"Robot of Sherwood"

After the Dalek slaughter and Time Lord introspection of last week's adventure, it's time for a bit of light relief, as the Doctor meets the most famous figure in English Folklore (King Arthur is, at best, Welsh and, at worst, French) in Mark Gatiss's romp though the greenwood of 12th Century England, for it's time for Robin Hood to nock his arrows and defy the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham, to rob from the rich and give to the poor etc, etc. In looking at this story, I have to make one statement - if there's one programme I have always loved more than Doctor Who, it's Robin of Sherwood, the classic 1980s HTV drama created by Richard Carpenter that has cast a very long shadow, influencing every retelling of the legend since - the Saracen Merry Man, the darker Will Scarlet, they all came from this series. It is refreshing, therefore that, despite its title, the story all but ignores Robin of Sherwood and instead goes back to the joyous 1938 Errol Flynn movie, The Adventures of Robin Hood for his inspiration. Gatiss has stated that he has no particular fondness for any of the Robin Hood TV serials - in fact the only one that is referred to (apart from a very cheeky reference to the first televised Robin Hood) is the brilliant children's comedy Maid Marian and her Merry Men, what with Little John's nickname name being more literal than ironic and a namecheck for Worksop. Gatiss is intent on portraying writing a more innocent, playful version of the legend (although I wish that the epithet 'wolfshead' had been retained to refer outlaws - it's just really cool!). Two staples of nearly every depiction of the legend are present and correct, with some striking modification. Robin fights with a future ally on a log bridge over a river - only it isn't Little John with a quarterstaff, but the Doctor with a spoon. Then, there's the iconic archery contest, where the splitting of arrows is taken to hilariously ridiculous lengths. The story as a whole has, perhaps the funniest script that Gatiss has contributed so far to the programme, with the brilliant dungeon scene and the Doctor trying to get tissue samples from the Merry Men in a far less subtle way than he did in The Moonbase.

Robin is played with cocky charm by Tom Riley, making the Errol Flynn style prince of thieves work in the 21st century. The other merry men take more of a back seat, but with actors as talented as Trevor Cooper playing them, they don't fade into the background. The stage is therefore set for the other main guest role - Ben Miller as the Sheriff of Nottingham. Miller is a supremely gifted comic actor and he manages to make the Sheriff an entertaining villain without totally going over the top. Most impressively, although one can see bits of Nickolas Grace and Tony Robinson, the final portrayal is Miller's own. Peter Capaldi has a ball as the Doctor, buckling his swash with the best of them, playfully licking and licking with his spoon, shamelessly cheating at archery and, most brilliantly of all, really not getting on with the guest star who holds very different opinions as to banter and heroic laughter. With Maid Marian being reduced to a rather minor role, it is Clara who takes her place and Jenna Coleman shines, particularly in her interrogation of the Sheriff. The episode is directed with flair by Paul Murphy and the production is of a very impressive standard with great design work on the robots. Interestingly, although the characters and costumes show no influence from Robin of Sherwood, the locations for the village and the archery contest look very similar!

The plot itself is the standard pseudo-historical mash-up and does suffer from a rather rushed denouement - I can't quite buy the firing of the golden arrow to produce the right amount of gold for the ship to leave the Earth's atmosphere. However, it is the details that make such stories work and with rip, roaring action, great gags and Jenna Coleman looking fabulous, this is tremendous fun throughout.

NEXT: "Listen"