The BBC has sold out to the U.S. market, simple as that. A prime example of the tripe the BBC is producing at the moment is Robin Hood. There has never been a take on Robin Hood that could cram such intense levels of vacuous, inaccurate, meaningless drivel into such a pointless exercise. The non-violent stance of Robin Hood is the stuff of the A-Team, this combined with truly stupid stunts and extremely poor fight choreography gets the BBC the award for the ‘most appalling Robin Hood ever conceived’. The clothes are often pseudo-modern in style with the most ridiculous excuse for Norman armour that I have ever seen. There is a Sarasin women wearing a combat jacket, Lord of the Rings style acrobatics such as death-slides on a bow and a sense of inflation in everything that only a dumbwitted American audience would suck up this shit. Maybe I am too harsh on the Amercians, TV in the UK is now almost the utter tripe it is in the US (but without the HBO), and Robin Hood has been getting the same old positive reviews pumped out as a standard for BBC trash programming (ie Torchwood and Dr Who). (Too many good BBC lunches for journos I think).

Did the makers of this program do any research? Did they just think ‘The yanks are already stupid we can make any drivel and it’ll sell’. I’m not saying that Robin Hood should be some serious look at the gritty reality of being a bandit in the 12th century (approx). Robin Hood is a romance that has changed over the years. Michael Praed arguably the best Robin Hood in ‘Robin of Sherwood‘ which is definitely the finest series about the ‘hooded man’ ever made, conveys a far deeper and interesting take on Robin. Exploring his pagan links with Hern the Hunter and as such draws a far more accurate version of Feudal England than has ever been portrayed in a Robin Hood themed series/film. Of course it was romanticised but it WAS NOT AMERICANISED.

The new Robin Hood series is an absolute disgrace pumping the viewing expectations of an American audience into our heritage, twisting a fine story into a non-violent pantomime, making a laughable tragedy of one of our most treasured heroes. Now he is some ‘emo‘ pacifist wimp that makes me want to vomit. (why couldn’t they do a story about Robin coming back from the Crusades?!!) Jonas Armstrong looks far too much like Steven Hendry for me to take him seriously as an actor, let alone as Robin Hood for gods sake.

THE BBC,  YOU HAVE SOLD OUT. YOU PANDER TO THE AMERICAN MARKET AND CHARGE ME FOR THE PLEASURE OF WATCHING YOU BUTCHER OUR HERITAGE.

p.s. Keith Allen has always been crap.

Over the last 3 years I have seen the emergence of a new type of fashion disgrace. Yes, these flat vulgar shoes often accompanied with 80’s charity shop clothes and pastel shaded makeup are combined to create some kind of 50’s/80’s mutant. I detest this current trend and find these ‘ballet flats’ extremely offensive. Firstly the colours are generally silver or gold. That in itself is grotesque. Secondly they are a ballet shoe, looking completely impractical and extremely flimsy. This pathetic excuse for a shoe rises to the very heights of the shoe obscenity top ten that includes Espadrille’s and Cork Platforms.

Then there is the fashion style that goes along with these shoes. Often with the ‘common’ wearer they are just in jeans (often ankle length) and other than that a casual top of sorts. However the ‘hardcore’ go for ‘ra ra’ skirts, or 80’s charity wear and for the life of me they look like such sad try hards I can only weep for their lack of originality. These shoes make women look like the fake ‘beatniks’ or 50’s ‘jazz’ girls, an image that lacked any substance or conveyed any articulation at the time, let alone now. Unless you perversely like the overt pretentiousness of these ethnic mixing ‘cool cats’ and the posturing egos that beat poetry drivel shat out of the early sixties I advise you to ‘ditch this kit’ before you become more shit that kitsch.