Freeview film of the day: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

In this rip-roaring early 1990s reboot for the durable English folk tale, director Kevin Reynolds cannot be faulted for enthusiasm. His reading of the swashbuckling tale embraces cliché with such affection, it’s hard to be cynical about it, as flaming arrows ping through Sherwood Forest and merry men roll under rapidly descending portcullises. It’s Alan Rickman’s show, of course, as the deliciously pantomimic Sheriff of Nottingham, but Kevin Costner’s '80s-haired Robin is certainly heroic, and Mike McShane, then a star of TV’s Whose Line Is It Anyway, is a decent Friar Tuck. For sheer camp, Robin Hood seems to get better with age. Unlike the crashing power ballad by Bryan Adams that plays over the end credits.

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