Robin Hood - Speed in Tights!
Published on August 10th, 2009

Part II...

The filming started on June 17th. None of us extras knew quite what to expect when we arrived at the crowd base at 6am the first morning. After breakfast, we headed into the costume tent to get into our gear. Once dressed, it was onto make up where they made us look dirty and applied some scars to our faces. Next it was time to get greased up – 3 women from the costume department rubbing our clothes with a mixture of Vaseline and brown pigment, to make it look like we had been on the move in the same clothes for weeks. Once out of costume and make up, we were taken by minibus to the filming base down by the beach. Once there, we had to go through the armoury and collect our shield and side arms, and then it was off to wait in a huge marquee until called to the set. This was the typical routine for each day of filming.

But on the first day, the waiting to be called to set went on and on. And on. And then on some more. We spent 8 hours sat in the marquee, in full costume, just waiting for the call. It had started raining, and that meant that they couldn’t film. It cleared up in the afternoon, so they decided to film the first scene, but only need 40 of us. The rest of us gathered at the top of the sand dunes to watch (pictured left), and get our first glimpse of the set. Every 50 metres or so along the dunes were these bright orange balls. I asked the production crew what these were for, and I was told that those were the markers for reference points where the white cliffs would be CGI’d in!

Watching the first scene being filmed

Roger Summers - top bloke!

My car was off the road, so I had to blag a lift off someone to be able to make it to the rest of the filming. I became pals with Roger Summers, an archer from Enfield, who plays Robin Hood himself in shows he puts on all over the world. He is a diamond geezer, and offered to ferry me to and from the film set everyday. Some of the pictures in this article are courtesy of Roger. Check out his website: www.thegoldeneaglearchers.co.uk

The second day was much better. The sun was out all day, so we of us headed down to the beach to film the first part of the battle scene. It was about 30 degrees plus, and it was sweltering in our padded tunics. All 400 of us lined up along the shore line and waited for instruction. The assistant director told us in this scene we had to try and make it as far as we could up the beach – while about 130 horses rode through us hacking us down! Now I’m not scared of horses but the prospect of having over a hundred of them charging at me had me shitting my pants!

Lined up ready for battle, not knowing what was in store for us…

The horn sounded for 'Action' and we took off up the beach. It was one of the scariest, but most exhilarating things I have ever done in my life! There were horses everywhere. As well as dodging the horses, we were told some of us had to pretend to take arrow hits and go down. I thought "Fuck that! I’m staying on my feet!" The last place I wanted to be while 130 horses run past is on the floor!