What’s Jonas Armstrong’s Future with Robin Hood?

SPOILER ALERT (scroll down):

You may have heard the news, which could be hard to take for fans just getting over the loss of Marian (Lucy Griffiths): star Jonas Armstrong is leaving Robin Hood at the end of Season Three to pursue other projects. Oh really now? Where does that leave the show? Apparently, the series will go on for a fourth season. Robin Hood executive producer Foz Allan has already plotted Robin’s exit: “Jonas has been a superb Robin Hood who updated the legend for a contemporary audience, reinvigorating it for a whole new generation. It has been a wonderful experience working with Jonas – we will miss him – and wish him all the success for his future. We cannot confirm the series climax, nor can we guarantee who will survive and who won’t. You will have to watch it to see! But we can assure you Robin’s exit will be unmissable!”

Surely Armstrong’s exit means a name change. They can’t seriously call the show Robin Hood when Robin Hood is gone, can they? Remember when Valerie Harper was killed off her sitcom Valerie back in the ’80s? They renamed the show Valerie’s Family. Maybe they’ll re-title Robin Hood as Robin Hood’s Family? Or We Are Robin Hood in a nod to the outlaws’ rallying cry? What do you think? (The Guardian weighs in on this as well.)

In other news:

• David Tennant has received mostly positive notices for his Hamlet, with some reviewers saying he’s upstaged by Patrick Stewart‘s Claudius.(BBC)
• The Guardian‘s Mark Brown wonders if Tennant is well on his way to becoming one of Britain’s finest actors.
• No Stone Roses reunion – “not in the next three lifetimes,” says Ian Brown.(Guardian)
• Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has been voted the man that British men most love, ahead of Ray Winstone and Gordon Ramsay.(Belfast Telegraph)
• David Mitchell says there’s an age bias for swearing on television: “I do find it ridiculous when people get offended by swearing. It’s all about association. They’d take ‘c*nt’ from Michael Parkinson but not ‘bloody hell’ from someone younger.”(The Sun)
• Torchwood‘s John Barrowman is openly geek.(National Post)
• When dining at one of Gordon Ramsay‘s or Jamie Oliver‘s fine establishments, would you expect to find those celebrity chefs behind the grill? Not bloody likely, says The Daily Telegraph, and is that a ripoff? “You wouldn’t have rushed to see Laurence Olivier‘s understudy playing Hamlet, so why stomach Jamie Oliver’s understudy cooking his ham and marmalade roast?”
• Footballers Wive$ star Zoe Lucker‘s cop show, Holby Blue, has been cancelled by the BBC.(The Sun)
• Gavin and Stacey star/co-creator James Corden has gone on record as a Hollyoaks hater after having appeared on the show eight years ago. In an interview with Esquire, Corden said, “I’d rather die than go back. I can’t tell you the sheer disdain I have for the place and people. I met a couple of really good friends there, but it’s (only) 20% nice people. It just breeds p***** – all these people walking around with this chicken-in-a-basket fame, talking about going to LA, you know?” (BBC)
• Jay-Z “dissed” Noel Gallagher at his concert at Madison Square Garden last night.(NME)
• Viva Blackpool creator Peter Bowker will launch a new BBC series titled Desperate Romantics, a show referred to as “Entourage with easels.” The Stage bills it as a six-part drama set in “19th-century industrial London [which] follows the group called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as they scheme their way to fame, fortune, and success.”