No tourist officer is going to give up the chance to proclaim his patch to be the true stomping ground of Robin Hood and the Merry Men of the Greenwood. So Sherwood Forest has become the prime candidate, through sheer repetition, though recent research has spoilt the story by setting it near Pontefract, with Robin probably a Yorkie. And the legend about taking from the rich to give to the poor can apparently be traced back to a Morris Dancing festival, with spectators invited to put money in a charity box.
If cherished myths are going to be demolished, we may as well hear the bad news from the cheerful, irreverent Tony Robinson, whose manner only briefly irritates, because it appears to reflect the dumbing-down culture in which he would have been trained at the BBC circa 1970. He was, however, successful in presenting children's programmes, and a Robin Hood investigation might well rope-in a juvenile audience as well as a mainstream one. Under the test, his script is far more scholarly than it sounds, and this is a very packed 48 minutes - if you don't mind missing a few words, drowned-out by the over-loud music track.
He reminds us that the first appearance of the name was in a generic form. Defendants in court would be referred-to as 'a Robinhode', rather as a spy today might be called 'a James Bond'. He also points out that the monasteries were not just places of worship and study, but centres of power, dominated by politicians and business leaders - something I had only been dimly aware of. As for Maid Marian, she had to wait three centuries to appear at all, and then another three before the story was prettied-up for the novelettes, the paintings and then the movies and TV.