November 4, 2006

Robin Hood and Little John may be more used to walking through Sherwood Forest, but Maid Marian may be more comfortable in Sthingyhorpe's Brumby Woods.

For Lucy Griffiths, who plays Maid Marian in the new BBC One drama Robin Hood, often visits her grandfather who lives in the town.Don Hague (83), from Weymouth Crescent, said he was 'extremely proud' of his granddaughter, and she even managed to secure him five minutes of fame in the new series.

He said: "I am extremely proud of Lucy. While she was filming in Hungary, I flew over to see her with her mum and dad and her sister.

"We ended up being extras in the episode shown last week."

The family were stood behind Lucy during the scene where Maid Marian has her hair cut off as a punishment by the Sheriff of Nottingham, played by Keith Allen.

Mr Hague said: "When we got there, someone came up and asked us if we wanted to be extras in one of the scenes - so we said yes.

"We went to the wardrobe department and they rigged us all up with costumes.

"I really enjoyed it - it was super. And they looked after us all very well."

The family flew out to Hungary over the summer while the series was being filmed and were astonished by what they saw.

"It seems ridiculous to go to Hungary to do Robin Hood," Mr Hague said. "But they had a complete medieval village with a castle and medieval market. It was wonderful."

And the sets which look so convincing on the screen were actually made out of polystyrene.

Mr Hague added: "The technicians were all Hungarian, and one of the funniest things I saw was one of them who spent most of his time walking around with a paintbrush attached to a long stick so he could touch up the white patches on the polystyrene."

The family has enjoyed watching Lucy in the series, and her younger sister, Sophie, may have also caught the stardom bug.

Mr Hague explained: "Lucy is a cracking singer, but Sophie is super, she is a wonderful singer."

The proud granddad now plans to spend a few days holiday with his multi-talented family at Sophie's home in Brighton.

Mr Hague has lived in Sthingyhorpe for many years.

His daughter, Lucy's mother, moved away from the family home to the south of England and now resides in Brighton.

Lucy was born in Hertfordshire and has appeared in several stage productions in Brighton, most notably taking the lead role in a stage production of Annie when she was still a schoolgirl.