Robin Hood (1953 TV series)
Introduction


* + ***Robin Hood*** is a 1953 six\-episode British television series starring [Patrick Troughton](/wiki/Patrick_Troughton "Patrick Troughton") as [Robin Hood](/wiki/Robin_Hood "Robin Hood") and [Wensley Pithey](/wiki/Wensley_Pithey "Wensley Pithey") as [Friar Tuck](/wiki/Friar_Tuck "Friar Tuck"). It was written by [Max Kester](/wiki/Max_Kester "Max Kester"), and produced and directed by [Joy Harington](/wiki/Joy_Harington "Joy Harington") for the [BBC](/wiki/BBC "BBC"). The 1953 series was the first TV production of Robin Hood, although the 1955 series, *[The Adventures of Robin Hood](/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Robin_Hood_%28TV_series%29 "The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)")*, remains better known.

The 30\-minute episodes were transmitted live, and only eight minutes from the second episode, *The Abbot of St. Mary's*, the earliest surviving footage of Troughton's television career, exists (as a 16mm [telerecording](/wiki/Kinescope "Kinescope")). Troughton's son [Michael](/wiki/Michael_Troughton "Michael Troughton") mistakenly claimed in his father's biography that the full episode survived. Short clips of this material appeared in 2007 documentary, presented by [Jonathan Ross](/wiki/Jonathan_Ross "Jonathan Ross"), covering Robin Hood from its beginnings to the more recent BBC production (2006\), and were also shown as an example of television production in the BBC documentary series *Children's T.V. On Trial The 1950s*. The surviving footage was also included on the 2020 DVD and Blu\-Ray release of an animated reconstruction of the *[Doctor Who](/wiki/Doctor_Who "Doctor Who")* serial *[The Power of the Daleks](/wiki/The_Power_of_the_Daleks "The Power of the Daleks")*, which also starred Patrick Troughton.


How long were the 30-minute episodes?