Marion of Sherwood Article Continued...

Determined to master her "weapon", she asked for help from a fellow cast member, Mark Ryan (Nasir). Trott was, he says, "So beautiful [a person]. She's one of the gentlest, kindest, nicest people and we all had a very protective thing about her - she's very gutsy as well. She was one of the chaps, one of the boys." Pressed into service as an archery instructor, Ryan "gave me some lessons between the first and second series and he was very good," says Trott. "Between the two series, I spent some time practicing in the backyard with targets and I improved dramatically."

Trott does, she admits, miss the series. "I appreciate it more now, because it was such an unusual job. I was lucky. I was right there and I thought it was easy getting the job. I didn't know. I was young and green enough to think it was always going to be that easy."

Having left the Royal School of Ballet to expand her dancing into "contemporary jazz and all the funky modern as it was then called," she wound up being cast as John Hurt's girl friend in Heavens Gate. She found the experience exciting. "It was totally bewildering and fascinating and wonderful! I was 17 and it was wonderful - never having had a camera on me before - so I lapped it all up!" On returning to London Studio Centre, she added drama to her studies. It paid off, as "I got an agent and bit parts turned into larger parts." A role as Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones in the film Charles and Diana led to Robin of Sherwood. Despite her initial misgivings, she looks back on the experience with a clearly remembered delight, readily able to tick off the things she enjoyed about Robin of Sherwood.

"I was the only girl, which was really nice - to have eight ment to be with all the time. It was all shot on location. It wasn't high-brow heaving acting; you heard a lot of laughter on the set." When filming the last episode with Praed before he left, she relates, "we were hiding somewhere, and we came out with high hats and doing kicks singing Give My Regards to Broadway, and we were all singing that song to him. He wasn't aware at all that we were setting it up, so we got a lovely reaction," she says.

"There was a lot of escapism. Outside of the set a lot of cavorting - climbing trees, many things you could get into - acting and physical. That's extremely unusual. Three years of continued work. You got a different chance in each episode to learn, to have a go at it." She leans forward in emphasis. "The fact is you must get better because you're doing it every day. Nowadays," she shrugs, "I spend most of my time not working and have gotten out of the habit. So, the consistency of having a long run is wonderful. It can also have it's drawbacks. You can get bored."

Was she bored? Tired? Unwilling to return should the series be reborn? There is no hesitation in her answer. "I would go back. I would be stupid not to. And I would love it. I would approach it differently this time. I would have to look at the script and see how I could work through it. Would it be pre or post-Michael Praed and what period was it written in? Would I be with the men in the forest? And if it was taken as we are now, five years on, obviously I would do the part differently."

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