Career Robin Hood

SERIES TWO

Robin Hood - Sir Guy of Gisborne (2006 - 2009)

Guy of Gisborne is the Sheriff of Nottingham’s sadistic and evil lieutenant. He’s a dispossessed lord from the Norman conquests and he is ruthless and actively clawing his way back up into the echelons of society. (Richard Armitage Interview: Audiobook interview, Will You Tolerate This?)

In our heads when we created our version of Guy of Gisborne we wanted somebody who’d just missed being Robin Hood. (Dominic Minghella: Beneath the Hood, Series 2 DVD extras)

Sir Guy of Gisborne has been given Locksley to manage while Robin is away fighting in the Holy Land. Not only does he want this to become permanent, Sir Guy also has his eye on the old Sheriff’s daughter, Marian (Lucy Griffiths), once betrothed to Robin. Through the three series, Guy's story takes him from the Sheriff's willing henchman to a noble death fighting at Robin's side.

Production details

Cast
Richard Armitage - Sir Guy of Gisborne
Jonas Armstrong - Robin Hood
Keith Allen - Vasey, Sheriff of Nottingham
Sam Troughton - Much
Joe Armstrong - Alan a Dale
Gordon Kennedy - Little John
David Harewood - Brother Tuck
Lara Pulver - Isabella of Gisborne
Joanne Froggatt - Kate
Clive Standen - Archer

Series Directors
John McKay
Richard Standeven
Declan O’Dwyer
Grahame Harper
Matthew Evans
Douglas Mackinnon

Series Writers
Dominic Minghella
Paul Cornell
Mark Wadlow
Debbie Oates
Richard Kurti
Bev Doyle
Joe Turner
Simon J Ashford

Production details

Cast
Richard Armitage - Sir Guy of Gisborne
Jonas Armstrong - Robin Hood
Keith Allen - Vasey, Sheriff of Nottingham
Lucy Griffiths - Marian
Sam Troughton - Much
Joe Armstrong - Alan a Dale
Gordon Kennedy - Little John
Harry Lloyd - Will Scarlett
Anjali Jay - Djaq

Production details

Cast
Richad Armitage - Sir Guy of Gisborne
Jonas Armstrong - Robin Hood
Keith Allen - Vasey, Sheriff of Nottingham
Lucy Griffiths - Marian
Sam Troughton - Much
Joe Armstrong - Alan a Dale
Gordon Kennedy - Little John
Harry Lloyd - Will Scarlett
Anjali Jay - Djaq

The dvd boxed set of Series 1 can be purchased at:

Amazon.com (region 1)
Amazon.co.uk (region 2)
ABC shop online (region 4)
EzyDVD (region 4)

Creators
Foz Allen
Dominic Minghella

Executive Producers
Foz Allen
Dominic Minghella
Greg Brenman

Series Producers
Richard Burrell
Nick Pitt

SERIES ONE

You know when you’re being abused by somebody ... The Sheriff gives him Locksley, he gives him the riches. If the Sheriff goes all of that goes with it. ... Guy can’t be who he is without the Sheriff but he can’t remain in that position forever. It’s excruciating. (BBCA Robin Hood Series 2, Inside Look, 2008) [YouTube]

He looks at what people have got, he looks at Robin, he looks at his heroism; he looks at his popularity. He wants that because if he can attach those things to himself he will continue on that upwardly mobile course. (BBCA Robin Hood Series 2, Inside Look) [YouTube]

If Guy were alive today, and a real person he would probably be James Hewitt ... Is James Hewitt a profession? (Richard Armitage, BBC America Questions, June 2008, 2008)

Guy's nastier this time ... He may have found a conscience but he still acts appallingly. Everyone despises him even more because he knows that what he's doing is wrong, but he still does it. (TV Choice, "It's fun being nasty", October 12, 2007)

The sort of father-son relationship is very interesting from Guy’s point of view. He wants to impress the ‘father’. He wants praise and he wants approval and he never gets it. When he fails he gets a big whipping and when he succeeds the Sheriff passes it off as his own success so he never quite gets his approval. (BBC Breakfast Interview, with Mike Bushell, September 2007) [YouTube]

I think he sees a poisoned dwarf whom he absolutely despises but simply cannot live without. (Bits & Bobs, vol. 5-1/2, August 1, 2008)

Kind of a fatal attraction, this sort of blind love that allows himself to be used by her. And he forgives her time and time again, and his worst fears are gradually coming to the surface throughout the whole series, in a culmination in episode 13 of possibly one of the worst things a man could ever do to the woman he loves. So it’s a really interesting journey. (Daemon’s TV, May 2, 2008)

Lucy: You can see the truth in her eyes. ... And that's it for him. That's black-out. That's the end of their story together. And the only way to really, truly end that story for anyone else, 'cause it's a classic thing isn't it, when you desperately want someone you almost don't want them to have the other person because you – it's such a big thing for you and so from my point-of-view that's what gives him the strength to do it. (RH2 DVD Extras, The Death of Marian, interview)

I don't think he intended to put a sword through her stomach. I think he grabbed her in a clinch, which is probably the closest they've ever come and the fact that he had a sword in his hand meant that the sword went through her stomach. But, I don't think he thought in that moment, 'I'm going to kill you'. I don't think he intended to kill her at all. (RH2 DVD Extras, The Death of Marian, interview)

It was probably one of the most difficult for me because I didn't really sleep for a couple of nights before shooting. (RH2 DVD Extras, The Death of Marian, interview)

Well, it’s the little kids that point. It’s brilliant, it’s my favorite reaction.
(Daemon’s TV, May 2 2008 )

Creators
Foz Allen
Dominic Minghella

Executive Producers
Foz Allen
Dominic Minghella
Greg Brenman

Series Producer
Nick Pitt

Series Directors
Ciaran Donnelly
Matthew Evans
James Erskine
Roger Goldby
Graeme Harper

Series Writers
Dominic Minghella
Foz Allan
S.J. Ashford
Bev Doyle
Richard Kurti
Debbie Oates

The dvd boxed set of Series 2 can be purchased at:

Amazon.com (region 1)
Amazon.co.uk (region 2)
ABC shop online (region 4)
EzyDVD (region 4)

SERIES THREE

Creators
Foz Allen
Dominic Minghella

Executive Producers
Foz Allen

Series Producers
Jane Hudson
Tod Mullens

Series Directors
Grahame Harper
Matthew Evans
Douglas Mackinnon
Roger Goldby
Alex Pillai
Patrick Lau
John Greening

Series Writers
Michael Chaplin
Simon J Ashford
Ryan Craig
Holly Phillips
lisa Holdsworth
Timothy Prager
john Jackson
Chris Lang

The dvd boxed set of Series 2 can be purchased at:

Amazon.co.uk (region 2)
Amazon.com (region 1)

He’s a bit of a damaged man at the beginning of the third series. ... there’s the catastrophic failure to achieve the original ambition which was to assassinate, King Richard, but he ends up assassinating Marian. He’s obviously riddled with guilt, he’s hit the bottle, he’s waiting for Robin to come and take his revenge; and that’s where the series starts (Digital Spy ‘Tube Talk’ - Interview with Neill Wilkes, March 28, 2009)

Much has been said critically about contradictions within this character, but it is my belief that much of our expectations of dramatic characters especially written for TV are paradoxically unrealistic. We expect them to be perfectly formed, that they are for example ‘always bad’, somehow linear. I believe that this is what leads to a stereotypical realization of that character, for if we look honestly to ‘life’, for realism, then we have to accept that it is possible for a man to kill the woman he loves, in a crime of passion, regret this till the day he dies, despise the man she truly loved, and yet still find a way to friendship with him. (Vulpes Libris, 'In conversation with Richard Armitage', July 9, 2009)

He ends up killing Robin, or so he believes but, um, it's still tearing up his brain a bit. ...his head is like a room that he's rifling through trying to look for the answer to why he did what he did. And that's the point where he starts. (Robin Hood Season Three, DVD Special features, 'A Legend Reborn')

When his sister arrives, it has a huge effect on his character because Gisborne's always professed to have no family. So he's invented his own history, as it were. When she arrives, that changes everything. And he begins to see himself in her 'cause they're so alike. So, that kind of triggers his journey to redemption... (Robin Hood Season Three, DVD Special features, 'A Legend Reborn)

One of the first things that's new about series three is obviously the look of all the characters. We've had a new designer in. I think this [his costume] has been based on an American footballer. (Laughs) I can't actually get through any of the doors on set, I have to come through the door like this. (Turns side on) Yeah, we sort of decided that, on our way back from the Holy Land, I got a bit hot in the leather and sort of threw it overboard and went to Milan and got tailored. (Robin Hood Season Three, DVD Special Features, 'A New Look')

I always maintained that Gisborne was only interesting when he wasn’t getting what he wanted. Give him what he needs and it’s over.
(Vulpes Libris, 'In conversation with Richard Armitage', July 9, 2009)

In simple terms, as one of the baddies of the piece, which was essentially aimed at youngsters, he really did have to suffer for the suffering he had caused. I am glad he was able to free himself from the burden of his actions and to die a noble death. (Vulpes Libris, 'In conversation with Richard Armitage', July 9, 2009)

I will miss him but that’s why it had to end, I would have hated to grow tired of that character, he was hard work to play and needed a lot of ‘concessions’. (Vulpes Libris, 'In conversation with Richard Armitage', July 9, 2009)

Guy's on his own ... he's got no one ... He may be cruel, but he's humilated at every turn by the Sheriff. (TV Choice, "It's fun being nasty", October 12, 2007)

They do go round in circles. … it’s actually quite normal for people in that state, particularly in a kind of love triangle – they would go back over the same ground. But I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t boring. I went from the angle that it became an obsessive pursuit of somebody … he won’t be given no for an answer. (BBC America Interview, Series 2) [YouTube]

Episode 10 is quite a big turning point for Guy. That’s when he’s truly been taken to the furthest point that he will be taken in the story in terms of his benevolent humanity. I think he genuinely believes that he can save Marian, he needs to save her. His plan to get her to marry him so that they can leave together would once have been about, ‘I can get her now’. But, actually, in episode 10 he’s changed. It’s about truly loving her enough to do anything to save her life, which is a big leap for him. (BBC America, Robin Hood Series 2, Inside Look)

After being jilted at the altar at the end of series one, there’s a fire in him which is going to explode. So he’s much more wild and angry and he’s ready for it. He has sort of already been pried open by her, and so it’s almost like he’s got an open wound, which is the sort of seething blood, and so he’s trying all the time to contain it. Also his relationship with the Sheriff is very much looked into. There’s a father son relationship which the Sheriff uses to his own advantage, knowing that Gisbourne really needs that kind of paternal ... approval. (Daemon’s TV, May 2, 2008)

I originally was sent the script to look at the Sheriff and also Guy of Gisbourne. I went and read for both parts, and I think obviously I’m a bit young to play the Sheriff and Guy sort of sat quite well with me. I was really interested in the side of him which is sort of damaged and quite desperate, and then this sort of angry aspect of him I was quite interested in. I also read some scenes with Marian at the very beginning and I really liked his approach to wooing her. It was quite was something that really interested me. (Daemon’s TV, May 2, 2008)