page_title: Clive Mantle
section_title: 1980s
hierarchical_section_title: Clive Mantle / Career / 1980s
caption_attribution_description: English: Castle Combe is a small Cotswold village in Wiltshire, England, with a population of about 350. The village was the setting for the movie "The War Horse" and also the original version of Doctor Doolittle with Rex Harrison.
context_page_description: Clive Andrew Mantle is an English actor. He played general surgeon Mike Barratt in the BBC hospital drama series Casualty and Holby City in the 1990s, and Little John in the cult 1980s fantasy series Robin of Sherwood. He returned to Casualty in 2016 as Mike Barratt for the 30th anniversary.
  Mantle was educated at Kimbolton School, Cambridgeshire between 1970 and 1975 and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art between 1978 and 1980. He appeared in 11 productions of the National Youth Theatre in five seasons between 1974 and 1978, and began carving a successful career as a stage actor in the 1980s, alongside various television roles. In 1984 he was nominated for an Olivier Award and was joint Best Newcomer in the Plays and Players Awards for his performance as Lennie in Of Mice and Men.
  In 1984 he was also cast as Little John in the cult 1980s fantasy series Robin of Sherwood, a role which he considers the most enjoyable of his career and which has remained one of his best-known roles.
context_section_description: In 1980, Mantle debuted on the screen with a small role as Ewen in Christian Marnham's short thriller feature The Orchard End Murder. In 1981, he appeared in the national tours of The Ideal Gnome Expedition for David Wood's Whirligig Theatre and Deborah Warner's play, Woyzeck, which showed at the University Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival. In 1982, he appeared in an episode of the TV series Minder, before taking on the voice of Private Smith in the animated military comedy series Jane. From 3 November 1982, Mantle portrayed Jurgen opposite Eamon Boland, C. J. Allen, Philip Donaghy and Ian McCurrach in David Hayman's award-winning stage production of Coming Clean at the Bush Theatre in London.
  In 1983, Mantle was cast most notably in the cult fantasy series Robin of Sherwood as "Little John", a legendary fellow outlaw of Robin Hood, who was said to be Robin's chief lieutenant and second-in-command of the Merry Men, in a cast which included Michael Praed as "Robin Hood", Peter Llewellyn Williams as "Much", Ray Winstone as "Will Scarlet", and Judi Trott as "Maid Marian". Footage for the series was shot in rural Somerset and Wiltshire, with the Saxon Tithe Barn in Bradford-on Avon functioning as the great hall of Nottingham Castle, Great Chalfield Manor near Melksham doubling as Maid Marion's family home, and numerous battles were shot at Leaford Grange and Nettleton Mill near Castle Combe, locations which Mantle considered to be "wonderfully realised and breathtaking". 
  
  The waterfall scene for the quarterstaff battle between Robin and Little John in the first episode "Robin Hood and the Sorcerer" was shot at Bowood House. Helen Phillips said of his performance as Little John, "excellently played by Clive Mantle, the series' John at first appears to conform to a, by then, well-established stereotype." Mantle has said of his role: 
  It is the job I've enjoyed doing more than anything else on TV. I have the greatest memories of beautiful, halcyon days-out filming on location and we had such a great, fun crew working on the show. We still get together once a year. Not just the cast but also the directors, producer, props guys, it's like a family! I think the key to part of the series' success was that this great camaraderie came across on screen.
  In 1984 he was nominated for an Olivier Award and was joint Best Newcomer in the Plays and Players Awards for his performance as Lennie in Of Mice and Men. Following the success of the play, it was transferred from the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton to the Mermaid Theatre in London. He went on to tour extensively as Lennie in Of Mice and Men, and has appeared in six different productions of the play. He also played Little John in the theatrical production of Robin Hood at the Young Vic Theatre; and Mitch in Tim Albery's production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. Other theatrical credits include The Relapse; The Red Devil Battery Sign; King John; Johnny Johnson; The Ideal Gnome Expedition; East; Blood on the Neck of the Cat and Bedroom Farce. He has also appeared as the guest star at the Wyndham's Theatre and Theatre Royal Bath, in the award-winning production of The Play What I Wrote. Also in 1984, Mantle was one of four in the live BBC radio comedy show In One Ear. with Nick Wilton, Helen Lederer and Steve Brown. He transferred to TV with a version of it in 1987 called Hello Mum which was also live.
  In 1986, Mantle replaced Alan Rickman as Achilles in Howard Davies's Royal Shakespeare Company production of Troilus and Cressida at the Barbican Theatre in London. London Theatre Record said that Mantle "gives a curious performance: virtually a mirror-image of Ajax in his nasal, bovine stolidity." He continued with minor screen roles as a ruffian on a bus in Ronald Neame's film Foreign Body and as "Big Ben" Davis in Dempsey and Makepeace in 1986. He was to appear as the first Nuclear Man in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), but the role was left on the cutting room floor. Some of his deleted footage from Superman IV was released on DVD in a 
caption: Castle Combe, a setting for the cult fantasy series Robin of Sherwood, in which Mantle played "Little John"
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