Ivanhoe (1958 TV series)
Encyclopedia
Ivanhoe is a British television
series first shown on ITV
in 1958-59. It featured Roger Moore
, in his first starring role, as Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, in a series of adventures aimed at a children's audience. It used characters drawn loosely from Sir Walter Scott's 1819 novel
.
, who had gone to fight in the Crusades
and failed to return. In his absence, power had been taken by his younger brother, the ambitious and wicked Prince John
, who sought to strip the people of their rights and land. The dashing and heroic knight
Ivanhoe, with his father-and-son companions Gurth and Bart whom he had freed from servitude (from the evil Sir Maurice), attempted to right wrongs, secure justice, help those in need, and thwart John and his allies.
and The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
, were a mainstay of television programming in Britain in the mid-1950s. In December 1956, Columbia Pictures
signed up Roger Moore, then working with limited success in Hollywood, to play the title role in an intended series for transmission in both America and the UK. The series was a co-production between Columbia subsidiary Screen Gems
and British producer Sydney Box
.
The budget was far more lavish than that of the Robin Hood series running at the time and filming started in early 1957, mostly at the ABC Studios at Elstree Studios
and on location around Buckinghamshire
in England, but with some shooting also taking place in California. The series premiered on ITV in January 1958, while filming continued to complete all 39 episodes through to June 1958. Although a pilot episode was filmed in colour, the series was shot in black and white. The executive producer was Peter Rogers
, who shortly afterwards began producing the Carry On
films. Guest stars on the series included Christopher Lee
and John Schlesinger
. Other supporting actors included Jon Pertwee
, Paul Eddington
, Leonard Sachs
, Kenneth Cope
and Adrienne Corri
.
Moore insisted on undertaking much of the stunt work himself, resulting in several injuries including three cracked ribs from a fight scene and being knocked unconscious when a battleaxe hit his helmeted skull. Moore later commented: "I felt a complete Charlie riding around in all that armour and damned stupid plumed helmet. I felt like a medieval fireman."
The series finished when Moore returned to Hollywood after Warner Brothers offered him a movie role in The Miracle
.
. Sony Pictures Television
has the rights of the series. It’s unknown why Sony has granted no DVD publisher a licence to release the series on DVD.
Each episode ends with the following song:
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
series first shown on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in 1958-59. It featured Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
, in his first starring role, as Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, in a series of adventures aimed at a children's audience. It used characters drawn loosely from Sir Walter Scott's 1819 novel
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott in 1819, and set in 12th-century England. Ivanhoe is sometimes credited for increasing interest in Romanticism and Medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages," while...
.
Plot
The series was set in England during the 12th century reign of King Richard the LionheartRichard I of England
Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
, who had gone to fight in the Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
and failed to return. In his absence, power had been taken by his younger brother, the ambitious and wicked Prince John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
, who sought to strip the people of their rights and land. The dashing and heroic knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
Ivanhoe, with his father-and-son companions Gurth and Bart whom he had freed from servitude (from the evil Sir Maurice), attempted to right wrongs, secure justice, help those in need, and thwart John and his allies.
Making of the series
Swashbuckling adventures for a younger audience, such as The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel, The Adventures of Robin HoodThe Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a popular British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes. It starred Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The show aired weekly between 1955 and 1959 on ITV in London in the...
and The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot is a British television series first broadcast in 1956, produced by Sapphire Films for ITC Entertainment and screened on the ITV network...
, were a mainstay of television programming in Britain in the mid-1950s. In December 1956, Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
signed up Roger Moore, then working with limited success in Hollywood, to play the title role in an intended series for transmission in both America and the UK. The series was a co-production between Columbia subsidiary Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
and British producer Sydney Box
Sydney Box
Sydney Box was a British film producer and screenwriter, brother of another prominent British filmmaker, Betty Box. He produced the postwar screenplay, The Seventh Veil, which earned him the 1946 Oscar for best original screenplay with his then wife Muriel Box after which the couple were hired by...
.
The budget was far more lavish than that of the Robin Hood series running at the time and filming started in early 1957, mostly at the ABC Studios at Elstree Studios
Elstree Studios
"Elstree Studios" refers to any of several film studios that were based in the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England, since film production begun in 1927.-Name:...
and on location around Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
in England, but with some shooting also taking place in California. The series premiered on ITV in January 1958, while filming continued to complete all 39 episodes through to June 1958. Although a pilot episode was filmed in colour, the series was shot in black and white. The executive producer was Peter Rogers
Peter Rogers
Peter Rogers was a British film producer.Rogers began his career as a journalist for his local paper before graduating to scriptwriting religious informational films...
, who shortly afterwards began producing the Carry On
Carry On films
The Carry On films are a series of low-budget British comedy films, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers. They are an energetic mix of parody, farce, slapstick and double entendres....
films. Guest stars on the series included Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
and John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...
. Other supporting actors included Jon Pertwee
Jon Pertwee
John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
, Paul Eddington
Paul Eddington
Paul Eddington CBE was an English actor best known for his appearances in popular television sitcoms of the 1970s and 80s: The Good Life, Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.-Early life:...
, Leonard Sachs
Leonard Sachs
Leonard Sachs was a British actor.-Early life and career:Sachs was born in South Africa in the town of Roodepoort, Transvaal...
, Kenneth Cope
Kenneth Cope
Kenneth Cope is an English actor. He is most famous for his roles as Marty Hopkirk in Randall and Hopkirk , Jed Stone in Coronation Street and Ray Hilton in Brookside.- Career :...
and Adrienne Corri
Adrienne Corri
Adrienne Corri is an actress of Italian parentage.She is probably best known for her role as the rape victim Mrs. Alexander in the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange, and for her appearances as Valerie in Jean Renoir's The River and as Lara's mother in David Lean's Dr. Zhivago...
.
Moore insisted on undertaking much of the stunt work himself, resulting in several injuries including three cracked ribs from a fight scene and being knocked unconscious when a battleaxe hit his helmeted skull. Moore later commented: "I felt a complete Charlie riding around in all that armour and damned stupid plumed helmet. I felt like a medieval fireman."
The series finished when Moore returned to Hollywood after Warner Brothers offered him a movie role in The Miracle
The Miracle (1959 film)
The Miracle is a 1959 remake of a 1912 German film Das Mirakel directed by Cherry Kearton and Max Reinhardt which in turn was based on a 1911 pantomime play of the same name by Karl Vollmöller.-Production history and reception:...
.
Cast
- Roger MooreRoger MooreSir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
- Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe - Robert Brown - Gurth (Ivanhoe's squire)
- Peter GilmorePeter GilmorePeter Gilmore is a British actor, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Captain James Onedin in the BBC Television period drama The Onedin Line. He also had roles in eleven Carry On films, and played the heroic lead in the adventure film Warlords of Atlantis...
- Waldo Ivanhoe - Andrew KeirAndrew KeirAndrew Keir was a Scottish actor, who rose to prominence featuring in a number of films from Hammer Film Productions in the 1960s. He was also active in television, and particularly in the theatre, in a professional career that lasted from the 1940s to the 1990s...
- Prince John - John PikeJohn PikeJohn Pike may refer to:* John Pike , 17th century British immigrant to America* John E. Pike , Director and founder of GlobalSecurity.org* St John Pike , Anglican Bishop* John S...
- Bart (the son of Gurth) - Bruce SetonBruce SetonMajor Sir Bruce Lovat Seton of Abercorn, 11th Baronet , better known as Bruce Seton, was a British actor and soldier....
- King Richard - Paul Whitsun-JonesPaul Whitsun-JonesPaul Whitsun-Jones was a Welsh actor.He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, Middlesex.-Career:Whitsun-Jones played the role of Mr Bumble in the original West End production of the musical Oliver!...
- Sir Maverick - Anthony DawsonAnthony DawsonAnthony Dawson was a Scottish-born actor, best known for his supporting roles in British films.Born in Edinburgh, he made his film debut in 1943's They Met in the Dark, going on to appear in such classic British films as The Way to the Stars , The Queen of Spades , and The Wooden Horse , before...
- Sir Maurice - Norah Gorsen - Lady Rowena (Ivanhoe's girlfriend)
- Henry Vidon - Sir Cedric (Ivanhoe's father, who owns Rotherwood Castle)
Broadcasting
The 39 episodes of the series was originally broadcast from 5 January 1958 to 4 January 1959. It was later repeated several times. In brackets are the original air dates.- Freeing the Serfs (5 January 1958)
- Slave Traders (12 January 1958)
- Wedding Cake (19 January 1958)
- Black Boar (26 January 1958)
- Whipping Boy (2 February 1958)
- The Witness (9 February 1958)
- German Knight (16 February 1958)
- Face to Face (23 February 1958)
- Rinaldo (2 March 1958)
- Lyman the Pieman (9 March 1958)
- The Escape (16 March 1958)
- Ragan's Forge (23 March 1958)
- The Ransom (29 March 1958)
- The Prisoner in the Tower (5 April 1958)
- Murder at the Inn (12 April 1958)
- Brothers in Arms (14 June 1958)
- The Weavers (21 June 1958)
- Counterfeit (6 July 1958)
- The Widow of Woodcote (20 July 1958)
- The Kidnapping (27 July 1958)
- Treasures from Cathay (10 August 1958)
- By Hook or By Crook (17 August 1958)
- The Double-Edged Sword (24 August 1958)
- Search For Gold (31 August 1958)
- The Masked Bandits (7 September 1958)
- Freelance (21 September 1958)
- The Masons (28 September 1958)
- Arms and the Woman (5 October 1958)
- The Cattle Killers (19 October 1958)
- The Gentle Jester (26 October 1958)
- 3 Days to Worcester (9 November 1958)
- The Night Raiders (16 November 1958)
- The Raven (23 November 1958)
- The Monk (30 November 1958)
- The Swindler (7 December 1958)
- The Princess (14 December 1958)
- The Fledgling (21 December 1958)
- The Circus (28 December 1958)
- The Devil's Dungeon (4 January 1959)
Availability
The series has not yet been released on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television, Inc. is an American and global television production/distribution subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In turn, the latter is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.-Background:...
has the rights of the series. It’s unknown why Sony has granted no DVD publisher a licence to release the series on DVD.
Title song
Each episode started with the title song:- Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe
- Side by side we’re proud to ride with Ivanhoe
- At his call we spring to help him ride along
- The song we sing is free and joyous song
- Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe
- Far and wide throughout the countryside they know
- There’s freedom on his banner
- Justice in his sword
- He rides against the manor
- Where tyranny is lord
- Rich and poor
- Together we go
- Forward with Ivanhoe
- With I-van-hoe
Each episode ends with the following song:
- Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe
- To adventure, bold adventure watch him go
- There's no power on earth can stop what he's begun
- With Bart and Gurth, he'll fight 'till he has won
- Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe
- He's a friend who will defend the people's foe
- He'll strike with speed like lightning bold and brave and game
- In justice he is fighting to win the fairest dame.
- Shout a cheer, adventure is here
- Riding with Ivanhoe
- With I-van-hoe