for the Convention. There was the usual Awards and Closing Ceremony, including the falconer flying one of his birds around the room! Lucy also won a Robin Hood teddy in the raffle, which she was very pleased about. I would rather have won the mead! There was also a banquet after this, which we didn’t attend as we had to get back home.
Overall, the Convention was very enjoyable, although not as intimate as the Excalibur Con. There was a nice atmosphere, with quite a few people wandering around in costume. We really enjoyed seeing and meeting the guests, who all mingled with the attendees, and we managed to get a few more autographs for our picture.