Person Unknown

Grr. It's so hard to find information on Sam Troughton! I thought researching Patrick was hard - as he shied away from so many interviews - but Sam's impossible! IMDB doesn't even have his date of birth. How come they can find out a birthday from the 1920s but not a birthday from a couple of decades ago?

Anyway, for those who are interested IMDB does at least have a list of all Sam's TV/Movie work and a (very short) biography, mostly about his family connections to other actors. A bizarre fact, but he is the cousin of the boy who played Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films. There you go. And that's about all you'll pick up from there... but I'll give you the link anyway:

Sam's IMDB Profile

I'll put that up on my links list too when I get round to filling this blog out a little bit. Wikipedia has an equally limited profile here - though hopefully there will be more added as Robin Hood progresses. I haven't looked for any information on the character of Much (and his place in the Robin Hood legend) but I'll probably cover that in a later post. Right now I'm just after a bit of real life info... sadly it seems to be missing.

The BBC also lacks any major info. In fact it's bio of him is actually a link to IMDB so not much use to me! Heck it doesn't even have a photo of him out of character... Am I starting to sound frustrated yet?

What I HAVE come across so far are a few positive reviews of Sam's acting skills (he certainly gains a lot of praise for someone no-one talks about!) for instance this clip from a BBC review of Spirit Trap:

"Treading similar ground to The Skeleton Key, itself no masterpiece, Smith's opus can at least boast a handsome set and a likeable performance from Sam Troughton (that's Patrick's grandson, Who fans) as the nerdy fifth tenant. But those are hardly reasons to waste your hard-earned on a laughably bad Britflick that's more in need of an exorcist than an audience."

Similar sentiments (though without so much slating of the film involved) in this little piece from a review of the first episode of Robin Hood from the BBC Nottingham website:

"Jonas Armstong has charisma as the new Robin and Sam Troughton does his grandfather, Patrick, proud in developing the character of Much, so often thrown away in other Hood projects. Patrick, remember, was a Doctor Who and a Robin Hood in his time, so Sam's upholding the family tradition."

Sad to say (or perhaps glad to say?) that Sam will probably be labouring under the shadow of his family's (especially his grandfather's) talents for awhile to come. Which is surprising, considering how much work he has under his belt already. But that's the way it always goes with actors following in family footsteps. Even in the Jonathan Ross interview on the Robin Hood behind-the-scenes documentary he gets asked about his grandfather. I would complain - I usually expect Jonathan Ross to ask original and interesting questions even if he can be an obnoxious git at times - but since they played a very rare clip of Patrick Troughton as Robin Hood as part of the interview I forgive them. But if there should be a follow up interview I expect to find out more!!

Oh, if you're after watching that interview then check out The RobinHood2006 Multimedia Page where you can download a .rm version. I'd put it up here myself but I have a great respect for the RobinHood2006 forum and I don't want to break their rules. They're quite strict about it, so you'll have to sign up to their multimedia section. But this doesn't take long and it's well worth it if you're a fan of the new series. They gather all the best interviews and behind the scenes stuff for RH. If you have any problems, just send them an email. They're very friendly. Honest.

Unfortunately, all I really gathered from the interviews with Sam so far is that his character is a bit of a coward (duh), he wouldn't complain if he became a bit of a heart-throb, that he wore long-johns whilst filming Robin Hood and that he fell over a lot. And that last bit was actually said by Jonas Armstrong (Robin) on the official BBC interview rather than Sam, who I gather wasn't so proud of the fact. I suppose that is actually a fair amount of info to be going on with... but seeing how much the other actors get interviewed, I was really hoping for more! Call me greedy, that's just the way I am. So if anyone spots any magazine or newspaper interviews with him in, then leave a comment and tell me! There's a world shortage of Sam interviews and it would be cruel and inhumane to keep them all to yourself.

On a more stage related note - and I have to admit now, I know next to nothing about theatre - Sam was one of the finalists for the Ian Charleson Award (which I gather is very good) for his role as young Talbot in Henry IV and was, coincidentally, up against David Tennant. See how these Doctor Who connections keep coming? Love it. Though I'm sorry to hear that he didn't win the award (Sam I mean). I'm sure he deserved it. My sympathies from a person who never wins anything. The list of actors and winners and awards and such like has been posted on a webpage called Drama Addict if you're interested in the other nominees.

And that's all I got for you so far. I will be posting up more reviews of the films and TV series' Sam's been in, so don't worry, there'll be more info and pictures. But for now, sadly, that is all. Maybe tomorrow the internet will actually do my blog some good!