In the Hood

In October 2007, the BBC's Robin Hood TV series returned for its second series. Amongst a number of changes, the entire title sequence was completely overhauled, with a lot more colour, variety, shots of forest scenery interspersed with clips from episodes and whatnot. A visual summary of all the different credit screens would look more or less exactly like this:

Episodes 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 and 11 have an extra screen between the director and series producer credit for Jane Hudson, with the other production credits shortened slightly to fit it in:

This same title sequence was the basis for the one used in the third and final series. However, whilst Series 2 kept the same cast throughout, the regulars were constantly changing throughout for S3, and the opening was updated to account for this -- in fact, with two exceptions, the sequence was never the same two weeks running.

Let's start with the series premiere, "Total Eclipse":

Perhaps because of all the constant shifting around they were going to be doing this year, it appears whoever put the title sequence together went back to the 'clean' versions of the forest scenery and superimposed the credits over them. (This does mean you lose the nice effect of Sam Troughton's credit having a different quality to match the misty shot of scenery it appears over. This also affects the 'DEEP IN THE HEART OF ENGLAND... LIVES A LEGEND' text at the start of the sequence; part of the word 'LIVES' goes behind a tree in the Series 2 version, and I am not sure if the Series 3 version fixes a mistake or accidentally ruins a deliberate piece of imagery.)

It's only apparent when you compare side-by-side, but the shots have also been brightened a bit compared to the previous version -- intentionally, or just an accident when retrieving the textless versions? Surely a question which we will never know the answer to.

Lucy Griffiths departed the show in controversial circumstances at the end of the second series which Rebecca Fisher can tell you all about; Richard Armitage gets bumped up one, and David Harewood fills the gap in the upper tier of cast credits. Harry Lloyd and Anjali Jay also left, and the new sequence just lops their names off, with an extended sequence of rapid-fire clips from episodes filling the gap. Other than that, every shot in this sequence still corresponds to the one used for the equivalent screen in the previous series.

Onto episode 2, "Cause and Effect", and the arrival of Joanne Froggatt:

This is Anjali Jay's old screen, even though you might have expected it to be Harry Lloyd's. We will find out why (probably) in due course.

For episodes 3 and 4 ("Lost in Translation" and "Sins of the Father"), Richard Armitage had to be written out so he could film Spooks, but no need to do anything too drastic for an obviously temporary absence, just a blank screen where his name would normally be:

In episode 5, "Let the Games Commence", Armitage is back, and he brings Gisborne's hitherto unknown sister Isabella with him:

This is Harry Lloyd's old screen, coming where it did (with Pulver being one name above Froggatt in the pecking order); the cast is now back up to the same size it was in Series 2, and the credit screens appear exactly as they did for that series, just with different names on some of them.

Episode 6 ("Do You Love Me?"), though, adds yet another cast member to the opening credits, namely Toby Stephens as Prince John. The clips of episodes between the credits have been constantly trimming down since episode 1, and since the sequence is now one name longer than it was originally designed for, a new shot of forest scenery has to be found. They come up with a new shot for Joe Armstrong's screen, then everyone else is bumped down one screen, with Lara Pulver now on what is usually Armstrong's screen down to Toby Stephens being added at the end on what was originally Anjali Jay's screen:

Joe Armstrong's name was originally between two sets of clips from episodes, which is not the case for any other actor; perhaps the original intention was to highlight his expanded role in Series 2? In any case, them having to cut down on the clips from episodes means this is no longer the case. It's a very nice new shot of the forest they find for him, and perhaps it was made for the sequence in Series 2 but not used.

Unbelievably, yet more cast changearounds are afoot; at the end of episode 6, Keith Allen temporarily departs when the Sheriff is assassinated by Gisborne on Prince John's orders. With this being a longer stay of absence than Armitage's, Gordon Kennedy, Sam Troughton and Joe Armstrong all get bumped up by one screen for episode 7, "Too Hot to Handle":

Pulver, Froggatt and Stephens get to stay where they are; this presumably explains why they found a new credit screen for Joe Armstrong in the previous episode rather than Stephens. (The clips of episodes have been constantly tweaked throughout this to represent the cast changes, and this episode also takes the opportunity to replace some of them with ones from later episodes; presumably due to being cut together early on, the series 2 title sequence only used clips from the first four or five episodes.)

We then get a whole episode's break from all this for "The King is Dead, Long Live the King..." before Toby Stephens' guest stint comes to an end; rather than just lop his name off and leave the title sequence otherwise the same, Joanne Froggatt goes back to occupying his screen (which was hers on episodes 2-5, and was originally Anjali Jay's, you'll recall) for episode 9, "A Dangerous Deal". Episode 10, "Bad Blood", on account of having Armstrong and Armitage the only two regulars that week, uses a title sequence with the guest cast billed, but this only takes them up to what was originally Sam Troughton's screen and has to use a very long sequence of clips from episodes to fill the gap.

All the regulars are back for episode 11, "The Enemy of My Enemy", plus yet another newcomer, Clive Standen, whose name occupies Harry Lloyd's screen:

Keith Allen then rejoins the cast for episode 12, "Something Worth Fighting For: Part One", resulting in a sequence that is again one name too long and hence very similar to the one for "Do You Love Me?"; Joe Armstrong's credit is on the same screen from that episode, meaning everyone else gets to stay where they are compared to the previous week.

I would also note Sam Troughton's credit screen for both parts of "Something Worth Fighting For", which compared to episodes 1-6 indicates they regenerated the credits rather than just grabbing the screen from a previous episode:

Finally, Allan a Dale bites the dust in Part One. Despite the fact Allan is still in Part Two as a corpse, Joe Armstrong is not credited to the point they remove his name from the opening sequence; since he occupies a unique screen on the one-name-too-long version, everyone else stays on the same credit screen as the week before.

I think if nothing else, that does show the production was putting some thought into how to change the title sequence each week, with every cast member staying on their designated screen as much as possible.