Robot of Sherwood Doctor Who Extra


Robot of Sherwood

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# Welcome to behind the scenes On Doctor Who

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# I hope you enjoy the show. #

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Welcome behind the scenes

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of a swashbuckling episode of Doctor Who.

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This episode has it all -

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not one...

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but two heroes.

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En garde!

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A gang of outrageous men...

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THEY CHEER

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..and, of course, an evil villain.

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So I hope you're ready,

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as we're about to shoot through how they revamped this classic tale.

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Yes, this timeless British folklore

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was a perfect target for a Doctor Who regeneration.

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You really are Robin Hood and his Merry Men.

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THEY CHEER

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And it was left to Mark Gatiss to scribe this cunning caper.

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We caught up with Mark during a set visit

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to find out how this unique combination came about.

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Well, Steven asked me to do the Doctor meets Robin Hood with robots,

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and I've always been a huge fan of Robin Hood stories

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so it was a joy to do.

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The weird thing is, the script calls for the weather

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to be almost too sunny.

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As I was writing the words

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I thought, "This is a hostage to fortune."

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Cardiff - it's going to pour down.

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And, amazingly, this week it's been brilliant.

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Like I said, very sunny.

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Climate change?

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It's a real romp but with a serious intent.

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It's really about the Doctor wrestling with the idea

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that he's a hero

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by really meeting the greatest hero in English folklore.

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Stop!

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The laughing. Are you all simple?

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The Doctor may not have liked the banter

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from this motley crew of outlaws,

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but Peter sure did love having them on set.

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It's great to have all the Merry Men here

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and to have Tom Riley as Robin, who's doing a fantastic job.

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There is no contest!

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THEY LAUGH

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Tom's delivering all those lines

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with a buoyancy and liveliness.

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To be standing around

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with a hat with a feather in it and tights on,

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it's hard to pull all that off.

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It's about time we met this legendary hero

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and found out how he felt

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about appearing in an episode of Doctor Who.

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I've basically been a fan of Doctor Who for my entire life,

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and so being able to be part of it

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and to come on to the production and see how it's made

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and spend some time with the new Doctor,

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it's a dream come true.

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And it was Mark Gatiss who put Tom forward for the part,

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but Tom failed to contain his excitement when he got the call.

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You want to play it cool. You know, you want to be a bit like,

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"Yeah, you know, maybe I'll just read the script, Mark,

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"and I'll get back to you." And instead, I sort of said, "Yes!"

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And he said, "Do you want to read it?"

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"Yes, of course! I mean, yes, I want to read it."

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It's a show you want to be part of,

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and Mark's episodes are great, he's a fantastic writer,

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so I'm really lucky.

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Tom may have said yes straightaway

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but he was still nervous about playing such an iconic role.

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It's always a privilege

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and a little bit terrifying

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to play someone that the world already has a set fixed idea of,

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and so it's been really fun playing with expectations,

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playing with the idea of who Robin Hood is.

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It's been a challenge, but it's been such fun.

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I haven't had this much fun in years!

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ALL: Yeah!

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And it wasn't just Tom having a great time,

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Jenna quite enjoyed this episode, too.

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It felt like stepping into a story book.

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I think the scene where we had all of the Merry Men in their cavern,

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you felt like you could just turn a page

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and that's what it would look like.

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Well, it's realistic, I'll give you that.

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And also Peter and Tom on set

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are just absolutely hilarious together.

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I was literally going home exhausted from laughing so much.

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I was getting a bit too hysterical

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so I had to go sit away from them

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so that they couldn't make me laugh any more.

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Right! That isn't even funny.

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An episode featuring Robin Hood wouldn't be complete

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without the classic villain the Sheriff of Nottingham,

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played by Ben Miller.

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I had a fantastic scene with Jenna

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where I was kind of trying to seduce her

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to become my queen,

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I have designs on the English throne.

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Doesn't every king need a consort?

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But what did Ben think

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of playing this evil man?

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He's a really, really fun character to play.

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Hopefully he's menacing. I think he's quite menacing.

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He's certainly not someone I'd like to get mixed up with!

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Oh, he was brilliant.

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He really struck a clever, clever balance

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of the smarmy Sheriff,

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but underneath you could see him kind of calculating,

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and also definite anger-management issues...

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that would suddenly come out on a random line.

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The world!

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He's just a very clever villain, I think he was brilliant.

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Oi! What you doing here?

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This episode was quite a romp,

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and Ben was quite taken with our Doctor Who twist

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of the Robin Hood tale.

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Not only do I love Doctor Who,

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but I've always loved the legend of Robin Hood.

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Would you now?

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It's a wonderful thing about Doctor Who,

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is you can visit a Western

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or suddenly visit an episode of Robin Hood.

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It's one of the fantastic freedoms

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that you have is these tremendous one-offs.

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No!

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Robin Hood isn't the first legendary figure,

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who's crossed the Doctor's path.

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Not by a long shot.

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Very early on in the Doctor's travels he met Marco Polo

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and, in the same adventure,

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he encountered the legendary Kublai Khan

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and promptly gambled away the TARDIS

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when he lost a game of backgammon with him.

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The Doctor's old pal Winston Churchill

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also tried to get his hands on the TARDIS.

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And talking of time machines,

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the author of The Time Machine, HG Wells,

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helped the Doctor defeat this nasty piece of work, the Borad.

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But what is it with the Doctor and writers?

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The Ninth Doctor teamed up with Charles Dickens,

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and together they stopped the mischievous Gelth.

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The Tenth Doctor had more literary liaisons,

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battling the Carrionites with Shakespeare

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and solving the mystery

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of the Vespiform with Agatha Christie.

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Of course, the Doctor has caught the eye

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of plenty of queens from Earth's history.

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The Eleventh Doctor even came face to face

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with the legendary Egyptian ruler, Queen Nefertiti,

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who took quite a shine to him.

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In fact, she wasn't the first historical figure

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who had designs on becoming the time traveller's wife.

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He had a small fling, a "flingette with Reinette",

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also know as Madame de Pompadour.

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And there was a right royal romance with Queen Elizabeth I

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that ended in marriage.

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To be fair to the Doctor,

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he couldn't be sure his apparent bride wasn't a Zygon.

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Either way, after the ceremony, he was "Zygon" in 60 seconds,

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and so when Elizabeth did finally catch up with him

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she was happy for her bowmen to have him in their sights.

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And speaking of bowmen,

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this classic tale wouldn't have been complete

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without one particular famous scene.

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Today we're filming the grand tournament,

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the famous Robin Hood moment

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where Robin splits the arrow.

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It's a famous bit of Robin Hood lore,

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so I had to put it in the script.

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Of course it would have been criminal

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not to include this tournament,

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and with archery being a Robin Hood trademark,

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Tom soon had to learn how to use a bow and arrow.

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I used to do archery when I was a kid, like, in the Scouts,

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and I was OK at it and I'd kind of forgotten that I ever did it

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and suddenly I can pick up a bow and arrow and it all feels very natural.

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It's quite fun. I keep saying "fun".

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That's the thing about Doctor Who - it's fun!

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Whether they could shot a bow and arrow or not,

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all our cast members were trained

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and under the supervision of an archery expert.

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I am the real Robin Hood.

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I'm actually in the Guinness Book of Records

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for shooting the most amount of arrows in one minute.

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19 hits.

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Well, you're definitely the man for the job,

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but who has impressed Dean most?

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They've all done really well actually.

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I showed Tom the other day, and he shot some arrows

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and he actually hit the gold three times out of eight arrows,

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so, yeah, he's a natural.

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Sorry!

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I just keep getting bull's-eyes by accident.

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Although the actors were expertly trained,

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the Doctor Who special effects team

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had to help them split the arrows in two.

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Danny Hargreaves and his team oversaw this effect

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as it required specialist knowledge.

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But how was it done?

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What we're doing on this funky rig that you can see here,

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we've got six arrows lined up in order.

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We pull the arrow up

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onto the bow, fire it,

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hits the spot using the cable,

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and then the idea is that, the second one,

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we do exactly the same thing and it will split the arrow.

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Now we've only tested it very briefly and it was very successful.

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We're quietly confident it's going to work.

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Well, Danny, now it's time for the big moment.

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Three, two, one!

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CHEERING

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Nice! Time to shoot the rest.

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With the arrows fired successfully,

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it's another job well done for the effects team.

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They all split and they all hit the mark, so I'm happy.

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It wasn't only the fantastic special archery

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that caught our eye in this episode.

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We also had some wonderful period costumes.

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There was like a Clara's modern version

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of wanting to be Maid Marian,

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I think, so that was very fun.

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Clara may have liked her costume,

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but the Doctor didn't even get a look in.

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I quite like the fact that I don't have a period costume in this,

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because it means I cut more of a swathe through them all,

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otherwise I'd just disappear.

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Although the costumes looked the part,

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they weren't the most comfortable for the cast.

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Yes, the costume is a little tight.

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It's tight in all the wrong places.

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I currently can't feel my ankles, but these are pretty tight trousers.

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I'm full-on skinny-jeans Robin Hood.

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So, don't you like your costume?

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It's lovely, it's just hot, you know,

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it's hot to sword-fight in,

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it's hot to jump about on beams and roof-to-roof under studio lights in

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with the leather pressed against your skin.

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And just like their costumes, things got really heated

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when these two archenemies had their epic duel.

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I have a sword fight with Robin Hood

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and there's a lot of sort of jumping up on beams and ropes

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and a lot of kind of derring-do in our swordplay.

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That's all been great fun to rehearse

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and I've never done a sword fight before,

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so that's really good fun.

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I'm all right at sword-fighting.

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I've done a lot of sword-fighting for stage.

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It's quite different, sword-fighting for stage than TV.

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On stage you're actively trying not hit each other,

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but with TV you have to make it look like it can connect.

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First of all, just concentrate on getting the moves right,

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but then, as you progress,

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you actually want to really try and hit the other person

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where you are supposed to be hitting them.

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Are you still talking?!

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Argh!

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Well, it appears the Sheriff was the better swordsman after all.

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Bow down before your new King.

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But someone is a bit of a sore loser

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The Sheriff didn't beat me.

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I mean, what are you talking about, am I'm gutted the Sheriff beat me?

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The Sheriff didn't beat me.

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When does the Sheriff of Nottingham ever beat Robin Hood in the end?

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The Sheriff may have been beaten in the end,

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but it wasn't as easy

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when Tom went toe-to-toe with the Doctor.

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Me and Peter had a fantastic fight -

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the Doctor with a spoon versus Robin with a sword.

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This is my spoon!

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En garde!

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The Doctor's sword skills are impressive, to say the least.

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Even the Doctor had a fencing match with Robin,

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but how did Peter get on with such a technical scene?

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I'm just useless at all that stuff,

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any kind of, you know, physical activity, dancing or anything.

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It's one of those things you have to just keep practising,

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you have to absorb it into your muscle memory.

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And there's dialogue with it as well.

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Errol Flynn!

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It all looks easy. That's the trick of all this stuff,

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is to try and make it look effortless

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but, believe me, it's not.

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After a hard day's filming,

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Peter got a nice surprise on set.

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I didn't tell anybody,

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because you reach a certain age when you just don't want to

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make a fuss or anything,

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but the runners had put all balloons and happy-birthday banners

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up in my trailer

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and bought me wonderful gifts

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and there was a cake on set.

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Everybody was just so kind.

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It was lovely, it was absolutely great.

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With another episode complete,

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there's only one more thing left to say.

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Thanks for watching!

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THEY LAUGH

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