Last Monday was the press day and then VIP launch of the brand new Robin Hood Exhibition at Nottingham Castle and as the Castle's official Robin Hood I was there to meet and greet all of the guests, including journalists from all over the world (including some very nice ladies from the USA) and of course all of the local and civic dignitaries, special guests and visitors. !
The Exhibition itself is simply gorgeous, a lot of work from both the Castle staff and the good folks at Universal has gone into showing some of the best costumes, props and other items from the film in their best light, including the actual Robin Hood costume worn by Russell Crowe (see left)! There are also video clips with behind-the-scenes footage and if you do go, make sure you look into all of the alcoves (especially the ones above head height) to make sure you don't miss anything!
On Tuesday it opened fully to excellent reviews and good visitor figures too. I made the front cover (and the inside) of the Nottingham Evening Post and two days worth of local TV news and there were also some great reviews (and photos) elsewhere, especially featuring the fabulous Sheriff of Nottingham, Cllr Leon Unczur, a man who's done a very great deal to promote Robin Hood in both the city and the county of Nottingham. I especially love the photo of the Sheriff you can see HERE , mainly because it's a great and splendidly atmospheric picture of him - but also because I had quite an entertaining time standing on the Castle wall as the wind was blowing incredibly strongly and not being blown right off the wall was tricky at times!
As I mentioned below, May is Robin Hood Month in Nottingham but I was very surprised to see myself on posters and flags all over town the other day which I hadn't been told was happening. Still, it seems to be working though as across the city and county people seem to be very excited by the idea of Robin Hood month and the word is certainly spreading!
For instance there's a brand-new Facebook fan page too now, 'The Home of Robin Hood', here's three of the latest posts telling everyone what's going on:
The Home of Robin Hood Oh Yay… Oh Yay…! We're gearing up here in Nottingham to welcome home Robin Hood when he returns to the silver screen from May 14th. The Robin Hood Movie is expected to be one of the big blockbusters of 2010. Oscar® winner Russell Crowe stars as the legendary figure Robin Hood with Oscar® winner Cate Blanchett who stars as Maid Marian.
The Home of Robin Hood is officially declaring May as 'Robin Hood' month in the city..! the City will be transformed into a mediaeval kingdom – including Mediaeval re-enactments / Jousting Archery / and a May Day parade led by Robin Hood…. So dust down ur chain mail & get ready to join in the fun we're all gonna have in May..!
The Home of Robin Hood Universal has teamed up with Nottingham to bring an exclusive exhibition of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood to the UK in March. The exhibition will be at Nottingham Castle and Sherwood Forest and will open to the public on Tuesday 23rd March 2010...
So tomorrow is the Grand Opening of the Universal's Robin Hood movie exhibition at Nottingham Castle, come along and see props, costumes and much more from the new movie – I hope to see you there!
May is going to be 'Robin Hood Month' in Nottingham and it looks like it's going to be great fun! With the forthcoming release of the new Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe, Nottingham City Council has planned a series of medieval entertainment, organised family shows and fun events at Nottingham Castle, in the Old Market Square and right across the city and I'll be taking part in all of them!
Sherwood Forest and Rufford Country Park will be holding their own events too but for a great overview of what's planned, click here – I'll be posting more details of individual (and new) events closer to the time too.
Excitingly Nottingham Castle is also hosting a special exhibition of props, sets and costumes from the new film too, to tie in with it's expected release on 14th May so you can get a great close-up look at them yourself.
The Castle is going to be the focal point for all of the celebrations, so I'll hope to see you there sometime in May!
I had great fun today helping out part of a really great project – Nottinghamshire Loves Learning . I was Robin Hood at Stapleford Town Hall, meeting, chatting and being photographed with some of the great adults and children who came to take part in the excellent photography and art project run there today.
Adults and children were lent digital cameras by the great helpers there from the WEA – the Worker's Education Association – including the wonderful Nikki, who I used to work with a couple of years ago, and they were free to photograph anything they wanted, then when they brought the photos back they were printed out and put on display in a shop window on the High Street (and they're stilll there, just next to the TSB if you're in the area)!
From the NLL website: February 13th – 15th 2010 will bring together the talents of Nottinghamshire as we inspire a whole county to try something new. Whoever you are, whatever you do we want you to take part and do something different this weekend. More than 100 venues across Nottinghamshire will host the fun and imaginative learning experiences – have a go! We already know how great learning can be!
For more details check out the rest of the website here.
Experience Nottingham city centre's hidden gems with Light Night 2010. Friday 12 February take to the streets with friends and family and discover a evening of spectacular events and illuminations for everyone to enjoy.
This will be Nottingham's third Light Night event and the city is getting ready to reveal some of the City's hidden gems with its theme of 'Hidden Spaces'.
Most of the events are FREE and look out for special offers in city centre restaurants, cafes and bars – and of course Nottingham Castle is involved too, so I hope to see you there!
UPDATE: It was indeed a very fun night, all across Nottingham there were light displays, entertainments and music, and up at Nottingham Castle we had lasers, fabulous 'burning trees' and great fireworks dispays every hour – but it was incredibly cold and after a few hours I began to think the Sheriff may be right – living in the Castle is a lot more sensible than living in a forest sometimes!
A few years ago, before the Nottingham’s Sheriff’s Lodge medieval banqueting centre was sold for redevelopment, December used to be my busiest time as Robin Hood, performing at banquets every night of the week pretty much for the whole month (and at it’s height, from halfway through November too).
These days I still do banquets at Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest but now a lot of my December work comes from the Digital Paparazzi, which luckily involves just as much dressing up and just as much fun too, so it was a great and rare pleasure to be able to combine ‘Hood-ing’ with ‘Pap-ing’ last Saturday at a very posh hotel in Nottingham to celebrate a client’s 50th birthday. He’d decided to have a fancy dress party themed around ‘heroes’ and had the Paparazzi boys doing their thing but he also wanted an MC to announce and help the guests, so I got to be Robin at what turned out to be the most excellent costume party I’ve ever been to – even if the next morning I’d lost my voice due to all the shouting!
Robin’s Twitter update
I’ve already mentioned the Robin Hood Twitter feed set up by the World Wide Robin Hood Society, it’s now up and running and you can read more about it at the Nottingham Evening Post article HERE.
(This Nottingham Evening Post photo from their article shows me with Mike Douglas and Bob White from the Society).
Hmm… so, I’ve just got back from Nottingham Castle where I was doing a photoshoot for the excellent chaps from the World Wide Robin Hood Society and the Nottingham Evening Post to promote their new and very exciting ‘Robin Hood Twitter’ project (more about that HERE)!
I was very surprised to find that the world-famous Robin Hood statue has been rehoused though, temporarily entombed in a wooden protective housing because of a right wing rally being held near the Castle tomorrow (as well as a left wing counter-protest in the Old Market Square, an army march-past through the city centre from the Mercian regiment who are returning from Afghanistan, an anti-war protest at that and to top it all, a Nottingham Forest vs. Leicester City football match).
The Castle will be shut to visitors tomorrow but I’m beginning to wonder if it’ll be the safest place in town to be… Read more about it at the Evening Post online HERE, HERE and HERE.
Earlier this year I helped the Lord Mayor of Nottingham (the splendid Councillor Jeannie Packer, who used to be the Sheriff of Nottingham as well) to open the Nottingham Riviera, a ‘Nottingham by the Sea’-type attraction which turned the city’s Old Market Square into a reasonable approximation of the seaside with tonnes of sand, a pool, a beachfront bar and a host of rides too. (You can see a few more photos here).
Nottingham’s not quite the furthest spot in England from a coast (but not too far off) so it created quite a stir, both from residents either for or against the idea and of course the press, who swarmed down to cover the opening – I was interviewed live by SKY TV, BBC TV and ITV’s Central News as well as Heart FM radio… and most of them wanted to know not only what I thought of the beach ("It’s a great idea, look at everyone having fun") but also about that day’s big Nottinghamshire news, the appointment of ex-England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson as manager of Notts County Football Club…
And of course there I floundered – I know nothing about football personally (though Robin Hood is obviously 100% behind Nottingham’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup – I know, ‘cos I did a photoshoot to prove it), so I pretended I knew what (and who) I was talking about and think I got away with it, though some’ll tell you otherwise!
The best bit was the utterly surreal experience of myself, the Lord Mayor and a host of council officials all getting on the roundabout twice (Jeannie and myself in full kit, me with bow and arrows included) and looking very odd but strangely happy before it rose, spinning into the air so we could wave at everyone below and have more pictures taken! It was top fun but very silly – and it does have to be said that waving her arms around, sleeves flapping about behind her Jeannie looked just like Batman in full flight) 
On the same night as the Nottingham Castle NRSB charity firewalk (see previous entry) we also walked to the Canalhouse pub to attend the opening day of the Nottingham Victoria Cross Memorial Appeal Beer Festival (and try saying that when you’ve had one of the twenty-five excellent real ales that were on sale, let alone several)!
The festival ran from Thursday to Sunday and I went a couple of times, Saturday night was particularly fun as there was live music from the truly marvellous Nimming Ned, if you get a chance to check them out you certainly should, not only are they top blokes but they do a fabulous song about Robin Hood (and one about The Dogs of War too)!
In the photo, from left to right are: Dave Green (Nottingham Castle manager); me; Sal Chappell; Dave Chappell and Colin Wilde (Commercial Director of the Castle Rock Brewery). Photo courtesy of Julie from Designcat - thanks yet again!
Yet again, that was an amazing experience - the firewalk for the Nottinghamshire Royal Society for the Blind was held at Nottingham Castle on November 5th and this time over forty very brave folks joined Maid Marian (Sal Chappell) and myself in walking across hot coals to raise money for this excellent charity.
This year everything was held at the top of the castle mound, next to the castle itself (last year it was lower down, in the grounds) and everyone had a good view as supporters, family and friends all had the luxury of the stadium seating left in place after last month’s Robin Hood Pageant. There was food, live music, a beer tent and after the firewalk a fabuloust fireworks display too.
Many thanks – and congratulations – to everyone who took part too. The coach/trainer told us just beforehand that the coals were burning at around 500 degrees and apparently human flesh melts at just 300 (nice…) so walking quickly and carefully was very important – and I can genuinely say the coals were much hotter this year than last!
But absolutely the best bit was seeing the unrestrained joy and exhuberance coming from each and every walker as they walked off the coals (to be presented with a medal by the Sheriff of Nottingham and his Lady) as it truly is an empowering and uplifting experience… if you didn’t try it this year then please do next time, I promise you won’t regret it!
