Lara Pulver in Robin Hood Episode 3.08

After a missing a week due to Eurovision it's nice to have robin Hood back on a Saturday night. In this episode Prince John is a bit impatient for a coronation so produces a waxwork of the "dead" king. Most of the episode revolves around Robin and his chums trying to get the fake body and then the crown to prevent the coronation from happening.

Also this week Isabella hears of an opening for the position of Sheriff and is trying to get the job. She captures her brother to sweeten the deal but it all goes a bit wrong when he escapes. Never mind, she gets back in the prince's good books by throwing herself between the prince an arrow aimed at him.

As usual Toby Stephens excels at the vain prince. His call of "do you LOVE me?!" to the crowd is worth this week's share of the licence fee alone.

And as usual I am smitten by Lara Pulver as Isabella. She's really very good.

Here are a bunch of screen-grab type images of Lara. And as a bonus for the ladies there's a glimpse of Richard Armitage about halfway down the page.

Lara Pulver in Robin Hood Episode 3.07

This episode had a lot of Isabella in it I am happy to say. There are various spoilers in my comments below so be careful if you've not seen it yet.

Prince John has a plan to dry the wells in order that the peasants will love him for giving them water. He tells Isabella his plan knowing that she will tell Robin. Then he informs Gisborne to follow and kill them both.

Isabella does indeed tell Robin the princes plan. He asks why she is helping him and Isabella gives a number of reasons that include being on the winning side.

Gisborne briefly captures them but is knocked out. An emotional and tearful Isabella is close to killing him for making the last 17 years of her life hell.

Robin and Isabella eventually end up in a flooding dungeon. They escape but rather than stay to rescue Kate Isabella pleads with Robin to escape with her and start a new life somewhere else. He refuses as such a life can only be a dream for him. When the Prince and Gisborne turn up she switches sides and denounces Robin. There follows an ambitious four-way sword fight where opponents constantly switch. It's good fun.

At first Isabella's betrayal of Robin didn't ring true to me as she had gone out of her way to help him in the last two episodes. However looking back over this episode the clues are there. When she discussed the reasons for helping Robin the one thing she didn't mention was doing the right thing. She also expressed her resentment of Gisborne on numerous occasions and she clearly wants to escape any dependence on him. Robin seemed a likely way out for her.

At first I was a little annoyed by her betrayal but now I can see the writers are producing a quite complex character for Isabella. She is certainly one of the most interesting characters in the show, walking a tightrope between the men she is trying to manipulate to escape her old life.

Lara Pulver is doing a great job. I can't believe that it's her first TV role.

Toby Stephens continues to excel as Prince John. He even gets to tell Gisborne "You're fired" in true Apprentice style. I doubt they had that phrase in medieval times but he makes it work.

Richard Armitage as Gisborne gets to do little more that glower, but he does it well.

There now follows a few screen-grab type images of Isabella. I can't help myself. =sigh=

(Oh, by the way, no episode next week! Eurovision! Grrrr!)

Lara Pulver - "Oh, you adorable girl!"

I watched my second episode of Robin Hood tonight. It was episode 6 of the third series and was titled "Do you love me?" And I have to say I enjoyed it very much.

Toby Stephens arrived as Price John and in a single episode made paying the licence fee worthwhile. His prince is a vain creature who wants to be king. He wonders why the peasants don't love him when he tries to burn down their church with them inside it.

"Long live Prince John," say his guests. "Long live me," he replies.

He sets up Gisborne and the Sheriff to fight each other to the death, apparently so he can blame Robin Hood. We get a pretty good sword fight resulting in the apparent death of the Sheriff. Until later we see his hand move...

Lara Pulver returns as Isabella and by now methinks I am quite smitten. She seemed to grow more attractive as the episode went on. But beyond my shallowness I do note she is a pretty damn good actress. Many of her scenes are with Toby Stephens where she's playing up to his vanity, describing her "capture" by Robin and whispering a "King John" whenever needed.

And she looks great in a period frock.

Minus points for snogging Robin. It seemed a little too soon. Oh well, it had to happen eventually I suppose.

I don't normally do the screen-grab thing, but in this case I will make an exception as there are not many photos of Lara/Isabella out there. It was no hardship.


I may have a go doing the screen-grab thing next week. I'll see how it goes.