This episode has some nice acting. Donald Pleasence is nicely wimpy as Prince John and Valerie Cardew is lovely as the maid Sally who helps Robin seeking to free a prisoner.
There is some wonderfully subtle sex play in this one. Robin disguised as a seller of ribbons sweet talks Sally into letting him into Prince John's Castle. Sally leads him into her chamber. She climbs on a bed to look out a window to see a dance and orders Robin to get on the bed with her. She hadn't noticed that Robin had already gone off to set a prisoner free. One gets the definite feeling that if he didn't have the prisoner to free, Robin and Sally would have ended up in bed together doing something more than watching a dance out her window. The sex play might have been added because the episode was one of the few written by a woman Anne Rodney.
This episode is really a "spy" story. Put it in modern times and you have an episode of "Secret Agent Man." It is strange that Greene was never considered for James Bond or a spy series in the 1960's. His playing here suggests that he could have handled the part with ease.
There is some wonderfully subtle sex play in this one. Robin disguised as a seller of ribbons sweet talks Sally into letting him into Prince John's Castle. Sally leads him into her chamber. She climbs on a bed to look out a window to see a dance and orders Robin to get on the bed with her. She hadn't noticed that Robin had already gone off to set a prisoner free. One gets the definite feeling that if he didn't have the prisoner to free, Robin and Sally would have ended up in bed together doing something more than watching a dance out her window. The sex play might have been added because the episode was one of the few written by a woman Anne Rodney.
This episode is really a "spy" story. Put it in modern times and you have an episode of "Secret Agent Man." It is strange that Greene was never considered for James Bond or a spy series in the 1960's. His playing here suggests that he could have handled the part with ease.
