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Here's a great clip from Australian TV Channel 9's 'Getaway' holiday programme special 'Getaway at the Movies' with me as Robin Hood in a desperate fight to the death (well, nearly)! The show featured several movie-themed holidays including James Bond trips to London and, of course, Sherwood Forest breaks too… I did two days of filming for the short sequences you can see here; the scariest bit was shooting the arrow directly into the tree between Jules (the presenter) and Dave the forest ranger. It had to be a birch tree, they were very protective of the oaks (which is a good thing, obviously)!

And of course in true Robin Hood movie style we make it look like you can walk from Sherwood Forest to The Trip to Jerusalem Inn in seconds, just like it was Dover to Hadrian's Wall… 

Today I spent a fabulous time helping (literally) launch the new Nottinghamshire flag, designed and chosen by the public from a idea originally aired by BBC Radio Nottingham's Andy Whittaker.

As well as Andy and myself was the excellent Corporal Derby, the regimental mascot of the Mercian Regiment and his handlers – you may recall I had fun with the then Private Derby (congratulations on his promotion too) a while ago on the tram, big wheel and ice rink in Nottingham!

Also there were Cllr. Jeannie Packer and her husband Norman who had arranged a trip for us all and many other VIP guests aboard the Trent Lady river cruiser, a two hour trip up and down the Trent in perfect weather, thankfully!

You can read about the creation of the flag here. Pictures by and used with kind permission of Julie-Marie Green of Designcat Photography.

It's been a weird 2011 so far, lots of odd stuff going on behind the scenes in the Robin Hood world but some of it has been as fun as ever – which is a good and great thing!

Yet again Sal and I were invited to represent the City in the annual St. George's Day parade, a huge march led by the legendary Saint himself from the Forest Recreation ground through Nottingham into the Old Market Square where there were loads of festivities, fun, re-enactments and (thankfully) drinks too – it was a scorchingly hot day!

And there were loads of people there too, from toddlers to pensioners and from all over the world too. We were filmed for TV news, student projects and a documentary about Robin Hood and interviewed for radio news and a project by Chinese students explaining the idea of St George's Day to the folks back home – all very inclusive and exactly what the day should be about, being proud of England and welcoming everyone to our great city with open arms!

Pictures by and used with kind permission of Julie-Marie Green of Designcat Photography.

Ah, St. Patrick's Day… it's always something to look forward to in any city, but this year in Nottingham the day, weather and parade excelled itself!

Sal and I were there as Robin and Marian and along with a host of other paraders (including schoolchildren from all over the county, bands and even an Irish cottage on wheels(!) we travelled across Nottingham to the Old Market Square where there were activities, entertainments and lots of fun – and yes, there was Guinness too!

We also got to meet and have our picture taken with 'The King of the Leprechauns' as you can see, a fine and dandy fellow who was nowhere near as tricksy as legends would have it – in fact he was as happy and merry as everyone else on the day.

Still, I do wonder… if I'd held onto him would I have found a pot of gold? 

Picture by and used with kind permission of Julie-Marie Green of Designcat Photography.

Last night LIGHT NIGHT returned to Nottingham City Centre, a festival of all that's best in the city after dark and a chance for everyone to experience all that it has to offer with additional music, entertainment and a dazzling array of light-themed displays city-wide.

I was at Nottingham Castle, welcoming a huge amount of people to the childrens concerts, light sculptures and other events going on in the grounds, just outside the walls were covered in projections made live by people using digitised drawing pads. Also by the Castle were my good friends What A Palaver!! performing their fire-breathing act in what can only be described as a nightmare, freezing wind-tunnel. Everyone seemed really happy despite the cold though and you can see some great photos from the event here (including What A Palaver!! at #3)!

I get to do some splendidly weird things as Nottingham Castle's official Robin Hood and last week I had the great pleasure of meeting New Zealand All-Black rugby star Ali Williams, who has come over to train with Nottingham Rugby Club.

When it was confirmed that Ali would be joining the club he confessed that the only people he really knew from Nottingham were 'Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham' so the real Sheriff (the ever wonderful Cllr. Penny Griggs) and I were asked to welcome him to the city at a press and TV event by Nottingham Castle's world-famous Robin Hood statue on a really cold and rainy morning. 

It was great to meet Ali though, he's a great chap who was very enthusiastic and friendly – but seemed quite shocked by how cold and miserable it was. And he's huge, towering above me (and especially the Sheriff) as well as quite used to all the physical rigours of world-class rugby so I'm pretty sure if he ever decides to quit that life and become a bona fide outlaw he'd make a great Little John! 

You can read the Nottingham Evening Post article about it here and see the BBC TV news report here.

Pictures by and used with kind permission of Julie-Marie Green of Designcat Photography.

Good news on the medieval banqueting front for 2011; it seems that happily the splendid folks at Center Parcs Sherwood have decided not only to carry on with their Robin Hood Sherwood Feast banquets but also to increase the number of them! Over the summer we'll be doing two a week instead of the normal one, something we've been hoping for for some time.

We had our first banquet of the year on January 2nd and yet again it was great fun, it's always nice to meet guests who came along to the show as children and are now bringing their own to see us – although it does mean we've probably been doing it for longer than we'd sometimes care to mention!

On the 28th of October the ever-fabulous Cllr Penny Griggs who is the real, honest-to-goodness (or should that be 'badness'?) Sheriff of Nottingham and I opened the Robin Hood Trail, a newly designed short city-centre walking route starting at Nottingham Castle and proceeding through the town to the old St Mary's Church.

Here I'm a bit worried by a deadly assassin… 

Along the way there are information signs, each beautifully illustrated and telling a part of the Robin Hood story, some historical information, a map and hidden in the illustration a robin (the bird) for children to try and find.

Here you can see me celebrating things taking a turn for the better as The Sheriff of Nottingham meets his end'…

'Robin Hood dies' – but the legend lives on!

(That''s not as good as 'Robin Hood doesn't die' but at least the evil Sheriff went first – and even better, Penny and I are still alive, kicking and good friends)!

You can find out more about the Robin Hood Trail here.

Pictures by and used with kind permission of Julie-Marie Green of Designcat Photography.

Now the busy part of my Robin Hooding year is over I've got a bit more time to upload some of the great pics that've been taken at the various events I've attended – in this case, CAMRA's third annual Robin Hood Beer Festival, held at Nottingham Castle this October.

Last year was bigger than the first and this year there were an extra 25% more beers on top of that, on the opening day (Thursday) there were 808 beers ready and by the end of the festival there'd been well over 900.

The lovely Sal Chappell and I helped open the festival and yet again were lucky enough to be asked to judge in the prestigious competition too, starting with 'Strong Bitters' at 11am and then the Final later on that afternoon. It was great fun, mind you!

The original photo was taken by the Nottingham Evening Post and described by their excellent journalist Erik Petersen as 'looking like a German shampoo commercial' so I added the text and y'know… it seems to work!

Here's a great picture of the official opening of the Festival at the Castle Rock Brewery stand featuring (amongst others) Tom Huggon who is Nottingham's Town Crier; the lovely Charlotte Blomeley from Castle Rock and  the Lord Mayor, Cllr. Brian Grocock who announced the opening.

The most amusing part was Brian announcing happily he didn't like beer at all as he's a teetotaller - but being a sterling chap he had a tiny sip anyway, just for duty's sake! 

Picture by and used with kind permission of Julie-Marie Green of Designcat Photography.