Roger Rees

Have you noticed that various Robin Hood adaptations can't agree on who the main antagonist is? Sometimes it's Prince John, sometimes is the Sheriff of Nottingham, sometimes it's Guy of Gisbourne.

Douglas Fairbanks' 1922 original: John is the main baddy. Errol Flynn's 1938 escapades: Guy takes center stage. Disney's 1973 version: John, a lion, clearly outranks the Sheriff, a wolf, while Guy is replaced by a snake, Sir Hiss. The excellent 1980s BBC series: Sheriff and Guy share the spoils.

Finally, let's get to the two most important adaptations of our lifetimes (Ridley Scott's? Hell no!): John is completely absent in "Prince of Thieves", while Alan Rickman's Sheriff mugs for the camera. Finally, in "Men in Tights", top villain billing is up for debate. Richard Lewis' John is obviously the one in charge, but Roger Rees' Sheriff probably gets more screen time? Amazingly, the Mel Brooks parody actually gave us two Jewish baddies (behind the screen, of course): Lewis is the obvious one, but Rees converted to Judaism in the 1980s. (The Tony-winning Welshman was in a long-term relationship with Jewish playwright Rick Elice.)

So why all of these discrepancies? Who knows! We're not here to resolve the evolution of English legends; we're here to find Jews in unexpected places...