Request: Maid Marian And Her Merry Men in "Driving Ambition" & "Keeping Mum"

[misterbug]

Maid Marian has been a difficult character to tackle among various TV adaptations of 'Robin Hood' due to her straddling the line between gentility and outlawishness; portrayals have ranged from the desperate damsel being ravished by Alan Rickman/Roger Rees to the stern Abbess played by Audrey Hepburn and wooed by Sean Connery, to the most recent BBC series in which she, um, was Batman. Which would have been cool if she was the main character...or the series was at all well-written.

In 1989, however, following his huge success as Baldrick in Blackadder, Comedian-Archaeologist Tony Robinson side-stepped the issue by asking the question: "What if Marian was the real hero all along"?, and promptly cast himself as the Blackadder-like Sheriff of Nottingham. In this version of the story, Marian formed the gang out of outlaws she met while trying to sell off her beloved pet Tadpole, and Robin was the cowardly Tailor to the King's Underpants forced by her into a life of crime. It ran for four series, and (what I've seen of it), was brilliant.

So what it is, is that our beloved Mod and noted Robin Hood enthusiast Greenmask Kindly Requested that I post some pages of the comic adaptation by Robinson and Paul Cemmick.





(Note: the comic style is heavily influenced by Mad Magazine, with odd celebrity cameos and sidebar characters discussing the story. So be wary for confusion.)

Firstly, a quick dramatis personae:



And now, to set the scene for our first story, "Driving Ambition"...




Marian's bright idea to liven up the weekend is a song concert in the vein of Eurovision, an idea pooh-poohed by Rotten Rose, her sickeningly gorgeous and dastardly rival. In other news, King John is busy revising for his driving test...




Rose has taken credit for the song contest idea, of course, and she and Marian simultaneously hatch a scheme with the Sheriff & Barrington respectively to fix the contest. Meanwhile, the contestants prepare...



Miffed, Little Ron has a chat with a tree (King John's Driving Instructor in disguise), who is worried about his coming execution, and vows to get even with the King. The Sheriff supplies Gary, Graeme and himself as fake "International" judges, only to be mugged and their clothes stolen by Gladys, Rabies and the driving instructor.



After Robin's (inevitable) bout of stage fright, Marian and Barrington sneak in as the final contestants, delivering a soulful tune about how horrible it is being friends with Rose. Before Rabies can read out the final winner (runners-up being Little Ron and Brother Cliff the Singing Monk), he's interrupted by the other plot thread:




And, of course, you're wondering by now how the heck driving lessons can apply in the Middle Ages...




...That being the next story, "Keeping Mum", in which Marian is informed that her mother is coming to stay.




By pure coincidence, Sir Guy is nursing a toothache while awaiting the arrival of the Duchess of Luxembourg, whom the King and Sheriff wish to marry off to Sir Guy in order to get rid of him. Now read on:




Marian's Mum was played in the show by the wonderful Patsy Byrne, better known as Nursey in Blackadder II, the most beloved of the Blackadder series; hence, the following scene in the TV series was actually quite touching, given that she and Robinson were already good friends:



Of course, it's all a fiendish plot to get Marian in the clutches of the enemy. Isn't it always.



Despite the insult, Robin and co. ambush the Duchess on her way to the palace, doing the ol' clothes-swap trick again with Mum.






In the close, Mum returns to Scarborough, shortly after revealing that she has a guerilla gang of her own back home made entirely of her Tough Old Lady pals. "More fun than dentistry, you ought to try it some time!". Toddling off, she leaves the rest of the cast to tell us:



Hope you enjoyed! Look up the TV series or other volumes of the comic sometime, they're brilliant.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I used to love this TV show! Marion had a raised eyebrow/eyeroll combination that I tried my best to master. I didn't know there was a comic, too, but it's very much like the show. (Kylie the pig strangler!)

[nomadicwriter]

I haven't seen this show since it was on TV when I was a kid. But I'm singing the theme tune now, and I can hear all the characters' voices reading this. Man, that show was awesome.

[greenmask]

yesssssss

This is my best thing.

Marian Marian, even the very first panel reminds me how very on-my-wavelength you were. I shall read this OVER AND OVER

Much obliged, misterbug!!

[riddler13]

Wasn't that in the Beano or something? Or in some Sunday strips? I remember it, from somewhere.

[minervasolo.livejournal.com]

I have all four DVDs, which came with comics of their own :) The theme tune is still one of the best ever written. All together now: "Why don't you carry on, with what you're doing, because there's always trouble brewing..."

(I'm sure it must be due for another repeat on CBBC some time soon. Come on, Beeb, the next generation need to learn the lyrics)

[greenmask]

The dvds come with COMICS?

*0*

I can't believe it's not re-running on the cbbc channel at the very least, what with the popularity of Horrible Histories an' all..

[minervasolo.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly certain the mum/dentist comic is one of them, so they're not brand new, but I'd never seen the original runs so I'm not sure.

[misterbug]

Must have been reprints, then. All of these pages are from the first edition paperback.