Post by Dennis of Ravenscar on May 23, 2014 17:15:55 GMT
Robin of Sherwood: Series 2 , Episode 2
The Children of Israel
Original Transmission Date - 16th March 1985
Written by Richard Carpenter
Story
A Jew, Joshua de Talmont, is reading to his two young children out of the book of Cabala. He tells them it is very powerful and, “It has been said that if evil men look upon its secrets the power of the book would overwhelm them.” His older daughter, Sarah, joins them and they celebrate the Sabbath as Gisburne listens outside their window.
The Sheriff is away in London and his return is awaited by the outlaws, who hope to rob him. De Talmont goes to see if he has returned, but he can only see Gisburne, who is acting in his place. Gisburne, who is clearly enjoying being in charge, tells him that he has the authority to deal with anything de Rainault can, but the Jew insists that he wants to see “the real Sheriff”, to Gisburne’s irritation. While at the castle it is clear that de Talmont has a weak heart. Gisburne is unsympathetic, but shows an interest in Sarah.
Knowing that the Sheriff will be coming home with a cart load of money, but not knowing when or by what route, Robin, Marion and Much are waiting on one road while John, Scarlet, Tuck and Nasir are on another. Whoever sees him first is to fire a signal arrow. Scarlet, however, is becoming agitated by their vulnerability and is unhappy with Robin’s leadership.
Scarlet: “We’ve always been on the move, even in Sherwood. I mean, we’re stuck out here like fleas on a pig’s back. Anyone could take us.”
John: “But Robin says...”
Scarlet: “I don’t give a damn what Robin says!”
When the Sheriff and his men appear, Scarlet persuades the others to take them on without Robin’s help. They attack but Tuck is injured and knocked unconscious. They are badly outnumbered and are lucky to get away.
Robin is furious and lays into Scarlet, who won’t admit that they were wrong to attack alone; “We were unlucky!”
The Sheriff is also angry; at Gisburne who was supposed to come and escort him. The dates in his letter were wrong, but the Sheriff isn’t in the mood to listen. Gisburne finally becomes frustrated by the Sheriff’s constant sniping, “I’m not your whipping boy!”. To which de Rainault replies, “Aren’t you, Gisburne?”
De Talmont has returned to ask for repayment of a loan. The Sheriff is not very happy about this and makes a lot of unpleasant comments about the Jews, which de Talmont takes very calmly. To de Rainault’s disbelief he calls him his servant, referring to a quote from Proverbs, “The borrower is servant of the lender.” He tells the Sheriff that he will contact the King if he doesn’t receive repayment soon. Gisburne is still showing an interest in Sarah, which she notices with discomfort.
Tuck is still unconscious so the outlaws decide to take him to Calverton. Much is sent to get a cart from the village.
The Sheriff, clearly still irritated by his encounter with de Talmont, is talking to Gisburne about King Richard’s coronation, when many of the Jews were killed by the ‘joyous’ crowds. He proposes that the same kind of massacre should happen in Nottingham, and leaves it to Gisburne to arrange.
Much returns without a cart so the outlaws carry Tuck to Calverton. The villagers haven’t sent a cart because they don’t want to be seen to be helping outlaws, even though the outlaws have helped them in the past. Scarlet is enraged and, as they leave, Robin subtly threatens them, saying, “Nothing’s forgotten. Nothing’s ever forgotten.”
Tuck finally regains consciousness and John tries to comfort Robin about the attitude of the villagers, but this is a serious blow and Scarlet takes the opportunity to express his feelings about their situation.
John: “Look Robin, don’t take it to heart. They were frightened, all of them.”
Robin: “We’ve risked our lives for them time and time again and they turned us away. We could have been strangers.”
Scarlet: “So you can see it? It’s all been for nothing. They’re not worth fighting for. They’re just serfs and that’s all they’ll ever be. Now, we could have been rich, every one of us, but no, you had to believe that Herne chose you. That you could give the people heart, give them hope and maybe, just maybe, give them the will to fight. Why... why don’t you just be honest to yourself? You’re just an outlaw. And that’s all you’ll ever be.”
Scarlet walks off slowly and leaves the outlaws.
Disillusioned, Robin goes to to break faith with Herne, but he will not allow him to. Frustrated, Robin tells him “The target is too far. My aim is lost.”
“Then aim again.”
“For what purpose? To what end?”
“There is no end and no beginning. It is enough to aim.”
The de Talmont family receive a message from a hooded stranger telling them that they should leave Nottingham as the Sheriff means to kill them. Sarah thinks that it is a trap, but Joshua has been studying the Cabala and has seen that the danger is real. He decides that they should go to Lincoln, to his brother and the family of Sarah’s betrothed, Aaron. Even as they prepare to leave, mobs on the streets of Nottingham are pulling Jews out of their houses and killing them, encouraged by Gisburne and his men. While the crowd break through the front door of de Talmont’s house, he and his family escape out the back. Gisburne thinks that they must have been warned, and as de Talmont was the Jew that the Sheriff was actually trying to get, he tells his captain to tell the Sheriff that they were all killed. The captain then notices the warning note and takes it with him.
A frustrated Robin complains to Marion about Herne’s riddles and about the behaviour of the villagers.
Marion: “Don’t you see Robin? They’ve done more damage by rejecting you than Gisburne and the Sheriff and all their men-at-arms could ever do. What are you going to do about it?”
Robin: “We’re going to find Will.”
In the castle, Gisburne is assuring the Sheriff that there is not a Jew left alive in Nottingham. The Sheriff tells him to hang some of the men responsible, and that he will write a suitably outraged letter to the King. He will ensure that most of the silver that was seized will go to the King, which will please him, but the Sheriff will make sure he keeps a little for himself. Gisburne wants to know if he will get any, to which the Sheriff replies, “I can see I’ve been away too long!”
Scarlet comes across the Jews in the woods. He robs them of their money, but is too ashamed to take anything else. “I don’t want your rings, or your candlesticks!” The other outlaws, meanwhile, are looking for Will.
Gisburne, tired of the Sheriff’s constant put-downs, rides off after the Jews and finds them in the woods. When the Sheriff discovers he has gone the captain shows him the warning message to de Talmont, which was clearly written by Gisburne.
Gisburne tells Sarah that he is interested in and attracted to her, and that he has left the Sheriff’s service. He tells her that he is going to marry her, clearly expecting her to be overjoyed at the prospect. She bravely tries to set him straight, but to no avail.
Sarah: “Everything about you disgusts me. Your cruelty and your arrogance, your ignorance and your conceit. How could you think that I could marry you? You, with my people’s blood on your hands; to be your wife; to renounce everything that I believe in? I loathe you, I despise you, and I’d rather die than have anything to do with you.”
Gisburne: “You’re hysterical. It’s been an ordeal, I know. But I can see that you need a man to match your spirit!”
He forcibly kisses her, then takes her off, threatening to kill her father if she doesn’t come with him. Joshua runs after them, but collapses, leaving his two younger children, Esther and Samuel, on their own. They hide, and soon after the outlaws find them, Nasir recognising them as Jews. They tell the outlaws that their father has gone after the man who took their sister, so Robin, John and Nasir follow the trail left by Gisburne and his men. They find de Talmont, and John helps him back to the clearing where his children and the other outlaws are waiting. Robin and Nasir carry on searching for the man who took Sarah, but find Scarlet instead. Nasir shoots an arrow into a tree just in front of him to get his attention. Will tells them that he has just seen Gisburne, and he has a girl with him. They go to find him and together they beat him and kill his men. Scarlet shamefacedly gives the money he stole back to Sarah.
Robin: “You robbed them?”
Will: “Well, I’ve been wrong before. I’m not saying you’re right all the time, ’cause you’re not, but you brought us all together and there’s only one leader. Well, that’s it.”
Meanwhile, the Sheriff has come to look for Gisburne, but catch the outlaws unaware as they are playing with Esther and Samuel and looking after their father. Robin and the others return, but are reluctant to attack because of the children. The Sheriff finds the Cabala, and despite de Talmont’s warnings, he opens it and seems to see horrific visions. In the confusion the outlaws attack, and Robin slaps the Sheriff round the face to bring him out of his trance.
Sarah accuses Gisburne and the Sheriff of killing the Jews in Nottingham, and says that they must die for this. Her father, however, says that they should be allowed to live. “The most beautiful thing anyone can do, Sarah, is forgive. It is also the sweetest form of revenge.”
Robin sends the tied up Normans on their way. Much picks up the Cabala and asks de Talmont what the Sheriff saw that sent him mad.
“His own wickedness?”
Best lines and moments
This is an episode full of great moments, if not entire scenes. The tension between Will and Robin is played to perfection, and Scarlet’s speech is so painful. Later, Scarlet’s awkwardness when he accepts Robin’s leadership again is moving but also very funny, especially when he takes it out on Gisburne.
Robin’s conversation with Herne is typically mysterious, but I particularly like Robin’s understandable sense of frustration when he is relating what was said to Marion. “I mean, what does that mean?”
De Talmont gets a lot of good lines, some of which are mentioned above, including his words to his daughter after they have escaped the riot.
Sarah: “Why do they hate us?”
Joshua: “Because it is easier to hate than to understand. They hate each other for the same reason. No, no, for the same lack of reason.”
Sarah’s speech about why she hates Gisburne is very moving, but his complete lack of understanding is hilarious. Someone should tell him that there are more effective ways to pick up women!
The Sheriff, of course, gets some of the best lines, especially when he is indulging in his favourite activity: ranting at Gisburne.
“My lord, I thought...”
“You thought, did you Gisburne? What a pity I wasn’t here. When did you have this thought of yours? When I was in London? Or was it more recent, mmm? Surely such an earth-shattering event would linger in the memory. Or was it this morning perhaps? While I was being attacked.”
He is also quite superbly over the top when the visions from the Cabala are driving him mad. “...Look. See. See the leeches. The leeches. All plotting against me. They’re pulling me down, down. Fingers, fingers at my throat. The dead are coming out of their graves...”
Review
This is an excellent story, considered by many to be one of the best. All the plot lines are interesting, and they mingle together throughout the episode until they merge beautifully at the end.
The central plot involving the Jews forms a good basis for the episode, and the portrayal of Joshua de Talmont and his family is apparently very accurate. De Talmont himself is a great character; spiritual, intelligent and fair, in a way that the Sheriff and Gisburne will never understand, seeing him as merely a grasping moneylender. Their prejudice and hate, and that of the people of Nottingham, is quite unpleasant and the riot scenes, while not actually graphic, are still very chilling.
Sarah is also impressive, one of the strongest female characters in the whole series, who does her best to stand up to Gisburne with a fiery speech that would daunt most men. It’s just unfortunate that Guy is about as sensitive as a brick wall!
Gisburne, of course, has finally decided that he is sick of the Sheriff constantly undermining him and, with his insistence that he is “the better man” he tries to go it alone. Unfortunately for him, the Sheriff can still beat him hands down with his cunning, but it is his greed and lust that are his undoing. If he had not abducted Sarah the outlaws would not have become involved so, satisfyingly, we see evil get its just reward. This is underlined by the Sheriff causing his own madness when he opens the Cabala.
Alongside this we have what, for most fans, is one of the defining storylines of the series: Scarlet’s questioning of their lifestyle and Robin’s leadership and, in turn, Robin’s own doubts surfacing. This is another of those times when the format of the show, as a fairly long series rather than a film, means that it has to address questions that a film never has to consider. Most of the films consist of the basic plot “Robin saves the people and gets the girl”, whereas Robin of Sherwood has to deal with outlaws living in Sherwood over a period of time with, realistically, no way to win. It’s easy to see Scarlet’s point of view, he’s just being pragmatic. Why not just get rich and get safe? For the others, it’s their faith in Robin which keeps them on the road they have taken, so to see their leader have his own doubts is more than just worrying. It starts to undermine their beliefs. This is where we see Marion’s strength. It is her understanding of Robin and her acceptance of his doubts, that allows him to find a way out, and make sense of Herne’s words. “It is enough to aim.”
Cast in order of appearance
Joshua de Talmont....David De Keyser
Esther de Talmont....Amy Rosenthal
Samuel de Talmont....Adam Rosenthal
Sarah de Talmont....Katherine Levy
Guy of Gisburne....Robert Addie
Robin Hood....Michael Praed
Marion....Judi Trott
Friar Tuck....Phil Rose
Nasir....Mark Ryan
Will Scarlet....Ray Winstone
Little John....Clive Mantle
Captain....Pavel Douglas
Poacher....Paul Wilce
Sheriff of Nottingham....Nickolas Grace
Much....Peter Llewellyn Williams
Head Man....Daniel Gregory
Servant....Odette Bennett
Herne the Hunter....John Abineri
Executive Producer....Patrick Dromgoole
Assistant Producer....Esta Charkham
Producer....Paul Knight
Director....Alex Kirby
Episode Guide written by Lucy of Ravenscar
First appeared in Nothing's Forgotten newsletter issue 7, August 1997
