06 | December | 2025

The first recording today starts with a trail for Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow.

Then it’s Robin Hood – A Dangerous Deal.

Robin breaks into Sheriff Isabella’s room and tells her she has to work with him. “Unless you work with me, keep me in the picture, tell me the Prince’s plans and I’ll protect you when the King returns.” “What if I don’t want to be your friend?” “Then you’ll find out what it is to be my enemy.” I’m not really surprised she doesn’t think this is a good offer.

Next day she has a woman brought before her for not obeying her father. She sets her free. “People of Nottingham… ..now maybe you can see the kind of Sheriff I am. And as I’ve set Meg here free, I intend to set the whole of Nottingham free… ..to be a fairer, more peaceful and prosperous place for us all!” Meg is played by Holliday Grainger.

But Isabella is rather upstaged when her husband appears, and suddenly declares that that makes him the new Sheriff, because I’m sure that’s how the laws worked. I have a feeling this programme might just be making shit up.

Inside the castle, Isabella has to accede to her husband’s wishes for… reasons. Meg intercedes. “Stop it! Please… If you promise not to hurt her, I can make you rich.” “Away with her.” “It’s true. I know where gold coins are buried. Handfuls and handfuls.” So then Meg gets locked up as Isabella tells him she knows the burial mound Meg spoke of.

In the dungeon, Meg has some banter with Gisborne. “You always were a bit pleased with yourself. I saw you once. The man in black on his black horse. The big “I am”. Look at you now. Dirty and miserable… and small!”

She wasn’t lying about the burial mound, as it’s filled with gold. It’s also cursed,

Back in the dungeon, Meg is starting to fall for Gisborne, because characters do randomly completely change their attitude to people at the drop of a hat. I’m really struggling with this series, if I’m honest.

Robin attacks the dig, there’s fighting, and running, and Isabella gets away from her husband. Robin finds her and she’s immediately all over him. “I was a fool to turn my back on you. Please help me.” “If you promise to fight with us for King Richard, then I’ll protect you.” “Yes. Of course. You and me, Robin. I think we can work together. I’ve always known it and I think you do too.” “It’s a deal.” “You won’t regret this.”

Robin sends Thornton off to a madhouse.

Meg is released from the dungeon by Isabella, but she then steals the keys and goes back to free Gisborne because she’s in lurve. She’s caught and Isabella says she’ll have them both executed.

Isabella’s offer of giving the gold to Robin was, naturally, a trap.

They are rescued by Much, who was moping around and leaving the group because he’s in love with Kate, but she’s only interested in Robin, and oh god I’m so bored by all this nonsense. Anyway, he somehow manages to overcome a group of soldiers, steals their horses and rides to the rescue.

Now they need to take the gold back, using Gisborne’s execution as a distraction. When Robin discovers that Meg is also to be executed, Robin has to intercede.

Then Thornton returns. No idea how. Does it matter?

Meg is stabbed during the skirmish, because you can’t have three women in a Robin Hood show. Gisborne carries her off.

Isabella stabs Thornton.

Gisborne takes Meg to the side of a lake. “I always quite liked you” she says before dying.

Robin and Kate seem to be hooking up but I’m struggling to care about any of the relationships in this show.

Media Centre Description: Drama retelling the classic legend. Gisborne awaits his execution in Nottingham dungeon, and meets a fellow prisoner who has a profound effect upon him. Robin thinks he can strike a deal with Sheriff Isabella, but his plans are thwarted when an unexpected stranger from her past arrives, looking for revenge.

Recorded from BBC ONE on Saturday 30th May 2009 19:23

BBC Genome: BBC ONE Saturday 30th May 2009 19:25

After this there’s a trail for Holby City.

There’s also a promo for iPlayer and a trail for Mary Queen of Charity Shops.

Then the recording ends with the start of The National Lottery Draws.

The other recording today is the first episode of a new comedy, Mumbai Calling – Teknobable.

It stars Sanjeev Bhaskar as Kenny Gupta, a British Indian man who’s assigned by his company to manage a call centre in Mumbai because he’s Indian, despite him having been born and raised in Wembley. We learn all this in a short flashback scene which has all the hallmarks of being a late addition to the edit, since the whole scene is played from this one angle as he’s told he’s going to Mumbai, and we only ever hear the voice of his boss.

Nitin Ganatra plays Dev, the local man who keeps the place running, since as the story opens, it seems that Kenny hasn’t been spending a lot of time in the office.

Head Office in London are sending Terry Johnson to perform an emergency on-site assessment, which throws Dev into a panic. He sends someone to pick them up and take the long way back to delay them while he finds where Kenny is. Which turns out to be a bar where he’s been drinking all week because he’s had a break-up.

Terry Johnson turns out to be Terri Johnson – what a shock twist.

She’s soon left randomly by the man sent to drive her, and spends time having amusing conversations with the locals, and stepping into buffalo shit.

For some reason, Dev is interviewing young attractive women for an assistant’s job, and half the male staff are also in the room, and they’re also all dancing. I really don’t understand why any of this is happening.

Terri finally arrives. She doesn’t have much time for Dev, with a sweary diatribe after he tries flirting with her.

There’s a running plotline where they are getting a lot of calls to a helpline about severe flooding in Manchester, and it seems to be the job of the helpline to organise flood rescue, which doesn’t make an awful lot of sense to me, but it does at least give them something approaching a real problem to solve, even if this does take about two minutes of screen time.

There’s a disclaimer at the end. “We would like to clarify that the National Floodline featured in the programme is a fictitious service and not in any way connected with the floodline operated by the Environment Agency.” And I’m sorry but this was genuinely funnier than anything in the episode itself.

Media Centre Description: New comedy series. When Kenny Gupta is sent from London to manage a call centre in Mumbai, he soon finds himself broken-hearted and miserable. But while he is nursing his unhappiness away from work, head office decides to send an assessor to investigate the centre. Kenny receives a pleasant surprise when assessor Terry turns out to be an attractive woman called Terri – and her arrival has some unexpected results for everyone.

Recorded from ITV 1 on Saturday 30th May 2009 22:00

After this, the recording ends with the start of FA Cup Final Highlights. Both of the teams normally play in blue, so this is the introduction: “Who will be heartbroken after the FA Cup final? Will it be Everton behind me here? Or will it be Chelsea desperate to make amends for their Champions League exit? Defeat for either here would give them the blues.” Then they cut to an old bloke playing the blues. And as part of the lyrics of the song he’s singing he actually sings “Yeah, that’s the blues. That’s the blues.” And I’m immediately reminded why football just isn’t for me.