If television is the idiot's lantern then the subjective opinions of someone unqualified to write about television must surely be the idiot's lectern.

Robin Hood

7ish Saturday, BBC1

In 2005 the whole idea of Saturday evening family drama was rediscovered in a box in someone’s attic and the BBC became terribly excited. In this age of increasing fragmentation of the television audience, anything which might actually be good enough for parents AND children to watch (not together, obviously, as communal viewing is soooo last century) was thought impossible to make. Then Russell T Davies and his team of Welsh wizards came along and reinvented Doctor Who for a couple of new generations. To say it was a success would be the sort of English modesty which only now exists in Hugh Grant films and historical novels. The cry went out to find more shows like Doctor Who to hook people onto BBC1 before they went to war with their menu of typical Saturday shite.

Robin Hood (or "Yet Another Bloody Version of Robin Hood" to give it its full working title) was the first to follow in the Doctor’s footsteps despite its three obvious problems. Firstly, it has been done so many times that it is extremely difficult to do anything worthwhile with it. Secondly, it is set at a time when England was at war with the Muslims. Thirdly, there is only one female character in it and she doesn’t really serve any purpose.

Fortunately for us, problem one is true of the last eight hundred years and people have continued to reimagine the Robin Hood legend and updated it many times to reflect the morals and desires of the age. Unlike Sherlock Holmes, there is no Robin Hood canon – Robin Hood is whatever the teller of the story wants him to be. The new Robin reflects the early part of the twenty first century just as Robins in the past have reflected times of hunger, war, prosperity and joy.

It is interesting that the Crusades were not part of the Robin Hood legend until the sixteenth century. Before that there were vague references to "The King" but nothing more solid than that. We’ve become so accustomed to the idea that the good King (and Richard the Lionheart was not that but we won’t let facts get in the way of a good legend) was away and his evil brother ruled England with an iron fist in an iron glove with someone standing by with extra iron in case he needs it. The war in the Holy Land between Christianity and Islam is what scarred this version of Robin and gave the Sheriff the time to take over his lands. The Crusades are not a glorious period in anyone’s history and Robin Hood (the series) reflects that. There were a lot of bad people and a lot of good people on each side and fighting the war was destroying both England and the Saracens’ homeland. In the 80s version of Robin Hood (the one with the big hair) they hit upon the idea of a Saracen joining the Merry Men. This has now become part of the Robin Hood Kit and the human side of "The Saracens" is represented by Djac, the only original character in the series and one who works well because she brings something new to the group – the middle eastern science unknown in Dark Ages England.

And finally to Marian – that vague love interest who was introduced in the 15^th or 16^th century when the Robin legends became a bit to testosteroney for the authorities’ liking. Giving him an innocent young maiden to court took the edge off his drunken carousing and widened the demographic of the stories. Or "demografik" as it was spelt in those days. Recent adaptations have made Marian (no pun intended) into a helpless victim, the real leader of the outlaws, a warrior princess, a proto-feminist and just one of the boys. The new character of Marian spans several of these ideas as she is apparently just the daughter of Nottingham’s former Sheriff, a little head strong but basically pretty. By night she is "The Nightwatchman" – a vigilante who robs from the rich blah blah. She becomes engaged to Gisbourne against her will and needs Robin to rescue her from the altar (though she does the clichéd "bride punches groom during wedding ceremony" and is probably the first who actually had grounds to do so beyond Spice Girl feminism telling women its ok to punch a bloke who cheats on you). The main problem with Marian is that it takes a long time before she becomes likable. If indeed she does. For the first few episodes she is cold, for a few more beyond that she is still cold and it isn’t until the last episode or two of the first series that she actually warms up a bit. We – the audience – like Robin. If we don’t, the show doesn’t work and that’s an end to it. So if you make Marian into someone who pretends she doesn’t like Robin and is hostile and dismissive at every opportunity then we – still the audience – don’t like Marian. They do eventually get the balance right – Marian needs to retain her independence for her side of the story to work but equally she needs to be a bit more Merry.

She also needs to do something about her boobs because it is meant to be a great secret that the Nightwatchman is a woman but if you see "him" it is blatantly obvious from the well rounded chest that it is a girl in leather. Not so obvious a night I grant you but "he" comes face to mask with the Sheriff in broad daylight at one point and he apparently doesn’t notice the impressive bosoms before him.

Until last weekend I hadn’t watched this new Robin Hood since being underwhelmed by the first episode a year ago. I’ve now devoured the entire first season over the last few days and I can confidently say it gets better as it goes on. The first episode is the scene setter and it didn’t make me want to watch episode two so it almost certainly failed. We were presented with a comical sheriff, a wet Robin, a cold Marian, a bumbling sidekick and some youngsters who weren’t yet able to grow proper facial hair. It didn’t bode well. The next few episodes are poor as well – they quickly got into a rut where every story felt the same. It was only a matter of time before Little John declared "We got to Nottingham" and the rescue of the prisoner of the week was under way. But just when you think it is going to be a repetitive paste of a series it somehow kicks into gear. The stories get better, Robin stops being wimpy, Marian switches the thermostat up a notch, the Sheriff gains a couple of extra dimensions and it becomes tremendous fun.

There isn’t a weak link in the cast – rare in an ensemble show like this – although Jonas Armstrong and Keith Allen do stand out as being particularly good. The only thing which hampers the acting is an irritating decision not to use contractions. So a character will say "I do not agree" instead of "I don’t agree". This is presumably meant to make it sound faux-olde English but just as it failed to make Leela sound alien so it fails to make anyone sound like they really are from the twelfth century. It just makes the dialogue sound that little bit staged because the actors are having to concentrate on every word to keep the dialogue consistent. It is a little thing but it crops up in things from time to time and it never works.

I was warned that the season finale wasn’t very good. I noted to m’colleague that modern season finales never are. Doctor Who has had three out of three scoring below par and Torchwood is one for one on the overblown nonsense scale. I was expecting the worst but it was actually very good. Not being able to summon millions of alien creatures probably helped them focus on telling a better story rather than wowing us with special effects. The penultimate episode ends with Marian apparently dying in a cave (which was done so well from start to finish that I’m fine with her coming back to life – I just hope they don’t spoil it by doing it every season) and the Sheriff’s men closing in on the trapped outlaws. This is the big cliffhanger except it isn’t. Yes Marian has (apparently) died, yes the Sheriff’s men are closing in. But the cliffhanger is this expression on Robin’s face as he lifts his head from Marian’s dead chest.

The old Robin is back. Someone is going to get their ass kicked.

This new Robin Hood is as good as any Robin Hood I've ever seen. They have taken an eight hundred year old myth and made something fresh and new out of it. It has a slow start but its worth sticking with it because they figure out their mistakes before too long. And now we have the second series airing on BBC1. They've sexed up the two female characters (Djac has boobs - who knew?) and given the show a staggeringly overdone title sequence (which is fine because the music is so good) but the rest is still the same. Doctor Who wasn't a one off - other people can make this kind of television too. Part of me even hopes the Robin Hood team get their own Torchwood - a post-watershed slot for a similar series - and reimagine Blake's 7. Because they could.

Now, did I hear talk that someone was going to do a Merlin series? Bring it on.